Thread: horizontal metal bandsaw

Firstly welcome aboard
A lot of Metal Work forum members including myself have these horizontal metal bandsaws - a thread about these saws comes up every few months.
My reading is they are well favoured by the MWF members.

Even the budget level saws will from H&AF work but maybe just require a bit of fettling to get them to cut square.
Mine is the smallest size (6x4) and cost me $100 about 8 years ago and it was at least 20 years old when I got it.
I had to do a fair bit of fettling on mine and also I ended up replacing the motor and added bunch of extras.
Yes they are is slow but once it gets it cutting I go do something else and it turns itself off.
O have cut a lot of stuff with it including some serious chunks of round and rectangular bar with it.

What wall thickness tubing are you looking at? If it's too thin these saws find it tricky to cut but it's not impossible.
In that case maybe a multipurpose CT toothed blade in a low speed cut off saw may work better for you.
These saws have a limit of about 6mm in wall thickness above that blade life will reduced.
Beware these things are noisy and make a lot of sparks - not so good for a WW environment.
Before I got mine I had a 12" abrasive cut off saw but I hate noise and sparks so I got rid of it.
I still use an abrasive cut off wheel but not in an angle grinder but in a custom made mini table saw.

Hi Bob ,
Thanks for quick reply .
At the moment i'll be cutting patio tube and 90x 90x 3.5 mm posts to build my shed .
After that i would like to build a trailer for myself and some attachment for the kubota loader .
I have plasma cutter for the thicker stuff .
I have in contact with a guy that is selling a hafco bandsaw on gumtree and asked his opinion on it .
His opinion wasnt that good and said i should look at the european stuff.
He has a metal fab and said they changed all their gear over to european gear.
been looking at the femi bandsaw and will probably go that way .
Cost is couple of hundred dollars more but probable worth it .
Thanks again for your help.

Regards Wayne

Originally Posted by tilbey

Hi Bob ,
Thanks for quick reply .
At the moment i'll be cutting patio tube and 90x 90x 3.5 mm posts to build my shed .
After that i would like to build a trailer for myself and some attachment for the kubota loader .
I have plasma cutter for the thicker stuff .
I have in contact with a guy that is selling a hafco bandsaw on gumtree and asked his opinion on it .
His opinion wasnt that good and said i should look at the european stuff.
He has a metal fab and said they changed all their gear over to european gear.
been looking at the femi bandsaw and will probably go that way .
Cost is couple of hundred dollars more but probable worth it .
Thanks again for your help.

Regards Wayne

From what I can see there's more than a couple of hundred in the difference.
The cheapest Femi saw (105mm) is $864 so a nearly $500 hundred more than for the basic 150 x 100m for $385 from H&F.
If you want to cut 150 mm you are then up for $1864 for the bigger Femi.
Without much effort I modified my 150 x 100 mm so it can cut 150 x 150mm.
However, if you have the $$ and are not into fettling gear then you should probably go for the Femi.
Maybe ask on the metal work forum if someone has used a Femi.

Hi Bob ,

Yes your right H&F are a lot cheaper but have been caught with cheap stuff before .
I dont really have the skills or time to modify machines .
Dont really want to spend 500 more but i hope i have it for the rest of me life .
Will ask the metalwork guys .

Cheers Wayne

Hi Wayne . I have a H&F old one of these https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/B002

Its done an awful lot of work and as it cuts while your off welding or grinding something else its a big time saver. Our one has been dragged, dropped, rolled over, on and off utes and trucks all over the place.

The only problems Ive had are .

When Ive pushed it to far and stacked stuff in its jaws to cut a number of things at once , It sometimes works and other times it doesn't. Its when the drop from one pipe to the next or one rod to the next can cause it to have the blade run off the wheels . Its mostly does stack cutting good though with flat bar or square . And at one off cuts its good .

The worst thing about that saw is the folded metal base . One of the first things I did was weld some bracing rods to it . It would be a nice thing to weld up a more solid base though . The base and its wheels are the reason its had such a hard life with ours . Its been shared between a few workshops with my Brother and myself.

Its a great little saw . Id go get another in a flash if it ever died beyond a reasonably quick repair.

Hi Auscab
Thanks for reply .
I think i will end up with H&F , the femi was going to cost me another $200 to freight to W.A.
I'm looking at the BS-5S H&F , what do you think about them .
I'm looking to cut patio tube 76x38x1.6mm what is the best blade for that .

Cheers Wayne

Originally Posted by tilbey

Hi Auscab
Thanks for reply .
I think i will end up with H&F , the femi was going to cost me another $200 to freight to W.A.
I'm looking at the BS-5S H&F , what do you think about them .
I'm looking to cut patio tube 76x38x1.6mm what is the best blade for that .

Cheers Wayne

The BS5 is a good basic Machine, I like the way the vice is stationary and the saw head turns to cut mitres.
This is better than the other way around because it takes up less shed space.

Band wise this is a bit like an "what oil" thread.
At 1.6mm wall thickness (3.2mm for two walls) you are going to need a high TPI band.
Technically at least 3 teeth should be in the cut so 3 teeth in 3.2mm = 1.07 mm/tooth or 24 TPI.
The basic carbon bands are cheap so if you brake one or accidentally try to cut something too hard and strip the teeth it's no great loss.
In practice I've found you can get away with a bit less than 3 teeth in the cut, especially if you add a narrow (1/4" thick) piece of wood to what is being cut.
Or better still double up the material being cut.
In that case an 18 or even a 14 TPI band can be used.

My preference is for bimetal bands, even though they cost more than twice as much I found they last quite a bit longer (3 - 5x) and I also like the variable pitch TPI.
I use bimetal 10-14 TPI to cut everything including thin walled tubing by just adding some wood to the cut.
I get my bimetal bands made to size by the All Tools saw doctors in O'Connor, and they don't cost all that much more than the H&F bands.
The other place north of the river I have bought bands is Hughans in Osborbne Park.
If you go this route you have to know what you want ie bands material type, band length and width and TPI.

I've also added coolant/lube to my saw and this results in even longer band lifetimes although it actually slows down the cutting speed a little.

Originally Posted by tilbey

I think i will end up with H&F , the femi was going to cost me another $200 to freight to W.A.
I'm looking at the BS-5S H&F , what do you think about them .

Looks pretty good . I think you will be very happy with how they work . Any machine that does its work while your off making a coffee has got to make anyone happy .

Originally Posted by tilbey

I'm looking to cut patio tube 76x38x1.6mm what is the best blade for that .

1.6 is thin . It'll fly through it . Just a metal cutting BS blade is what I have . I just asked My blade supplier for them . I got them so long ago I don't remember what choices there were . A blade on these last years . I only remember changing a blade maybe twice in 20 years. The new ones I ordered have all gone rusty .

Rob

I also have the BS5, with added lubrication, and though it cuts tubing very well using a variable pitch bi-metal blade I recently added an Evolution drop saw.

I use it to make farm fence posts out of 100 x 100 x 6.4 mm RHS.

This does a faster and better cut on tubing and I have used it to cut 20 x 75 bar. After about 80 cuts on the 20 mm bar it needed sharpening but I think that I would have used several band saw blades for the same output.

The drop saw is much more portable but a lot noisier and it also sprays hot chips all over the place.

Originally Posted by Bohdan

This does a faster and better cut on tubing and I have used it to cut 20 x 75 bar. After about 80 cuts on the 20 mm bar it needed sharpening but I think that I would have used several band saw blades for the same output.
.

How much was it to sharpen the blade?

Hey guys ,

Thanks for all the great info, will take all that advice on board and let you know how i go.
Hope to pick up saw next saturday.

Cheers again
Wayne

Originally Posted by BobL

How much was it to sharpen the blade?

IIRC I think that it was about $30.

This was also after it had cut about 20 100 x 100 RHS posts and a heap of mixed smaller sections.