Lidl Portable Bandsaw

That would certainly help protect the tapped holes in the alloy body Ray - good idea. Maybe with the middle screw a little longer (with a plain run-in) to allow the saw to be roughly aligned...yes, very worth a look I think. I was probably going to overcook it with an adaptor plate of some kind but simpler is better (and this might actually get done sooner than later)

Thank You

IanT

Still hoping to live long enough to inherit my Dad's which must be 70s vintage, the cast aluminium type. The one in the photo I bought second hand, I don't love it but it is very useful. I have a feeling they are good second hand buys, I bet a hell of a lot get bought, used once and abandoned.

William.

Here's my attempt:

6mm plate cut up with the reciprocating saw. The plate is 9" square. Each cut took about 2 minutes.

Sawn edges tidied up on the mill - pretty much at the limit size wise:

Still can't get the hang of welding properly:

Here it is cutting through 3/8" black mild steel (in real time!)

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 12/11/2020 16:32:33

Seems I was right to think posting that my Lidl saw was working ok might jinx it. It packed up this afternoon, no drive from motor to gearbox as I was cutting some 30mm bar. Packed up and returned to Lidl for a no quible refund.

Now ordered the Scheppach from Aldi, fingers crossed with this one.

Ian

Afraid I weakened and after the dismal experience of Lidl's offering, decided to try the Aldi version (can always send it back, I reasoned and it might save me having to get a Femi!).

Arrived today, pleasantly surprised, substantially better made/finished than the Lidl version, in particular;

1. metal motor body not plastic
2. Thrust bearings on the radial support arm (almost assembled correctly!) and solid mitre mount
3. Two M42 blades albeit rather coarse 10/14 odd length (1141) but sure that 1140 would fit
4. Release lever tensions blade perfectly OK from A flat to F sharp
5. Out of the box, even with the joker vice/clamp arrangement cut true to within 1 degree of vertical

So deemed satisfactory for conversion to a vertical bandsaw (subject to acquiring finer blades). Base and hilarious vice/clamp tossed into scrap pile for the time being, pending attention at a later date - with a bit of thought and effort may be made serviceable one day by cutting a thread on the bar and inserting threaded collar in vice casting, or something along those lines.

Tips for new owners...

1. The alloy casting is as soft as Brie cheese and will cross thread if you are not careful, so I would get a decent quality M6 bolt that has a bit of a taper on the lead and run it part through the mounting holes in the saw for the radial arm support to start the thread. I say this because the on mine the threads were very tight and difficult to start accurately with the supplied bolts.
2. Remove the radial arm support by undoing the silver dome nut on the mitre swivel, and attach the support to the body of the saw as it lies on the bench (this is much easier than attempting to hold the saw in one hand and accurately locate and tighten the attachment bolts with your other hand)
3. Set the saw angle to the vice with a square and check work piece is resting on surface of vice by holding it down as best you can while operating the cam clamp - this may take several goes!

Speed 1 or 2 for steel and 3 or 4 for non ferrous seems OK - NO OIL. It is quite quick compared to a 6x4 type but also noisier.

Have fun with your new toy by gratuitously slicing up various materials lying about your workshop as a testing programme.

I also weakened, having missed out on the Lidl saw due to the Welsh lockdown ban on non-essential bandsaw sales, and ordered the Aldi one. It arrived the other day and I'm favourably impressed (apart from the comedy vice, but even that can be induced to work). It's quite gratifying to hear that it's "better" than the Lidl one, rather than being a dearer version of the same thing.

The threads in the three arm mounting holes on mine were also ridiculously tight - I thought I had cross threaded them, but I hadn't.

Other than that, the saw appears quite substantial and feels very solid. It's cured me of the urge to build a power hacksaw

So it seems I don't have to kick myself for paying that extra £50 after all!

IanT

My Aldi saw arrived today, seems a lot better than the Lidl one that was returned faulty. Could do with a support for the saw when in the raised position as it seems easy for it to fall whilst you have your hands underneath using the vice, something I will have to attend to.

The instructions say not to use a soluble coolant whilst using the saw, rubber drive bands I suppose.

What do you use for steel cutting, any suggestions, or just use dry and increase wear on the blade?

Ordered a new blade from Tuff saws as the supplied blades seem a bit coarse.

Ian

Ian,

Make sure the bearing plates are set correctly on the swivel arm thrust bearings (mine were set to bear on the flat surfaces!!). Grease them up and tighten up the big silver dome nut so it will comfortably hold the saw assembly under friction when raised from the job.

DONT use oil, completely unnecessary, cut dry only or use some candle wax if you get a squeal , my original blade was a quality item, 10/14 I think, so good down to 2 or 3 mm. It just rips through thick stock with ease and hardly seems to get warm, Find a suitable small plastic tray (eg food packaging) to blue tack into place under the blade for collecting the copious stream of cuttings that is generated.

The work piece clamp can be considerably improved by making a keeper (a sort of shallow threaded T Nut ) to place under the body, secured to the moving jaw through the slot in the clamp base, with nut and bolt. This minimises the tendency of the moving jaw to lift when tightened. The hardest bit is to get unscrew the clamp shaft from the moving jaw. The 12m nut on the moving jaw is threadlocked, so I resorted to jamming a screwdriver in the nut end and levering a stilson on the handle end.

You may also find, that the clamp body casting is unevenly cast with bulges towards the fixed jaw end, certainly the case with mine, so I passed a file over the high spot until tolerably flat. Don't attempt to press any bulges out - you will crack the casting (go on ask me how I know!). To get a perfectly 90 degree cut in the vertical plane, you can shim out whichever pair of fore/aft clamp mount points to suit.

Does involve a bit of work to fine tune, but really worth it if you expect to use horizontally. Probably lots of other simple mods could be done to improve utility. Geometry is a bit awkward for detail cutting arrangements in the horizontal mode, more of a bar shredder in that mode. I expect good things for detail work when set up as a vertical saw, probably with a 14/18 blade.

I bought the Aldi version earlier, The only real issue was the Clamp Vice. I modified mine to be a screw vice

it has met all my cutting needs Metal, Wood, Plastic with out a problem ....other than using a coarse [8 tpi] blade to cut thin [16g] steel box section !! broke the blade at the welded joint

I bought a mix of TPI BiMetal M42 blades ...no more cutting issues.

Hi Martin & Novice

Thanks for your posts with tips for the saw, much appreciated, good to know the saw works fine without oil whilst cutting. Always used oil on my larger bandsaw, but from memory it had metal driving wheels without and drive bands on them to wear or perish.

Ian

Edited By Ian Hewson on 25/11/2020 09:52:29

Several of u mentioned "ordering from Aldi"...is this the norm......

I dont live in the UK anymore but a friend could order/collect their Plasma cutter for me.....

Anyone got this cutter...any good tips.....?

it will only get used once in a while on 8mm plate or less....it's for a DIY jobs not production....

Aldi "Black Friday" deal - their bandsaw is currently £129.99 on the website today...

Regards,

IanT

Bump! (maybe I should have started a new thread) but just in case anyone wants one of these saws ...

IanT

Have you seen this on offer recently?
I might be in the market for one myself.

Cheers
Bill

Having followed this thread I ordered the Scheppach Aldi version and it arrived yesterday. I have not unpacked it yet other than to take out the instructions. The opening paragraph says "The portable metal band saw with speed setting isexclusively suited for cutting wood,tubes,profiles and non-ferous metals".The instructions are 90% safety warnings of every description, but not much else.That is the only referance to metal cutting, although wood is mentioned several times. Several metal sections are shown in a how to position it in the vice diagram, but no round section is shown.. I am now wondering if this is not capable of cutting MS bar. I do not use beyond EN 8 in my model work and would expect the saw to be capable of cutting this.Has anyone else got this Scheppach saw up and running and is it capable of cutting MS?

Keith

Hi Keith

Set mine up last week, it cuts 30mm round bar with no trouble, seems a solid piece of kit.

Ian

Edited By Ian Hewson on 03/12/2020 10:22:52

Keith, it is a perfectly capable steel cutting saw out of the box, especially  if it came supplied with an M42 blade. I had no trouble hacking off pieces of 80x30 hot roll steel - no idea what grade. It did charge through a piece of 1/2 in silver steel, but I don't regard that as much of a challenge for this tool. cutting bright  bar up to 40mm was no problem as long as workpiece is well secured. 

Just readback for set up tips and tension appropriately, select a sensible speed for the material - I use 1 or 2 for steel to avoid heating the blade too much. Use dry, do not press down on the saw handle when cutting, just lightly support the weight as it cuts through the workpiece. In sticky metals, or aluminium it sometimes helps to take the pressure of the blade occasionally to allow gullets to clear before progressing- you will sense when the blade bogs down, skips or galls.

The main problem is the supplied vice especially with small bar (say 30mm and below). As supplied, the jaw has a tendency to lift and the work can shift causing all sorts of trouble. Easily fixed by applying any or all of the vice mods suggested by myself and others in previous posts.

In some ways a better device than my CY90 and certainly cuts at 3 time the speed, but if you have sensitive hearing that you wish to protect, get some ear-plugs

Edited By Martin of Wick on 03/12/2020 11:10:53

Hi Ian and Martin,

Thanks for your swift replies. I will now take it all out of the box and put it together. I will certainly follow the previous tips on working with it. I will report back later when I have got it running. I will only be using it in the horizontal bench mounted position ,as I already have a two speed vertical wood band saw ,fitted with a metal cutting blade.

Keith

Band saw now assembled and tested with a 1 inch diameter piece of EN1A and it went through it ,dead square in about 30 seconds. Had a fumble getting the blade in,until I realised the tension lever still had more movement. It is very stiff. It all seems a sturdy piece of kit and I am now pleased with it.

Keith