Welding Tips and Tricks

if my budget is 300$, just a hobbyists, what would I be better off buying, harbor freight 4x6 band saw or an evolution miter saw and why? Leaning more towards the miter saw due to space. I have a miter saw but it spins too fast to slap a metal blade on. Thanks in advance!

Think about this. Every time you change the blade on a bandsaw....scratch that.....before you even USE your brand-new 4x6 bandsaw, you have to take about 45 minutes just to learn how to adjust the blade (pretty confident you aren't familiar with it ). If the blade is not square to the table/work and is slanted at an angle (from the bird's eye-view above), it will bind up and possibly snap on you if it's really out of whack. This is crucial, much more than cutting the material square to the other axis; on the other axis, there if it is off, it's off, no big deal it won't damage your blade, you'll just have a crooked cut. But the bird's eye-view looking top-to-bottom it has to be perfectly square. So that's 45 minutes right there. Each time you change your blade, you will need to do this again, even if it was cutting perfect right before you change it, you MUST go through the whole alignment procedure yet again. As a hobbyist I don't mind doing this; how about you?

'nuff said. Get the low-RPM dry-cut saw.

IMO the horizontal band saw is much more versatile but I don't own an Evo saw yet...I would definitely get a band saw first, but not sure I would get a HF, I'd look on craigslist and try to find something better.

I have a Wilton, it's ok, not great, but not too bad. Nothing like an Ellis, I can tell you that. I have a friend with one and those are the shizzle. The vertical Rollin Band Saw is also very nice.

I thought Texans were faster than 45 minutes.

+1 on the bandsaw. Evo's cut great and are smaller but still get a lot of sparks and swarf everywhere which I hate.

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for hobby work, band saw.
the issue i have with cut off saws is sparks and noise.
also bandsaw does the best cut quality and that matters when you do mitre joints.

the other option is the battery powered cut off saws.

so compared to a chop saw, how loud is the evolution style saw? I also live in a neighborhood and would like to be quieter if possible.

Coldman wrote:I thought Texans were faster than 45 minutes.

+1 on the bandsaw. Evo's cut great and are smaller but still get a lot of sparks and swarf everywhere which I hate.

I'm much faster now than when I first got mine, lol. But you still lose out on time.

Adam35C wrote:so compared to a chop saw, how loud is the evolution style saw? I also live in a neighborhood and would like to be quieter if possible.

Its still pretty loud.

Bandsaw isn't super quiet either.

man I am still up in the air, was expecting everyone to point me in one direction!

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Adam35C wrote:man I am still up in the air, was expecting everyone to point me in one direction!

Is THIS the one you are considering?

Consider fixturing. Say you have a 10ft piece of ¼" wall, 2" square tubing, and you only want to slice off a 6" piece. As soon as you clamp it to the mickey-mouse bandsaw and let go of the free-end, it will topple over from the sheer weight of the tube causing a rotational torque. You'd have to set something up to hold the free-end's weight. Granted you still have to do this for an abrasive/carbide chop saw, but it's much easier to lift up the free-end a couple inches than to do the same for the bandsaw, for which you'd have to build a support for it, like of those adjustable pipe-stands or similar.

Oscar wrote:

Adam35C wrote:man I am still up in the air, was expecting everyone to point me in one direction!

Is THIS the one you are considering?

Consider fixturing. Say you have a 10ft piece of ¼" wall, 2" square tubing, and you only want to slice off a 6" piece. As soon as you clamp it to the mickey-mouse bandsaw and let go of the free-end, it will topple over from the sheer weight of the tube causing a rotational torque. You'd have to set something up to hold the free-end's weight. Granted you still have to do this for an abrasive/carbide chop saw, but it's much easier to lift up the free-end a couple inches than to do the same for the bandsaw, for which you'd have to build a support for it, like of those adjustable pipe-stands or similar.

Yeah that is the exact one. I have read about them and seem to be worth it for the price but do require a bunch of adjustments out of the box, which I am OK with. And yeah I did think I would need some kind of support with that. Most importantly to me is the cut accuracy with miters, the abrasive chop saw sure does flex a lot on 45s and can take a bunch of grinding to get it straight along with its other downfalls but is getting the job done at the moment. I do think the shards would be easier to control on that horizontal saw then the miter saw. I am currently using a non-ferrous blade in my wood miter saw it and sure does make a mess, works well though. It has kind of ruined me to be honest. Thats why I dislike the chop saw so much.

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Adam35C wrote:so compared to a chop saw, how loud is the evolution style saw? I also live in a neighborhood and would like to be quieter if possible.

If you're buying it for your neighbors, why not go ask them which one they will like?

If you're buying it for yourself buy it based on your needs not on noise.

I wish a lot of my machines were quieter, but in some cases they're not. Still, I'm buying machines and tools for me, not my neighbors. I plan to use them between 8:00am-10:00pm, and while my neighbors might not like it, they're not always quiet during those hours either. As an example, I don't ask their gardeners to blow leaves over to my property.

RE: Harbor Freight band saw, it's probably worth the price, but it's still garbage. It requires quite a bit of TLC to operate properly, just be aware of that. Like all HF tools, the price is the most attractive. I saw they recalled some jack stands recently, I can't imagine trusting HF jack stands to crawl under a car...call me old fashioned.

Adam35C wrote:Most importantly to me is the cut accuracy with miters

Then get the Evo saw, end of story.

Unfortunately the good Evo saw is not $300, it's about $439 w/discount and not in stock.

You can get the light version with the stamped plate base for about $339.

TraditionalToolworks wrote:

Adam35C wrote:Most importantly to me is the cut accuracy with miters

Then get the Evo saw, end of story.

Unfortunately the good Evo saw is not $300, it's about $439 w/discount and not in stock.

You can get the light version with the stamped plate base for about $339.

I am actually talking about the miter saw setup from Evolution

TraditionalToolworks wrote:

Adam35C wrote:Most importantly to me is the cut accuracy with miters

Then get the Evo saw, end of story.

Unfortunately the good Evo saw is not $300, it's about $439 w/discount and not in stock.

You can get the light version with the stamped plate base for about $339.

I am actually talking about the miter saw setup from Evolution

I have several bandsaws & a dry cut - never liked the dry cut & really never use it much - the bandsaw is WAY quieter & is happy cutting virtually any thickness material with the same blade steel / stainless / non ferrous - the dry cut needs a different blade for each & they are many times more expensive & do not like any wide contact so large flats or solid rounds are a problem -I will concede they are faster cutting light sections & mostly give quite accurate cuts without any tuning - if it were me I would have a bandsaw every time - only time the Evo gets used is on site & that's very rare as I now have a portable bandsaw that's light to carry on a miter saw style base / vice.

Adam35C wrote:

Oscar wrote:

Adam35C wrote:man I am still up in the air, was expecting everyone to point me in one direction!

Is THIS the one you are considering?

Consider fixturing. Say you have a 10ft piece of ¼" wall, 2" square tubing, and you only want to slice off a 6" piece. As soon as you clamp it to the mickey-mouse bandsaw and let go of the free-end, it will topple over from the sheer weight of the tube causing a rotational torque. You'd have to set something up to hold the free-end's weight. Granted you still have to do this for an abrasive/carbide chop saw, but it's much easier to lift up the free-end a couple inches than to do the same for the bandsaw, for which you'd have to build a support for it, like of those adjustable pipe-stands or similar.

Yeah that is the exact one. I have read about them and seem to be worth it for the price but do require a bunch of adjustments out of the box, which I am OK with. And yeah I did think I would need some kind of support with that. Most importantly to me is the cut accuracy with miters, the abrasive chop saw sure does flex a lot on 45s and can take a bunch of grinding to get it straight along with its other downfalls but is getting the job done at the moment. I do think the shards would be easier to control on that horizontal saw then the miter saw. I am currently using a non-ferrous blade in my wood miter saw it and sure does make a mess, works well though. It has kind of ruined me to be honest. Thats why I dislike the chop saw so much.

i have a mitre version of that bandsaw. yes you need a stand for long bits but thats not really an issue. but because the blade moves to get the angle rather than the work, the work always sits in one place.
its also very quiet, ie can't really hear it outside the garage.
for a hobby amount of work a dry cut works ok, its just slow and need decent blades.