band saw?

Do any of you guys use a vertical band saw for cutting steel? What kind of saw? Blades? Speed? How fast is the blade rotating? and how well/fast does it cut?

Are you using a modified wood saw? if yes what did you do to make it cut steel?

Thanks in advance for the info

gold03

For a long time we used our horizontal/vertical Jet bandsaw in both positions. It is made so you can flip it up and put a table on it and use it as a vertical model. But it wasn't ideal. The blade is a 3/4 inch and too wide to make intricate cuts. We love it in the horizontal mode, not so much in the vertical mode.

I kept looking for a metal cutting true vertical bandsaw and went to look at lots of them on Craigslist. Every one turned out to be a wood cutting one, some were converted by using a metal cutting blade, but not what I wanted. They would tell you on the phone it was a metal cutting one, but when I got there it was a wood cutting version.

Finally, I saw an ad for a metal shop that was going out of business and I went to see the bandsaw he had for sale. It is an old Delta and is a real metal cutting one, I bought it for $ 250 and absolutely LOVE it. The blade is thin, so you can cut around curves, and it runs VERY slow.........exactly what you need for cutting steel. I feel very safe getting my hands close to the work because of the slow speed.

Wood ones run much faster and some guys have done some things like changing pulley ratios to slow them down. They say that helps a lot. As for blades, our local metal supply house custom makes blades in house and I get Steritt brand blades for both of our saws from them. They last forever. I just replaced the one on the horizontal one and it was probably 2 years or more old, and we cut a lot of steel on it.

Don

I been looking too.... Have not found much that is not designed for wood either...

I have a horizontal band saw for cutting tubing and such and I was keeping my eye out for a vertical saw. However, I've decided to buy a plasma instead.

I been thinking more and more about just a fiber wheel chop saw until I find a nice band saw, however I want the thicker blade for just straight cuts...

Here are a couple of pictures of my $250 find. The old man who was retiring from the metal shop said he owned this one forever, and it just keeps ticking along. Everytime I use it I love it more.

BTW, you asked about what blade to use, this one has a 14 tooth 1/2" thick blade and the horrizontal is a 10 tooth 3/4" thick blade. But the best thing about this vertical one is that it just runs super slow and doesn't try to tear the work out of your hands. It has a gearshift on the back so I guess you can select different speeds, but I am happy where it is and don't want to mess up anything by fooling around with it.

Don

Don't mess with perfection!!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it..... well....most of the time..

Yep it is working so well I'm afraid I will try shifting gears and get it in some speed I don't want.

Dn

Dang Don, your saw looks just like this one that's close to me. Even though his ad says it's a wood saw, maybe I outta go check it out.

http://redding.craigslist.org/tls/3241206359.html

Mike, that looks exactly like mine, even the backside. I can't see the little gearshift in the small picture but if it is there and if the saw runs very slow it is also good for metal cutting.

$300 is a deal. Mine doesn't have the original motor either, I don't think, but all I ever do to it is change the blade every couple of years and put some oil in the place they have on the side with a snap lid on it. I'm telling you, I LOVE ours and have cut a bunch of stuff with it that I couldn't have done any other way.

Go check it out.

Don

Wood cutting band saws go too fast for steel. Here's mine, I paid 1400 for it at an auction a few years ago. It's got a 17" throat, it's big and heavy, it has a blade welder on it and it goes slow like a horizontal saw, it even blows the chips off your work as you go.

That is a very nice bandsaw.

Don

Agreed... been lookign for something like that

Could a wood one be converted by just putting on a treadmill motor and dialing down the rpm like they do with the lathes?

A friend of mine did something like that for his wood

Todd said:

Could a wood one be converted by just putting on a treadmill motor and dialing down the rpm like they do with the lathes?

Click to expand...

band saw to make it work with metal.... I think if you "google" it you'll find a few articles about how to modify them....not sure about a treadmill motor though..but hey, nothing ventured...nothing gained...

sgtpontiac said:

band saw to make it work with metal.... I think if you "google" it you'll find a few articles about how to modify them....not sure about a treadmill motor though..but hey, nothing ventured...nothing gained...

Click to expand...

Ya it can be done, we did it with an old Delta 14" wood band saw. It's easy because they run with a belt. We made a jack shaft with pillow blocks and a couple pulleys and an additional belt to gear it down.
Also good to know; wood cutting band saws work great on aluminum with about a 8/12 bi-metal blades.

Converting wood band saw to metal didn’t work out for me. I couldn’t get it to slow enough.