Band saw or miter saw

[Hobby welder]

So I've been looking at band and miter saws. In both areas who would you recommend? My budget is a little less (welding budget) $200. So nothing over the top. As a hobby welder I do not have a large work area just the garage. So not a lot of space. With that said who makes good products and which should I go with?

[canoecruiser]

By miter saw I'm inferring you mean a chop saw, either abrasive disk or a cold-cutting saw with a carbide-tooth blade. An abrasive chop saw is noisy, messy (very) but it can make a nice cut and is fairly cheap. You can find them at most tool retailers for less than $200 and the differences between brands probably doesn't matter a whole lot. There are several threads about them on this forum. Beware, the sparks can set dry grass or paper on fire and that can be exciting. Cold-cutting carbide saws are neater (no grinding dust or sparks, just shrapnel) but can be pricey with a larger blade. I have a 7" cold-cut Evolution Rage 4 and the size limit is a hassle.

New band-saw choices below $200 are pretty sparse. I picked up a cheapie Chinese Porta-Band lookalike because I had a discount coupon. It was about $150 and it seems to be good enough. Being hand-held it is, by definition, not a precision cutting device. The accessory base makes it more convenient to use but it's still a saw, not a scalpel. For a more-useful larger band-saw you're going to lay out several hundred dollars. Again, search for threads on this forum.

I committed a cardinal sin to some.....found a well-used Makita miter saw intended to cut wood at a yard sale for $40. Equipped with an abrasive metal-cutting disk, it has lasted through 10+ years of pretty tough use and I can't fault it. Your mileage may vary. The ten-inch disk is a limitation on the size of material you can cut through without flipping the work over, and the "real" chop saws typically have 14" disks which can be a compelling reason to go that route. If the Makita blows up, it will be replaced with a 14" model.

Hope this helps....

[Fishinbo]

I would go for a band saw. A band saw is one of the most versatile tool in the shop. There are many band saws which can do various miter cuts up to 90 degrees.
If you change your mind with regards to your budget, visit www.utilitybandsaw.com for the band saw machine selection.

[Hootwelds]

Hobby welder has the same situation as I do. I've been looking at a carbide saw or bandsaw to make my cuts
instead of my trusty 4-1/2" grinder with cutoff wheels. My problem is space, and I would like to be able to easily move it around or take it with me. The 14'' carbide cut machines are perfect but larger than what I really wanted.
A bandsaw was out of the question although a great tool to have. I liked the Evolution Rage 4 due to it's small size and I think it would work O.K. as I rarely cut much over 1-1/2 square tube. Canoecruiser commented that the small size was a hassle but is it a good machine otherwise? The price is right and it seems pretty versatile within it's size limits. My second choice would be a Makita 12'' cut machine.

[SidecarFlip]

I have a Roll-In vertical band saw that miters but it was a bit more than 200 bucks, more like 5,000 bucks.

I also have a cheap chinese horoziontal/vertical bandsaw that I bought at TSC (Hardon Fright has 'em too) for under 200 bucks thats cut literally tons of structural, die plate, stainless bar stock and evything else I can stick in the vise and cut and it miters too.

People come around and laugh at it (so do I) because it looks like it's worth 200 bucks and that's on a good day, but it cuts fine and square and the miter vise miters accurately. The castings are rough and it has a bunch of Chinese writing on it but who cares. It does the job and has for years.

I did change the motor for an old discarded washing machine motor. The original had no gonads and I found the 'smoke' in it in about a week and it stunk so it went to the landfill. I drained the 'fish oil' in the gearcase and refilled it with synthetic grease instead and I run quality Lennox or Starrett Varible pitch bi-metal blades. The key to a good saw jib is keeping the blade fiddle string tight and running good blades plus allowing the blade to cut at it's own pace.

Can't go wrong for less than 200 bucks.

[urch55]

I bought my made in 'Taiwan' 4x6 band-saw back in 1987 and everything except the blade and belt is original. I bought mine at Home Depot..


Band Saw.jpg

[Hootwelds]

Well I bought the Evolution Rage 4 as my solution to a small compact dry cut saw. I actually bought a factory reconditioned unit to keep it a cheap as possible. It arrived with a damaged handwheel for the clamp. A quick call to the factory got that resolved. I set the unit up and made a first cut on some unistrut. Breezed right through with the installed multi-purpose blade included on the saw. Cut some square tubing at 45 degree angles
and using only the markings on the clamp it was dead on! Makes nice burr free ready to weld cuts and accurate too! I also bought the dedicated steel blade and tried that as well. Very good performance with both blades.
The saw is reasonably well built and for the money does quite well within its limitations. Obviously this is not an industrial quality saw, but for someone who only cuts smaller material and for the occasional user it does quite well. Beats the heck out of using a grinder with a cut -off blade! A keeper for sure.

[ozarkie]

Hootwelds' post got my attention...

I'm looking for a chop saw about size as the Rage 4, and after reading some reviews of regular abrasive wheel vs. carbide blade saws (like the Rage uses) it looks like the Rage 4 might be the way to go. My use would be steel and aluminum stock within the size capacity of the Rage 4.

What I gleaned from the reviews is that the abrasive wheel saws all tend to have blade deflection, hence not accurate cuts whereas the Rage cuts were deemed to be dead-on accurate.

Would this be a fair comparison, from those of you who may have used both types?

[SidecarFlip]

I bought my made in 'Taiwan' 4x6 band-saw back in 1987 and everything except the blade and belt is original. I bought mine at Home Depot..


Band Saw.jpg

Amazing. I hear it's pretty easy to find the smoke in those oriental motors......

[canoecruiser]

Hootwelds' post got my attention...

I'm looking for a chop saw about size as the Rage 4, and after reading some reviews of regular abrasive wheel vs. carbide blade saws (like the Rage uses) it looks like the Rage 4 might be the way to go. My use would be steel and aluminum stock within the size capacity of the Rage 4.

What I gleaned from the reviews is that the abrasive wheel saws all tend to have blade deflection, hence not accurate cuts whereas the Rage cuts were deemed to be dead-on accurate.

Would this be a fair comparison, from those of you who may have used both types?

The Rage 4 benefits from having a smaller diameter blade in that respect, and the blade, being steel as opposed to composite material, is more rigid as well. My abrasive saw has a 10" blade and it does flex a bit but it is only an issue when making very precise cuts.

[canoecruiser]

Amazing. I hear it's pretty easy to find the smoke in those oriental motors......

Run a Baldor beyond it's limits and they'll smoke as well, especially if you're using a VFD and run it slowly so the fan doesn't push much air. The varnish used on the windings makes a big difference and the variability in quality runs from very good to total crap for no-name motors; this includes (especially) bearings. Sticking with a brand that tightly controls their processes and materials makes their performance more predictable, but undersize them and they're done.

I've designed in power supply modules from Taiwan that were flight-qualified to NASA requirements and their performance on-orbit for a five-year low-earth-orbit mission was flawless. The same modules also flew on F-16 fighters.

[Hootwelds]

I looked at a lot of saws and weighed my options before settling on the Rage 4. First, I knew it had to be a dry cutter. I have experience with abrasive cutters and the shower of swarf was not an option. Second, had to be compact. 14" saws are nice but I needed something small to fit in my truck box. Third, reasonably priced. A $500.00 tool was not in the budget and not an option. I looked at my scrap pile from past projects and 90 percent could have been cut with the Rage 4. As far as oriental motors smoking, I would have loved to had a MADE in USA option, but it's not out there sad to say. The only real complaint on the saw is the stamped base is a little flimsy. Bolting the saw to a work surface would take care of this. Oh, and the degree markings were stamped black on black, made it hard too see them. Filled the markings with white paint and it's perfect now.
The accuracy of the saw was what surprised me most. And the very nice blade for steel is made in Japan and appears to maybe be a Tenryu made blade. Not sure about that. All in all a nice saw for the money.

[ozarkie]

i'm kinda in the same boat as Hootwelds...limited $$, limited space, don't want a blade that flexes and don't need the fireworks display. Sounding picky?? Maybe. But if it's out there, why not take advantage of it? I imagine with my limited use, the dry cut blade should last a long time.

I thought about getting a metal-cutting abrasive blade for my miter saw to try that out, but I have heard rumblings about that might not be a smart move. Anyone use their miter saw for metal cutting (with the chop saw blades)?

[canoecruiser]

I bought an old mitre saw at a yard sale; see post #2 above. It works but it is definitely hard duty given you have to keep a fairly heavy pressure on the blade in order to get it to cut the way they are designed to do. If you want to preserve your saw for woodworking I would say forget it; they aren't made for metal cutting. I have $40 in this saw and accept the risk.

[ozarkie]

Well. my miter saw was bought new and for woodworking...so, I think I'd best not screw it up and try to do something it wasn't intended for. There are auctions all the time around here, so I'll just keep my eyes peeled for a chop saw at auction, or just spring for a dry cut saw. Thanks for the insight.