Metal cutting bandsaw

It's worth doing, John. With a little effort you can get these things cutting surprisingly accurately such that a quick dress on the mill is all you need. In fact, the finish from mine is not bad either so for some jobs you can use as-is.

For what they are worth, these are my experiences.

Some years ago bought a small bandsaw from Warco (small enough to lift up and use on a bench) It was a disaster!

Cost about £100 in broken blades before I sent it back under complaint. (No arguments about it)

The replacement had paint in a crack on the main casting, so that went back to be traded against a cheaper 6 x 4.5". (Visually similar to the Clarke/Machine Mart machine with NVR)

That functioned fairly well for some time until the thin steel tube between the wormshaft bearings escaped through the bottom one and the oil seal. Bought new bearings and seal locally, and made up a brass spacer. Have had no more problems in that area since. Removed the drive and Idler wheels and trued up the running surfaces, and added brass spacers to improve the alignment. Careful attention to the guide roller adjustments, and careful tracking (Not ideal, but better than before) Blades seem to last longer, and gave a reasonably straight cut, as long as the feed is not forced. Fairly recently made up the blade tensioning meter illustrated in another U K M.E magazine. Having used this to set the tension, performance improved further. A trial cut showed about 0.001" difference in thickness across a a thin slice. BUT have no illusions that this has turned it into a precision machine, or is likely to be repeatable.

The sheet steel base is pretty flimsy, but flexed, resulting failure of one of the wheels. It now has a piece of 30mm x 30mm angle iron bolted on to the sheet steel to carry the axle. The wheels are "rubber" tyred plastic, from a D I Y store, and have survived for at least as long as the originals, despite having been used more to move it around.

The vice components have been checked for squareness, and where needed, machined to improve squareness and adaptability.

In conclusion, it it is now a useful machine, saving LOTS of hard labour while producing a far better cut than I could with a hacksaw.

Hope that all these ramblings will be of some help.

Howard

In a previous thread(s) you will see my link to an excellent PDF on setting up one of the smaller saws.

Common mistake is to set the tension too low, also many people don't understand how the tracking adjustment works (i.e. don't realise it can be adjusted!) Without the tracking right you will be lucky not to regularly throw blades.

Neil

What I noticed on mine is that the blade wandered and then tended to come off because it was cutting at an unnatural angle. So I just tightened the blade. Some time later it did the same thing again as it was wandering about again. I suspect much of this was down initially to the leverage being a bit on the low side - needs a bigger handle and blade stretch later.

It also pays to set the guide sensibly. No need to have them wide open unless the stock needs it. I'd say where I usually have those would  take 3" dia stock. Maybe 4.

The wheels are still on mine but it doesn't get moved very often. If I was doing the sort of thing Ian does with his I'd buy some adjustable height rollers to take the weight. For my usual 2ft max lengths the legs have been find and anything else such as angle iron which has been longer I find something to support the stock or just hold it square to the machine while I'm closing the vice. I set that up square to the blade.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 04/01/2017 20:19:43

Plus 2 for the Femi, costs a bit more well worth the extra cash in my opinion, had min for a fair few years easy to move small footprint and works pretty well with the vertical table accessory.

Whatever you do, steer clear of one of these, sold under various brand names. Mine was WoodStar.

With space issues. I searched widely and found that these had been converted to a table mounted saw by at least one respected member on another Forum. So, I got one. It comes as a portable saw with no mounting system for table use.

I went to considerable effort to fabricate the yellow and grey hinging mechanism seen in the photo which was problematic, added an auto cut-off switch, got good bimetal blades and was very pleased that I had a light portable saw. However, within a short while blade tracking became a problem. I added extra guides. Eventually the blade slipping off chewed up the wheel-bands and driving wheel and the saw became unusable.

Annoyingly 90% of the saw was reasonably well made but they had fitted PLASTIC wheels, which began to flex........It was directly gear driven from the motor with one gear moulded into the plastic wheel so not easy to remedy. The ha'pworth of tar syndrome.

So you live and learn. I now have a second-hand Clarke model CBS45MD. I have done enough mods and fixes on it to write a whole chapter. It cuts straight and square in both planes and is a great addition to any workshop.

I hope my experience might save others from wasting their efforts on this type of machine.

John

I think the drive wheels are a little too close together for it's capacity and it's important to tension the blade enough to make sure it's vertical to the cut.

Would I be happy if I had bought a Femi - no because I have used it to cut material that the femi wont take several times. In fact I have had to turn bar over to cut completely through it at times.

Personally if some one is thinking about buying one and the size isn't a problem I would think long and hard about that aspect.

On price didn't Neil mention that the cheaper version of the Machine Mart and probably the Axminster one is more flimsy ?

The biggest problem with them as I see it is the size of the chunk of material needed in the vice. That could be a useful mod.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 04/01/2017 23:54:04

The 780 and 782 are the smallest in the extensive Femi range, if I had felt I would be regularly cutting larger stock I could have bought a larger machine.

At the start of this thread I said my Femi had cut 140mm stuff yet it is sold as 102x102 capacity, could have done more without turning it over if I wanted to.

My 6" x 4 1/2" H/V saw will if you remove the vice, and clamp the material to the bed, cut a little over 7".

Ian S C

Neil, please could you link to that thread?

LOL Yours is bigger than his. Mine is too.

I'd noticed that too Ian and thought it might take a little more than that if needed.

There is one aspect that has struck me on size. Usually when material is being bought it's priced on the basis of being sold in lengths cut to size. Last time I wanted some larger material I needed some al disks about 4" dia. by 1/2" thick. Several of them so I ordered them cut to size, 5/8 thick because a piece for the saw would have been more expensive due to the extra length needed. Since I have seen a Boxford part off material larger than that I might buy a length now.

There used to be people around here that sold bar ends at a little over scrap prices. Most stick it on a rack now and wait for some one to want that length. Sometimes material turns up at a good price. I also think that the supplier wasn't too happy about cutting my thin disks. One more expensive supplier wouldn't be bothered or shouldn't be.

Anyway. I have had mine for rather a long time and there wasn't much choice when I bought it. The small Femi would cope with the vast majority of what I have cut on it. A few times it wouldn't have and I'd hate to have to use a hacksaw. 4" square isn't that bad a limit though. I've made use of the 6" limit several times usually with thick plate sections rather than bar. A thread cropped up once on here from people complaining about the 6x4 1/2. I've no idea what the cheaper one is like. Some objected to the complaints. The other isn't an industrial machine but what I have found is that it's way better than expected.

John

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Ask them which is best after they have cut a 6" dia steel bar with an armstrong hacksaw, while you do similar with a 4.5 x 6 bandsaw, both will need a skim off the face to square them. I know who will not have a tired arm.

I cut all the 2" x 1/4" angle iron for my lathe bench by hand, that inspired me to design, and build a power hacksaw that I used for a number of years.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 06/01/2017 10:47:47

Looking for a better way to part off 3" Aluminium [too deep for my parting tools!] and the Kennedy Hexacut hacksaw is only good for 2" .

Looking on this Forum and else where I came across this

https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-240v-portable-bandsaw/p/086075229503400

and another version

https://www.scheppach.com/product-details/Bandsaege-MBS1100-scheppach---220-240V-50Hz-1100W.aspx

Its getting packed in my workshop so size is a consideration

Its got to be worth a punt so I've ordered one.

Anybody else used one ?

Steve

It really comes down to three factors :

Price.

The space you have to store it .

The maximum capacity you will or may need .

I have a similar unit that is in Neil’s second link and there are probably millions of these units out there. I did some mods like the hydraulic ram to control the feed and added roller bearings to the top wheel that the blade runs around but other than that I have had 20yrs of loyal service from my saw and I have given it a flogging over the years !

One thing to also look at is the blades as some are just rubbish so make sure what ever saw you buy that you can get decent blades for . I use bimetal blades from a local manufacturer that I have found over the years they make blades that outlast the starrett units sold by the place I bought the saw from by about five to one and they are the same price !

To save on space (of which I have little left) I tuck my WARCO CY-90 band saw between the end of a bench and one of the lathes. I shortened the 4 legs by 3” and fitted castors so it can be swung out when needed.

I bought the Aldi machine and I'm very happy with it for the price. The only criticism is the "vice" supplied with it, it's ok for holding big chunks, but the overhang is too great for smaller sections. I fitted an old machine vice with modified base and jaws which works well, see photos.

Having bought the Aldi Bandsaw I agree that for the price it is very effective, though as you say the vice leaves something to be desired holding small and irregular items.

I have modified the vice using the body and fitting larger jaws and a threaded rod. With a bit of fettling to clear the saw it meets my needs. Cutting steel sock and sections & aluminium castings are no problem.

I have just bought the Aldi saw seen above.

After about 10 minutes of use out of the box, with the blade tensioner fully tightened, the blade wandered off the wheels and proceeded to cut its way out of the plastic blade cover. Luckily nothing I can't fix.

After a lot of head scratching I realised that this could be prevented by backing off the blade's tension to the point where it tracked on the wheels correctly.

Am I right that the blade tensioner should not be fully closed and needs to be adjusted to get the blade to track? The manual is not helpful on this point.

Secondly, I noticed that the non-motorised idler wheel has a lot of play when the tensioner is tightened; that is, it rocks on its vertical axis. Is this deliberate so that the wheel can self-align to the correct tracking angle, or do you think the unit is damaged?

The saw generally seems to work right now but I'm keen to avoid storing up trouble for the future by misusing it.

Many thanks in advance

-Chris

My upright bandsaw has a tension adjuster & a tracking adjuster separately.

Steve.