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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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Band saws for wood and metal
I would like to purchase a band saw in the $1000 price range capable
of cutting both wood and metal. I've found some information on two possibilities: Wilton's 14-inch 8201 Tradesman band saw and Craftsman's 15-inch wood and metal band saw, but I haven't seen either saw and I don't know anything about Wilton's reputation. I'd appreciate recommendations for other saws that might work and any information others have about the Wilton and Craftsman saws. Among the things that would be helpful are knowing where the saws are made (Taiwan, PRC, etc.), whether speed change uses gears or belts, and how the saws compare to JET band saws in general quality and features. Thanks for the help. |
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Band saws for wood and metal
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#3
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Band saws for wood and metal
I just posted a Boice Crane 14" wood/metal bandsaw on eBay. Just
search under Boice Crane. This item has a hi-lo gearbox and works very well for all sawable materials, given the correct blade and speed. The only reason I am selling, besides getting money, it that I have a 16" DoAll also. I have had the Boice Crane for several years, sometimes it was the only saw I had. Another very fine wood/metal saw is the powermatic model 143. It also has the hi-lo gearbox. I have sold maybe 15 of these in the last four years. They are very popular with knife makers because they can cut steel, bone, phenolic, plastic, horn, wood, etc, used in making custom knives. And they don't take up much room. In the case of the powermatic model 143, it is just a model 141 (wood) with the addition of the gearbox. The model 141 Powermatic is arguably the best wood cutting bandsaw of its size ever made. And, the 143 also cuts metal like a dream. I only use the Lennox diemaster II blades for metal. Anyway, the Powermatic 143 sells for about double what the Boice Crane will go for, but in use, they are about the same. If you have the room, and access to material handling equipment to get it in, The big heavy DoAll 16-18" bandsaws will spoil you. Paul |
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Band saws for wood and metal
wrote in message m... I would like to purchase a band saw in the $1000 price range capable of cutting both wood and metal. I've found some information on two possibilities: Wilton's 14-inch 8201 Tradesman band saw and Craftsman's 15-inch wood and metal band saw, but I haven't seen either saw and I don't know anything about Wilton's reputation. I'd appreciate recommendations for other saws that might work and any information others have about the Wilton and Craftsman saws. Among the things that would be helpful are knowing where the saws are made (Taiwan, PRC, etc.), whether speed change uses gears or belts, and how the saws compare to JET band saws in general quality and features. Thanks for the help. I have the Wilton and have been happy with it. Lane |
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Band saws for wood and metal
"Grant Erwin" wrote in message ... Boy I'm getting tired of writing this! Where are you located? - GWE Grant, I don't understand why it matters where he is located. He is just asking for advice on saws. Lane |
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Band saws for wood and metal
Because very often when a guy writes that he's looking for a machine, someone
else pipes up that he lives right in his neighborhood and has just such a machine available. Or else someone says go check down at Joe's Salvage because they have 4 machines like that for scrap prices. That's why. - GWE lane wrote: "Grant Erwin" wrote in message ... Boy I'm getting tired of writing this! Where are you located? - GWE Grant, I don't understand why it matters where he is located. He is just asking for advice on saws. Lane |
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Band saws for wood and metal
Grant Erwin wrote in message ...
Boy I'm getting tired of writing this! Where are you located? - GWE I apologize for leaving out my location. I live in the Tucson, Arizona area, about 15 miles north of the city. |
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Band saws for wood and metal
You might also want to consider one of the older Delta 14-in horizontal
bandsaws, which were sold in woodworking only and WW/metalworking configurations. The latter seem to fetch $200-600 depending on condition and source. The Yahoo OWWM (old woodworking machines) group has some resident experts there that are quite helpful. wrote in message m... I would like to purchase a band saw in the $1000 price range capable of cutting both wood and metal. I've found some information on two possibilities: Wilton's 14-inch 8201 Tradesman band saw and Craftsman's 15-inch wood and metal band saw, but I haven't seen either saw and I don't know anything about Wilton's reputation. I'd appreciate recommendations for other saws that might work and any information others have about the Wilton and Craftsman saws. Among the things that would be helpful are knowing where the saws are made (Taiwan, PRC, etc.), whether speed change uses gears or belts, and how the saws compare to JET band saws in general quality and features. Thanks for the help. |
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Band saws for wood and metal
Well I just have to be satisdfied with my homebrew 20" bandsaw. I
have less than $100 into it and it does what I need to do. So far it has performed just fine. Last night I cut up some 3/4 and 1" steel plate for a home made press brake, and it cut it fine. I cut a bunch of thinner sheet stock for the saws cover with it using a rip fence (angle clamped to table) and its a straight as it gets. While it may not have the optimum speed for wood working, I do very little except to make patterns for my castings, and with a wood cutting blade it works just fine at my highest SFPM range. Besides I hate wood working with a passion. Guess its because as a kid I was forced to work in wood with my dad. I prefer metal slivers in my fingers than wood splinters ;-) I had looked at JET and Wilton but all were way out of my range. Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com Opinions expressed are those of my wifes, I had no input whatsoever. Remove "nospam" from email addy. |
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Band saws for wood and metal
I don't know if it's "$1000", but I have a delta 28-306. I have cut
from heavy bolt steel to light wood with it, all worked fine. I've also cut disk drives in half (great way to make sure they cannot be read, DO wear your goggles), and other such odd projects. The difference between a "wood" and a "metal" bandsaw seems to be the blade speed range, until you get into high end metal saws, which will have a blade welder. I'm not sure where it's made, but aside from the dust port being sort of silly, and the v-belt cover housing being attached with mickey-mouse clips that I replaced with screws, it all seems OK to me. Mine is on Delta's wheeled base, which makes it easy to move. I recommend that. Iturra designs sells bigger dust ports, brushes to keep sawdust off the wheels, and so on. I've not ordered their stuff yet, but looks good in the catalog. The blade that it comes with is, uh, not wonderful. But bandsaw blades are consumables anyway. And first rate blades are easy to get. The $200 saws always seem to be cut-off/miter saws. Which is great if you want to cut some straight edge at some known angle onto a steel pipe or bar. They have the merit they can divide parts of limited width x height but arbitrary length. So they're clearly great for parting turned stock, sizing stock for the metal lathe, cutting tubes to be fabricated, and lots of other useful tasks. But they're not set up to work on wood at all. The Delta (and I think the Wilton you speak of, I bought the Delta instead), are verticle saws. They cannot divide (cut off) a thing of arbitrary length at a right angle. But they can cut curves. They can "rip" pieces of any length, by large heights, up to just less than 14" (for a 14" saw) from the edge. The delta has a miter slot (but no miter gauge that I can recall, you'd have buy one or build one), but with a little work a bandsaw will cut quite straight. There is a rip fence option for the Delta, I bought it, haven't used it yet. As for metal and wood together - most of us don't have a choice. However, do disconnect the wood dust vacuum before cutting metal, since sucking hot metal cuttings into a pile of sawdust with 1100cfm of air blowing over it will make quite a fire. (Then again, if all the dust is in the dust collector or the waste basket, hot metal cuttings falling on the concrete floor are no big deal, are they?) I find that small vices improve the value of the saw. A small part (a bolt, say) can be held in a small machinists vice, then slid past the blade to cut it off very close to the head (say), or at a funny angle. [By analogy, miter fences, rip fences, setup gauges, and push blocks make any wood saw faster, easier and more accurate.] I personally love this saw, because I trust it much more than a table saw, and it lets me do so many of the odd projects I want to do, quickly. good luck bmw wrote in message om... I would like to purchase a band saw in the $1000 price range capable of cutting both wood and metal. I've found some information on two possibilities: Wilton's 14-inch 8201 Tradesman band saw and Craftsman's 15-inch wood and metal band saw, but I haven't seen either saw and I don't know anything about Wilton's reputation. I'd appreciate recommendations for other saws that might work and any information others have about the Wilton and Craftsman saws. Among the things that would be helpful are knowing where the saws are made (Taiwan, PRC, etc.), whether speed change uses gears or belts, and how the saws compare to JET band saws in general quality and features. Thanks for the help. |
#14
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Band saws for wood and metal
Ah..yes...the search for the BANDSAW to end bandsaws. :)
I too was on that search and this is what I found. First, the comments about having different saws for wood and metal are right on the mark. From a shop perspective, you should not be doing woodworking in a metalworking area (way too much dust even with dust collectors) and no metalworking in a woodworking area (too much oil, grease, sparks and wood dust is a fine abrasive). If you do, please practice your speech to the insurance agent when the fire happens and remember that some policies are voided if the policy holder has not adhered to common sense safety precautions. Next in respect to metalworking, the different in saws depends on whether you are cutting flat sheets of metal or long narrow pieces. If it is long narrow stock, one of the $200 Asian imports is a great investment. Used they go for $20-50 so there is NO reason for a metalworker not to have one of these. I wanted a larger detachable table for mine so I brought the aluminum table that Delta has for their 9" wood bandsaw and retrofitted it on my Asian import. Works great for small piece and plate cutting! For flat sheets of metal, one needs to look at how large and thich of sheets you will be using. I have seen and done myself modifications of Asian 14" wood vertical saws with a surplus motor/gearbox to get the speeds down to the meatlworking range. This works great because you are dedicating the saw to metalworking so you avoid the complexity of trying to have one saw serve both wood and metal. The gearbox in the combination meatl/wood saws are the cost driver in these saws and also their major weak spot since to repair them costs $$$. The same approach of modification with a surplus motor/gearbox combination works for larger saws. I had a Powermatic 20" wood saw modified for metal and it went through it like butter. Cost for this approach in my case was less than for any wood-metal combination saw I have ever found. For all the saws I have modified, the combination motor/gearbox has been a freebie and wood saws because of the greater numbers manufactured are cheaper. The downside is you need more floor space for two different saws but as I said earlier, you are asking for trouble if you are doing woodworking and metalworking in the same area. Good luck with your search. The results are well worth the effort involved with installing a bandsaw in your shop. TMT (bryanwi) wrote in message . com... I don't know if it's "$1000", but I have a delta 28-306. I have cut from heavy bolt steel to light wood with it, all worked fine. I've also cut disk drives in half (great way to make sure they cannot be read, DO wear your goggles), and other such odd projects. The difference between a "wood" and a "metal" bandsaw seems to be the blade speed range, until you get into high end metal saws, which will have a blade welder. I'm not sure where it's made, but aside from the dust port being sort of silly, and the v-belt cover housing being attached with mickey-mouse clips that I replaced with screws, it all seems OK to me. Mine is on Delta's wheeled base, which makes it easy to move. I recommend that. Iturra designs sells bigger dust ports, brushes to keep sawdust off the wheels, and so on. I've not ordered their stuff yet, but looks good in the catalog. The blade that it comes with is, uh, not wonderful. But bandsaw blades are consumables anyway. And first rate blades are easy to get. The $200 saws always seem to be cut-off/miter saws. Which is great if you want to cut some straight edge at some known angle onto a steel pipe or bar. They have the merit they can divide parts of limited width x height but arbitrary length. So they're clearly great for parting turned stock, sizing stock for the metal lathe, cutting tubes to be fabricated, and lots of other useful tasks. But they're not set up to work on wood at all. The Delta (and I think the Wilton you speak of, I bought the Delta instead), are verticle saws. They cannot divide (cut off) a thing of arbitrary length at a right angle. But they can cut curves. They can "rip" pieces of any length, by large heights, up to just less than 14" (for a 14" saw) from the edge. The delta has a miter slot (but no miter gauge that I can recall, you'd have buy one or build one), but with a little work a bandsaw will cut quite straight. There is a rip fence option for the Delta, I bought it, haven't used it yet. As for metal and wood together - most of us don't have a choice. However, do disconnect the wood dust vacuum before cutting metal, since sucking hot metal cuttings into a pile of sawdust with 1100cfm of air blowing over it will make quite a fire. (Then again, if all the dust is in the dust collector or the waste basket, hot metal cuttings falling on the concrete floor are no big deal, are they?) I find that small vices improve the value of the saw. A small part (a bolt, say) can be held in a small machinists vice, then slid past the blade to cut it off very close to the head (say), or at a funny angle. [By analogy, miter fences, rip fences, setup gauges, and push blocks make any wood saw faster, easier and more accurate.] I personally love this saw, because I trust it much more than a table saw, and it lets me do so many of the odd projects I want to do, quickly. good luck bmw wrote in message om... I would like to purchase a band saw in the $1000 price range capable of cutting both wood and metal. I've found some information on two possibilities: Wilton's 14-inch 8201 Tradesman band saw and Craftsman's 15-inch wood and metal band saw, but I haven't seen either saw and I don't know anything about Wilton's reputation. I'd appreciate recommendations for other saws that might work and any information others have about the Wilton and Craftsman saws. Among the things that would be helpful are knowing where the saws are made (Taiwan, PRC, etc.), whether speed change uses gears or belts, and how the saws compare to JET band saws in general quality and features. Thanks for the help. |
#15
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Band saws for wood and metal
This isn't EXACTLY to the point, but the February (I think), 1934
issue of Popular Mechanics has an article on making your own bandsaw. It was a 10 or 12" benchtop model, using mostly plywood. I made one, one cold Minnesota winter in the 1970s. It was a very gratifying project and the saw worked great. I took a shortcut on mine and didn't put in a tilting table, so it was extra easy. At the time all I had for machines was a drill press and a small power hacksaw. I think I used a hand jigsaw for the cutting, and turned the wheels on a friend's woodlathe. I recommend this project to anyone, and it could be built of any material at any scale. Paul |
#16
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Band saws for wood and metal
6e70 wrote:
This isn't EXACTLY to the point, but the February (I think), 1934 issue of Popular Mechanics has an article on making your own bandsaw. It was a 10 or 12" benchtop model, using mostly plywood. I made one, one cold Minnesota winter in the 1970s. It was a very gratifying project and the saw worked great. I took a shortcut on mine and didn't put in a tilting table, so it was extra easy. At the time all I had for machines was a drill press and a small power hacksaw. I think I used a hand jigsaw for the cutting, and turned the wheels on a friend's woodlathe. I recommend this project to anyone, and it could be built of any material at any scale. Paul The current (iron model) Delta wood - 12/14" bandsaw I got some years ago - not many - has an optional pulley for slowing down a wood into a metal. The metal version I don't think can go upwards, but you might check. Martin -- Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn @ home at Lion's Lair with our computer NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder |
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