Welding Tips and Tricks

I am looking for a saw to add to my collection. Mainly for doing precise cuts to do stainless exhaust and headers.. I dont know a cold saw would be ideal for this.. What do you guys think of a small bandsaw like this Baleigh?
http://www.baileigh.com/portable-metal- ... fgoduoELSg

Welcome to the forum, have you considered a dry cut saw?

As for extremely accurate repetitive cuts a good dry cut saw with the proper blade will do the job with proper setup and stock support. The Evolution380 review noted by LtBadd is from 2014 and shows a straight handle where the one I purchased in 2016 has a "D" handle which I find much more comfortable for bench work. As for the band saw I have no experience so I can't compare. Pricewise it appears the dry saw might be an economical alternative.

I have considered a dry saw, just wondering how well it would do on thin stainless exhaust tubing?

Dry saw will cut stainless tube like butter, faster with little to no burrs. A shop with
out one is living in the past.

Fly

fordman wrote:I have considered a dry saw, just wondering how well it would do on thin stainless exhaust tubing?

What size tube and wall thickness are you cutting?

I just went through this analysis and almost pulled the trigger on the Dewalt LC1230. In the end because of budget I bought a Harbor Freight 4x6 band saw. I like it but wouldn't recommend it for a production shop.

The benefits of a dry cut saw: Fast, easy to get it to cut square without a lot of fuss. Downsides: Noise, the curly q chips that get everywhere, blade cost

The benefits of a good bandsaw: can stack/bundle stock to be cut to get everything cut at once, all to the same angle. Quiet, not a lot of mess. Better at cutting small shapes like gussets and such. Some saws will also convert to a vertical band saw, doing double duty. The bad: it can be slow if not bundling, it can be a hassle to get it set up to cut straight (mostly with the cheaper chinese made saws), May need to change bands for different thicknesses of materiel, takes up much more space in the shop.

Having said all that for the $199 I paid for my 4x6 band saw at HF, it was a good investment for the money. I am pretty happy with it. If I had a bigger shop and more money I would get an Ellis or a Wells saw.

If you read the small print that is in the manual of an Evolution saw they state a minimum safe thickness of cut - I can't recall if it's 2.5mm or 3 but I'd say exhaust is way too thin for even a high tooth count blade - I would stick to a decent band saw - but it MUST run coolant & suitable blade.

I would be cutting .065 stainless as likely the thinnest.. Plus whatever other stuff I want to cut obviously...

Maybe I would give the harbor freight saw a go. I hate buying that junk, but maybe..... I was looking at this HEM saw too.

http://www.trick-tools.com/Femi_782XL_B ... 0_000_2209

That particular bandsaw is only really marketed to be portable enough to carry on site for doing odd fitup jobs that can't be done in the shop - it's in my opinion over priced for it's usefulness - it has no coolant which is essential for any bandsaw especially on stainless I believe has a nasty noisy brush motor & blade pressure is by hand so you cannot do other things while it cuts - bandsaws cut relatively slowly so this will piss you off & you will exert too much down pressure on the blade resulting in poor cuts & blade life - I do know someone with what appears to be that model & he likes it but he only uses it for occasional miter cuts on aluminum sections in the window industry when on site fitting - I think if you want a small portable saw the portaband is more versatile - in a shop you want a real saw - even the horrible fight kind is probably better & make good cuts when tuned - though finding a cobalt blade is very hard - you will need to make a solid stand as the factory pressed tin shit is junk & affects accuracy by allowing the base to flex with any material weight on it & you need to add a tray / tank / coolant pump as dry cutting is retarded ( old recycled washing machine pump works fine ) - I still have a similar little 6" * 4" sold here by Clarke group that I bought as my first saw when teenage - still works pretty good but is slow & a bit of a toy compared with the bigger saws I bought more recently - it does serve a purpose as you don't need much length to hold compared with the bigger saws & the finer blades allow cutting thin material which my big saw will grab so will always have a place in the shop.