Saws, bandsaws, hack saws, etc

How difficult would it be to convert my saw to one that cuts wood and mild steel? Evidently when new, you could purchase an option to make your saw able to cut both wood and steel. What parts would I need to find? The photo is of a gearbox from a wood/metal saw.

I have 1 porta-band. I use it alot, both in a table mount, and hand held. My original DIY mount was wooden and required me to remove a band clamp , and a screw gun to remove the table. What APITA! A little thought, some material off the storage rack, and some time...this is what I came up with.. Table slides off by loosening the thumb bolt on the bottom of the support arm.

Every now and then I will purchase plate drops from my local metal supplier. On acouple of occasions I have encountered hardened edges. In a couple of cases the edges were hard enough to destroy the usefulness of a band saw blade. Is this a comon problem ? Just wondering how the best way to test for hardness before starting to cut and how deep to expect the hardening to extend away from the edge.

Hello All; I'm doing some re-organizing of my shop; and in the metal-sawing departement , I've decided to keep only one saw. The contestants are : a metal bandsaw - the relatively cheap ones with the cheesy yet strong feet and crap wheels. I'll attach a similar picture. This bandsaw works really good, and can also be used for finder work; as you can stand it upright and use it as a light table saw. I put some lennox bi-metal fine tooth saw on it, very good. However; making it cutting straight requires some fiddeling, and I've had to replace the saw-guide bearings already once. It cuts nice; but tends to not cut straight down if you apply too much p…

After these were mentioned in another posting, I decided to give it a shot just to see if the hype lived up to the product. I picked up a 14" Lenox diamond blade from the internet mega-store: Price $ 80. My comparison was to DeWalt abrasive cut-off blades (virtually brand new) which can be had at most big box hardware stores and run about $6 to $7 at the internet mega-store. Saw is a Milwaukee standard 14" abrasive cut-off that's about 15 years old. First, there is one difference you notice right away: Inertia. The diamond blade is a lot heavier and the inertia when starting the saw makes things really jump. When stopping, the inertia keeps the blade spinn…

Hi all, I have been skulking around the forums for a little time now, learning what i can. I am very much a junior blacksmith/bladesmith but am slowly starting to produce some blades and damascus. Its been a heck of a learning curve, but I am getting there. Anyway, the reason for the post, I have purchase a while a go a Evolution Evosaw355 Hoping to use it to cut steel plates for my projects. I have used it to cut some steel, which has been ok and recently tried it on the damacus billet. The billet was about an inch thick by 1.5" wide. Simply put, it struggled to the point that it wouldn't go through the billet at the end! The blade it co…

I just got an old Craftsman 108-22920 horizontal bandsaw, and I need to top off the oil in the hydraulic cylinder that regulates the feed speed. The manual calls for SAE 20 oil, but I only have SAE 30. Is there enough of a difference in this application for me to bother getting the specified grade, or can I go ahead and use what I have?

BD1 is the fellow over on the welding forum that turned me on to this neat little trick, so I thought it only right that he be immortalized for his efforts. The clamp is just a 1" slice taken off some heavy-wall pipe I had. In this case, 3/8", but you could use anything you might have. I was thinking you could even forge a flat bar into a curve and use it rather than wait to find a piece of pipe the right size. The clamp bridges the gap, so to speak, so you can cut a short piece from a short piece. If the OEM table clamp on your bandsaw doesn't reach, or the piece is too short to get a good grab, the BD1BC comes in really handy! I needed to make up a run…

Howdy! Well my meal cutting bandsaw has been giving me fits so after trouble shooting it and replacing the top wheel bearings..I decided that I may as well replace the lower bearing as well..... long story short is the worm gear that runs from the V belt wheel into the gear box is 100% a-OK however the bronze gear that drives the lower wheel shaft is toast..I am amazed that the thing still worked!! So..after cleaning out all the bronze shards, shavings and bits and ordering the new bearings, oil seals and the new gear..what kind of grease/lube should I use?? I am a wee bit leery of using gear box oil alone for this.. The new parts will be here Weds I was told.…

Hi. I am looking into getting a JET coldsaw, and I am looking at the non-ferrous model, but I will also be cutting steel. Can I put a ferrous blade in a saw that comes stock with a non-ferrous blade, or does a non-ferrous saw only work with non-ferrous blades?

I have a couple of cuts that need to be made across a 1 3/8" X 9" steel bar. None of my regular saws will handle a cut of that size. So I am looking for an alternate, other than a hand held band saw, to make these cuts. My question is can using a metal cutting circular saw blade installed in a industrial duty electric hand saw be expected to make these cuts ? I have had in my a new Bosch CB748ST blade in my stable of tools for a while. I would be happy if I could complete two such cuts with this blade. On the other hand I would be disappointed to kill a $40 blade with negative results. Does any one have experience with using a hand held saw with a meta…

I have a 10" craftsman band saw I would like to use to cut steal 5/8 x 5/8 1/2 X 1/2 what would you recommend. If I remember correctly it takes a 1x72 1/2 " blade. Will this saw even work ?

I just bought a used grizzly G9742 horizontal bandsaw. This one: http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9742/parts The problem is, it no longer has the hydraulic cylinder that allows the saw to automatically lower. Buying a new one from Grizzly apparently is almost $200.00!!! Does anyone know of a place to buy cheaper parts that will fit this machine? It would be MUCH appreciated. Best, Eric

Wasn't sure if this belonged in shop or tools, so I stuck it here. I am sick of cutting everything with my angle grinder, and got wife approval for a band saw (mostly because it also has non-blacksmith purposes). Anyways, do you find the portable band saws or the stationary ones more useful (if you could only have one.) I also take into consideration that porta is cheaper, but I got permission for "A band saw" so I could do either. Thanks.

Last fall Lowe down box stores had a Makita chop saw and 4 1/2" 7 amp grinder combo marked down from $199 to $149. Being frugal as I am, thought to wait till the close out sale. I have 3 of said stores within my normal travels. One store had only one the other two had 5. Checked on the one and it was gone, store guy said they did reduce it for clearance a week back and went quick. Went by another store and was told they too clearance priced them and one guy bought them all. Stopped by the last store and they still had all five units along with the $149 price. I talked to a store guy and ran down the story of the other two stores and then we began to haggle. I re…

At the request of JHCC here is a little bit of information on my portaband table I built today. The base is a RR tie plate turned upside down (I plan to build a stand to fit the track space allowing me to swap out tools like my belt grinder) and the uprights are 1 5/8” 16 gauge square and 1 5/8x3” rectangle. The uprights are about 9.25” tall with a .25” piece of plate on top for the table. The table is 7x5”. I used the bandsaw to cut the blade path then I widened it with a cut off disc on my angle grinder. I welded the table down the outside and spot welded it several times on the inside. In order to find my hole placement I took the factory foot off, turned it upsi…

So I found this little guy today and brought it home, thought it would look pretty neat with a fresh coat of paint on it. Has anyone ever seen one like this? I did a Google search but so far no luck on any information out there on it. It was made by Louisville electric manufacturering company, no. 26065 type CD 3x5 capacity 90 rpm.

Hi all, can anyone please tell me the ft. per min speed of a metal cutting band saw blade? Regards. Bob.

A High Speed Racine Draw Cut power hacksaw just walked in my smithy. It dragged its electric motor behind it. Its a rather small model without a pump for cooling liquid. It stands on a cabinet. It was originaly bought in Montreal from Foss and Hill Machinery Co. as appears on a brass plate riveted to the machine. I found some interesting stuff about an assistant manager of the company (A. W. Moore) and on e-Bay, someone is selling the september page of the 1917 calendar the company put out. The power hacksaw is in pretty good shape, I think, eventhough : it misses the top weight that can be moved to apply more or less pressure on the blade (easily made), …

Hey guys, I work in an industrial forge shop. There are tons of scraps laying around, so practice material is no issue. We also use several enormous bandsaws, from which the used blades are also freely available. My question to you is this: is it tool steel? has anyone used bandsaw steel, laminated or otherwise, for cutting edges or other tool steel related applications? Thanks in advance!!!

I use most methods to cut mild steel bar to size, from cut-off disc, small band saw, ironworker, which only goes to 1", my 300mm cold saw cuts tube, pipe, hollow section well with 220 pitch circular blades but struggles with solid. Should I be using a blade with less teeth? It is a fairly substantial saw with 3ph 2 speed geared motor. I do not think the 3 TPI rule applies with cold saws. I do not want to use the abrasive cut-off,too much noise& dust.

I borrowed a 7x12 metal bandsaw Brand name probably came off twenty years ago. It is old and according to the owner bullet proof. His blade was trashed and one condition of borrowing it was putting a new blade on it. In the grand scheme of things this was not a bad rental fee. New blade is on but I can't get a straight cut to save my life. I have squared the clamp with the cut line. Then squared it with the blade. I am using a precision machinist's square. The blade is taught, the saw is not loose in the brackets. The material is square. I am at wits end. Any thoughts?

Been looking at the 4x6 metal bandsaw selections and I realized they all look alike. JET, Harbor Freight, ENCO, Grizzly I am assuming only the name is different. Is this correct?

I am looking for recommendations for dry cut chop saws. I am getting away from the abrasive saws for two reasons. first and foremost is the health issue posed by the abrasive. I cut with a respirator on but I that dust is real fine and stays in the air for quite a while not to mention it getting stirred up. The second reason is I am tired of inaccurate cuts. I come from a wood working back ground and inaccurate cuts are embarrassing. I borrowed a band saw and while nice I am not getting as accurate a cut as I want and it is just too big. After lots of reading of reviews and descriptions the Dry cut saw might be he best answer to my situation. I've never used one a…

I just bought this yesterday. Seems to be in good shape, although I don't think the motor is original. Anyone have any tips on how to set this thing up to work properly? Anything I need to watch out for?