BillyBones Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 So i have decided i am going to get a portable cordless band saw. Must be deep cut, at least a 4" cut and durable. Right now i am in a toss up between DeWalt or Milwaukee. Both set ups are around $500, Milwaukee a little cheaper till you find it does not come with blades, then it evens out. Not that i wouldnt buy blades any way. All my power tools, drills, sawsall, impact, etc are DeWalt. So i am really leaning more towards the DeWalt. The DeWalt is also powered by the 20v lithium which i have no less than 3 chargers for already, but i have the short stack batteries, so the new batteries are also desirable. Anyway just looking for thoughts and recommendations before i pull the trigger. Or if even there is another brand i may have overlooked. Thanks for any input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 Blades are a consumable, so that shouldn't factor into your decision now. If you already have DeWalt batteries and chargers, it seems to me that adding another battery system doesn't make much sense -- especially if you need to grab the saw and some extra batteries for a run to the steel supplier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 Once you pick a color so to speak, it does make sense to stick with that brand, if only for the sake of battery interchangeability. I chose teal (Makita). I would say go for a Hilti, but I don't think theirs is deep cut. If I could afford it, all my cordless tools would be Hiltis. The only reason I even mention it is because it's a great brand and isn't all that much more expensive. Still, it's probably not what you're looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyanchor Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 Makes a lot of sense to stay with the color you are already heavily invested in. I have had various of the colors at one time or another, the problem is when a company came out with a "New" higher voltage set, the batteries for the old set disappeared or got real pricey. (pre internet days for me). So I hopped on the higher voltage stuff when it went on sale at Lowes or H.D. 7.2 Ohio Forge drill, little drill had torque; 9.6 Makita drill and trim saw, both were fantastic in their day with the batteries available; 12v DeWalt drill, circ saw, and screw gun, not a bad drill, circ saw was a little weak; 14.4 Makita drill, 1/4 impact driver, good tools and I still have them; 18v Porter Cable drill and 1/4 impact driver. OK set; 20v P.C. hammer drill and sawzall, meh drill, OK sawzall. P.C. used to be a very high quality tool, but I think they started the dive to economy pricing... I wanted a 1/2 inch batt powered impact, Milwaukee seemed to be a better choice in reviews than PC. So I started buying 18v red tools and got rid of a mis-mash of 18 and 20v PC tools that I wasn't really impressed with. I kept an old Makita 14.4 set that would out drill and drive the 20v PC. Milwaukee seems to really be pushing the 18v tools and have a huge line of tools, so I believe they will keep supporting them for a long time. I kept 2 battery systems, but 2 sets is better than 4, and a second good cordless drill and impact driver is always handy. Lots of babble to say stay with what you have the batteries for ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 For some reason I have never had any luck with battery power tools. My wife says it's my magnetic personality, just looking at a tool battery kills it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyanchor Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 ID, some people are blessed with freedom, some are tethered to, or are grounded by, their persona....Try wearing some chain mail for the magnetic personality !! Cordless stuff has come so far since the 7.2v Ni-Cd days, the new Li-on stuff has massive power and run time without a cord. So much more convenient than dragging a long extension cord or generator around. Could go old school and use hand tools again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 (edited) I have plenty of chargers, the batteries are somewhat different. I have the early 20V that were the short stack. This saw takes the taller battery. Yeah i can use mine but the run time is greatly reduced. Which is something that just now hit me, the batteries for this saw will also work on my other tools, giving them an even longer run time. (that really did just dawn on me) Well, with that thought and like ya'll have said here in the next few days you will be seeing my new DeWalt porta-band. I should have said this in the OP but i have never really used a portable before and was not sure if there was a huge difference in similarly priced saws. Thanks for the input ya'll, we can now carry on with thread drift. Edited March 18, 2021 by BillyBones misspelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Thread drift? We don't do that here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 "Abandon coherence, all ye who enter!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 One of the guys I used to work with was always into the latest gizmo and being as we spent half the year working nights or graveyard late night radio was a constant. One evening Monte shows up for dispatch with his newest and much anticipated hand crank radio. Crank it up and it plays for a decent length of time more than 30 minutes as I recall. I'm sure someone here knows which one I mean. Well, Monte ordered the latest and greatest, it had a reading light and we all took look at it having listened to the ads for a month at least. Well, Monte being Monte, we had to listen to a complete rundown of all the programs he'd listened to plus how many turns of the crank lasted how many minutes, every stinking night which was actually a little better than his rundowns of the TV show he'd watched the night before. We figured Monte spent too many years driving truck solo, made him so lonely he spent t he rest of his life trying to catch up on gossip. So there we are a couple weeks after the beginning of the nightly yesterday's radio show, crank/play time, report when I asked him. Did you hear about the new attachment for the ? ? radio? Monte perks RIGHT up! "No I didn't, what is it?" Always eager to have the latest greatest on the bells and whistles list I had him hooked. "They've been talking about it all week, Art (of Art Bell, "Coast to Coast," fame) is doing the commercials." Monte stops explaining last night's TV shows and walks towards me, not to miss a breathless whisper of NEW PRODUCT DATA! The entire break room is dead silent, we ALL listened to Coast to Coast, it was about all there was and nobody else had heard either. "Yeah Monte, they just released a battery powered automatic crank winder for the brand X, hand crank, (NO battery), radio." Well, he's off and scheming, he is by golly GOING to have the first battery auto crank winder for a brand X hand crank battery free radio on the crew! He's in full tilt Monte mode telling everybody about how he'll have his wife listen and call the number the second a commercial comes on and he'll pay for next day delivery and and and. I'd planned on suggesting he get the delux crank connection kit and special ac adapter but it was just too good a GOTCHA. The entire break room, 16 guys Night lead and two working foremen were sitting in silence listening to the show when someone finally asked me, "Frosty?" I'd had enough fun of my own and told him to go ahead. The look on Monte's face when "Battery powered crank winder for the battery free radio," finally sunk in was just too perfect. Uh . . . Anybody know how this memory came to mind? Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 No clue how it came to mind, but by gum ya gave me a good belly laugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
63Denied Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Hello all. I’m brand spanking new to the forum, haven’t even created a profile yet. Just wanted to reassure the original poster about his choice. I work in the NYPD for a particular unit that uses a lot of tools. Cutting bike chains, wrought iron gates, chain link fences, rebar, etc. we have our choice of gas powered demo saws, Hurst rescue tools, and battery powered tools. And we would push everything to its limits or beyond. Definitely a “if you make it, we’ll break it” attitude. Our unit has tried the major brands, Dewalt, Milwaukee and Makita. It used to be a real pain keeping all the tools in the trucks charged with their respective batteries. We recently went to Dewalt across the board with their battery powered demo saw, chainsaw, sawsall, angle grinder, drill and impact drivers, and portable bandsaw. So far (2 years) everyone has been very impressed with it. Even the old timers, who swore by the gas tools. Just my .02 I’m going to go create a profile and spend the next few days perusing the forum. See y’all later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Welcome aboard! As long as you're perusing, this thread will help you get the most out of the site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 63, welcome aboard. Thanks for the input and thanks for the service to the community. There are a few here with backgrounds in law enforcement and firefighting. The best thing to do when starting to read the forum is make a lunch and bring along a tasty beverage or 2. A lot of info here. Threads to tend to drift but some times the drift is the best part. Many, many rabbit holes to go down. However this site has improved my smithing abilities by light years. It will challenge you, encourage you but best of all make you want to step outside of your safe zone and try new things. Check out the whole site also, some really good recipes for possum and raccoon here. One thing i must emphasize in the read me first, the on site search function dont work real well. Use your favorite browser, google, bing, duckduckgo, whatever, with what you are looking for followed by iforgeiron. i.e. "heat treating 1095 iforeiron". That will help narrow down the rabbit holes to the ones you want. Anyway, glad to have ya. Now get out to your shop, make something and show it off for us. We love pics. But be safe and most of all have fun doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 For google adding site:iforgeiron.com cuts out almost all the fluff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 63, welcome aboard and to the craft and the madness. Blacksmithing has been fun and therapeutic for me for the last 43 years. I do have a firefighting connection. My father was a Captain on the Chicago Fire Department, 1950s-late '70s. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 I say, welcome as well. What madness, George? I don't see anything out of the ordinary... I would like to take this opportunity to thank Frosty for his tale, Monte reminded me of a great shipmate I had in the Navy. His name was Frankie, but we all called him "fruit fly". Makes you wonder where all the fun, true characters that pass through your life wound up at. Maybe best not to know.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 No Madness?---Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha; the Farce is strong in this one! (excuse me time to take my meds, it too warm to wear those extra long sleeve jackets around and hard to hold a hammer in them...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Well, I have at least one re-deeming quality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 At LEAST one. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 All my redeeming qualities got redeemed and went home with their original owners; of course I have a whole lot of scruples that theoretically belong to other people... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 There was a little cafe in Reno that made good scruple and eggs and a great burger. I made a point of visiting for a meal when I visited my Sister. Then I found out what it was made of and . . . the burgers were excellent. I'll take a pass on the scruples, thank you very much. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 My grandparents used to make blood sausage...... Who knows what goes into any of it these days! I have no need for scruples, they just get in the way of the eggs (the good stuff). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now