Band Saw?
 

I've been looking for an affordable band saw to cut up to 1/8" aluminum,with no luck.Does anyone have any suggestions.I'm getting tired of using the jigsaw and want to upgrade.

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes
Cutting has a lot to do with a quality blade.
I have older 10" craftsman. When I buy the crafstman blades for $10 it cuts ok. When I go to the tool shop that custom makes blades it works great on everything.

John and I each have one of these, just in a differet color.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93762

It works great, my only complaint is that sometimes the blade pops off. That is my fault though, if you let it get up to full speed before cutting you don't have that problem.

I use a Delta tools my self. There band saw goes for about $100. A few years back I burned up one of there scroll saws and they sent me a new one no questons asked sorta.

Steve


http://media.ptg-online.com/media/dm..._72dpi_400.jpg

I like the delta or ryobi. I currently use a delta scroll saw that takes plain type blades, and use the small hacksaw blades with the pins dremeled off. I have cut 1/2 inch aluminum no problem with that setup. Just remember on the delta and other scroll saws like that that they are made for cutting wood. The metal cutting saws run a much slower blade rpm. You can get ones expecially for metal cutting for around 100 bucks too though. Just my 2 pennys

I keep eyeing that one and when it comes down to it, I just don't have the room in my garage.

I've had one about 8 years. Blade popping off is agravating to say the least.

I found you almost can't overtighten the blade w/o using a tool... Inotherwords crank on the tension knob till your hands hurt.

Read on the internet that unless your the Hulk you can't overtighten the blade just using your hands on these.

All that aside, if mine went down I'd have it's replacement ordered tomorrow...

Sweet, I've always been scared to crank it down, but I guess I'll give that a try.

I have the sears champion version, very nice to use, never have isssues with the blade slipping off

We also have the dremel 18" variable speed scroll saw. it is by far the nicest Ive used. and great for detail work

Thanks guys,Jason I saw this one at HF a couple of weeks ago and didn't know how good it was.I think I might look into picking one up.

I have two band saws one is a 18" that i use for wood but with a 18tpi blade it cuts Alum with ease and near perfect cuts. The other is a 24" metal cutting band saw that has a gearbox to slow the blade right down. On soft metals I don't see much difference but for steel and stainless the metal cutting band saw is the only saw that will cut any amount of it.

I use a vertical/horizontal Shop Fox looks like one of these,works great"thumbsup"
http://www.southern-tool.com/store/l..._bandsaws.html

So would the dremel scroll saw work fine on aluminum? Its a very nice compact small footprint machine.

get the bigger bandsaw so you use it on other bigger items. you can cut smaller on a big saw but you can't cut big things on a small saw.

Yeah makes sense But ain't got much room to work with.

I might get the one from HF. Its not bad if you will use it once in a while.

How about trying a portable bandsaw, they are very handy to have

hacksaw, dremel tool,hammer and drill.

You can't go wrong with craftsman.

i have never had a problem with my $100 delta, i use it for everything