On May 7, 6:49*am, stryped wrote:
We had a local store open up and they have the metal cutting band saw
for 150 bucks or so. I bought one of these cheap bandsaws at TSC
several years ago and went through two of them before I finally
returned them and bought a chop saw. The problem was the blade cutting
3 inch square tubing crooked.

Should I try it again or not?

These take a bit of tuning. I got mine in an HF half-off sale for
less than $90, so I was willing to add a decent name-brand bimetal
blade and do some squaring up of things. There are a number of 4x6
sites out there that go into detail on things you can do to make it
perform better. Getting one from a store is a Good Idea, if you end
up with a motor that lets the smoke out, you can return it. Mine was
made in Taiwan, is gray, not firecracker red. I had to replace all
the hardware on the "vise", was softer than cheese. Once I did that
and squared up the cut by using a square and adjusting the guides,
it's been pretty good. You have to crank down on the blade tension,
tight as you can crank it is at the lower end of suggested tension for
these blades. Make sure you release it after use, it IS possible to
warp the casting. A name-brand belt is a good idea, mine had a big
lump on it that clunked every time it hit a pulley.

It isn't just a cheapie that needs adjustment, I used a multi-grand
Greenlee electrical contractor's version back in the '70s that
wouldn't cut square, either, I doubt if the guys using it knew how to
do more than change the blade. Had a nice hydraulic downfeed but
really didn't do much more than the Asian cheapie. I use mine for all
sorts of metal cutting. It's a cutoff saw, not a precision mill with
a slitting saw. Any expectation of holding thousandths is doomed.
You can get a pretty square cut, but cleanup allowances are a good
idea.

Stan