Lidl Portable Bandsaw

I've cut 60mm solid EN16 steel bar with mine, no trouble, and significantly quicker than my power hacksaw, smooth as silk.

Worth noting, the motor doesn't seem to heat up, thus it doesn't seem like it's having a hard time, I apply just enough pressure to feel/hear the saw cutting and let it go at it's own pace from there. I always use the minimum speed on the variable dial.

After my post last week about Rage circular saws and deciding against them I saw the heads up on the Lidl bandsaws and piped down today and bought one.

Set it up and tried it, very pleased with it(fingers x that doesn’t jinx it), cut through 1/2 inch mild steel bar like butter. Cut square and clean, fits on the bench nicely, should be just what I need.

Vice may need looking at as there’s a bit of an overhang, but for the money it seems a buy.

Ian

Ray, thanks for the heads up on the band saw, I would have missed it otherwise. I got one this morning, just 4 left in the shop, i will have a play with it in the morning. Can you share with us where the better quality blades you mention came from, if the moderators allow?

Chris Gunn

Can you share with us where the better quality blades you mention came from, if the moderators allow?

He already did, on the first page.

Use the bi-metal type blades. They cost a little more but last a lot longer.

I live in Sydney and have a good supplyer hera but not much use if in teh UK.

Paul

Hi Chris, I use blades from Tuff Saws. I found that the blade supplied with the saw had quite a "bounce" when the joint passed through the guide rollers. A new blade reduced this problem but I ruined it by not checking a piece of steel which appears to be hardened. I have now bought 3 new blades, two fine cutting for small sections and tubes and a course one for solid material. Tried one as they arrived last week and it cut through some solid brass bar in no time.

I visited 3 Lidl shops around Wirral yesterday morning and none have them. First I though i came too late and all stock has been sold out but manager told me that they never came, maybe Wednesday I've been told

Just had a look on the Lidl NI web site and the saw is £10-00 cheaper for some reason

Ian

Pallet of them in Christchurch this morning.

Rod

Looks like they've never made it to local distribution centre. Mate is checking one in Liverpool for me. Has anyone seen them in Cheshire West?

Stock does the rounds at these discount places, going from shop to shop, so it's worth checking every few days

I sometimes find what I'm after a week after it was meant to be in-store

Managed to get one of Lidl's bandsaw offerings with the idea of hacking it to make a compact light duty vertical band saw for fine cuts etc ( already have a CY90 which I have fettled to cut bar very accurately)

Irrespective of the useless vice arrangement and awesomely poor build quality, it was very disappointing - in fact if I was being generous I would describe it as total carp, with a useless uninformative manual included .

I am considering whether to persist and attempt to fettle the product into some sort of usable condition or return from whence it came.

So have the following questions for guidance from those with more experience of the product...

Out of the box, I don't seem to be able to get any real tension on the blade - with the red cam lever is in the fully locked position and the blade correctly located in the guides, the blade set is very flabby with an inch of sideways play and a distinct curve. As a consequence the blade stalls frequently. Surely this cant be right- I would expect to tension to about the musical equivalent of C flat. Does anyone know if there is any other adjustment possible of the jockey wheel to increase the blade tension? If not , do I get blades made up 5mm shorter to mitigate the issue?

Fault two - as set up on the pivot, the blade ends up angled about 5-7 degrees off vertical (as reported by someone else in this thread). Can't see any obvious adjustment to mount or the blade guides - they appear to be a single unit locked into one position - does anyone know any different ? It may be possible to shim these blocks closer to vertical.

The thing can be made to cut metal (just) but only where no real cut accuracy is required. I am doubting if it is of sufficient quality to become a useful tool either as a vertical bandsaw or as a rough cutter.

Thanks.

I didn't get a bandsaw but did get a temperature controlled hot air gun. Controlable from 50 to 650 deg C in 10 deg steps. Very nice for electrical heatshrink or softening plastic as well as traditional uses.

Also bought a kit of "dremel" tools wich look quite good even before I realised there were two hidden trays of cutting disks etc.

Robert G8RP.

Haha. Don't think I've walked away empty handed. Also got that dremel kit which indeed seems to be very good value and set of quick clamps (around £5 for set of four)

I'm sorry to hear the Lidl one is so carp.

My Aldi one certainly sounds worth the extra £50 when I bought it at the beginning of the year, it made short work of a piece of 65mm dia black bar yesterday and it was within 1mm of square. I did have a bit of finger ache from holding the trigger down but not half as much fatigue as I would have had with a hacksaw!

Incidentally, mine lived on a shelf just outside the workshop door when not in use, a real bonus if there is limited workshop space, it is light enough to move around easily.

I've the Aldi saw too Martin and the blade definitely tensions tightly when you throw the cam lever on mine. I'm not aware of (or looked for) any tension adjustment but I haven't needed one. As a somewhat radical suggestion, if there is some degree of tension being applied, is the actual blade the correct length? You may have a duff blade rather than a duff saw?

However, I'm not getting to wander the 'Middle of Lidl' these days, so I haven't had a good look a the Lidl version of the saw. Aldi are also selling their version currently and I think it's gone up by a few pounds, so I wonder how Lidl have knocked 30% of the Aldi price.

With regard set-up, with a bit of trail and error, I got mine set up pretty well on the horizontal stand but I do agree with someone who posted earlier that it was very fiddly to put it back on (using the three cap screws). I also think the threads in the alloy body might not stand up to repeated use. I've thought about something better/easier in the form of an adaptor plate but it's still on the TUIT list..

Regards,

IanT

My Lidl one works fine straight out of the box. Incidently, the blade is marked M42 so is presumably HSS bi-metal.

Trying to work out now which of the infinite variety of vertical stands on YouTube to copy.

Rod

Looks like the usual variable quality issues afflicts these extremely affordable tools.

Having seen Martins post I rushed out and tried mine. First impressions of the blade weren't optimistic as it was seriously bumpy in all planes at the joint. At least I no longer feel so bad about my efforts.

Test cuts on some fairly grotty steel went pretty well. Despite the horrible looking wobble each time the join came round the cuts were clean and as square as you could reasonably expect from a just bolted together without alignment effort device. Certainly within eyed up tolerances, which is maybe a degree or two for me.

Vice on mine holds adequately but the inherent overhang to the blade is way too much. Its mildly annoying that, when so much effort was put into productionising such things so they can be sold at very attractive prices, fairly basic design errors aren't rectified.

Having verified acceptable performance, albeit requiring a re-think of the modifications I intended to make, the fun started. Packing it all back in the box. For the umptyforth I time I forgot to take a picture before doing the Christmas morning tear in. I mean how hard can it be to get it all back in. Famous last words.

The next hour was very much not Yogi "smarter than the average bear" time. More Pooh "a bear of very little brain" time. So I went in for dinner followed by a bit of quality You-tubing to find an unpack and test video with a suitable just opened the lid shot. Gah, obvious when you realise the thing sits offset to one side.

Clive

Not had a chance to see the Lidl saw yet since it falls into the non essential list of goods not available for sale in Wales during the present lock down so I can only comment on the one I bought from Aldi some time ago. I think it must be remembered that most of the tools from the discount food stores are designed for the DIY market but with a 3 year guarantee are good value for the money.

My bandsaw was disappointing when first used but as Clive mentioned above, a new blade fixed that problem and it is now a very useful piece of equipment in the workshop. There are several things which i feel sure will not present much of a challenge to our own inventive model engineers. I found that setting up the material in the vice fiddley since trying to hold the saw with one hand while adjusting the material in the vice needed another pair of hands. This was easily overcome with a loop of cord slipped over a hook in the wall supports the saw. The vice needs little comment except that I have seen better devices for clamping wood together for the glue to dry.

Other improvements would be an auto cut off at the end of the cut as with the well known 6X4 saw.

I look forward to seeing some articles in MEW describing mods which will bring these saws into the professional standards. In the meantime, I find it great even at the £160 price tag and thinking I could have bought another 6 blades with the extra paid compared with the Lidl offer.

Posted by Ray Lyons on 05/11/2020 08:07:45:

I think it must be remembered that most of the tools from the discount food stores are designed for the DIY market but with a 3 year guarantee are good value for the money.

....

...... Other improvements would be an auto cut off at the end of the cut as with the well known 6X4 saw.

I look forward to seeing some articles in MEW describing mods which will bring these saws into the professional standards. In the meantime, I find it great even at the £160 price tag and thinking I could have bought another 6 blades with the extra paid compared with the Lidl offer.

I don't think it would ever be regarded as a proffessional quality device - whatever anyone might do to it - apart from changing it.🙂

I always staple the store receipt inside the cover of the manual, ready for return if/when it breaks. That said, I still have quite a few lidl and aldi items which still work OK or as designed.

I have a bandsaw that costs multiples of that lidl price - and the vise is not perfect, but the claimed ability is very close to the reality and I expect it to last me out without needing to buy another or even having to mend it.

Looks cheap enough to simply purchase and discard the stand, so use free-hand?

Edited By not done it yet on 05/11/2020 09:09:58