Welding Tips and Tricks

Hobbyist, learning to weld, small projects. Space is a major factor since I have a small area to work in.

I'm looking at either a 12" dry cut saw (Makita, Skil) or a portable 3x4 band saw (Eastwood/kaka) They both have close to the same capacity. Bandsaw has much less spark and mess. Dry cut is easier to use and set up. This is what I'm seeing from YouTube vids and other reviews.

I saw a video that Good of the Land made a out the klutch bandsaw,. It it seems that brand downgraded the motor to a half horse instead of a 1 1/3hp. So Eastwood and kaka are the closest copy.

They all seem to be relatively close on price and size. So what's your choice?


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Both have their place, but if you want accurate cuts you're going to be happier with a dry cut saw. I have a full-size Well Saw band saw and an Evolution S380CPS and rarely use the bandsaw. The nice thing with the dry cut is you can easily cut accurate angles that are repeatable time after time. Now I really only use the bandsaw for large pieces or tool steel that's too hard for the Evolution's blade.

I see what your saying. But I would think the smaller 3x4 benchtop setup would have less deflection since the distance between wheels/bearings is shorter. I'm looking at something like this one in the picture.

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You will still have blade deflection with a bandsaw cutting, especially a "desktop" model. Their blades are shorter and far less rigid. It takes a serious bandsaw to make dead nuts square cuts.

Chop saws have their place and advantages. If I had to choose only 1, I'd probably go Chop Saw, quality blades, and cutting fluid. To upgrade that, install a VFD to slow the motor and cut speed, then you're cooking with Crisco!

I have the Makita nd love it. Very square an clean cuts. Not sure for an industrial shop as a cold saw with coolant will definitely make the blades last longer and they are not cheap. Still the Makita is SO much better than an abrasive chop saw.

VaBob wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:37 am I see what your saying. But I would think the smaller 3x4 benchtop setup would have less deflection since the distance between wheels/bearings is shorter. I'm looking at something like this one in the picture.

There are a lot of factors in play here. As cj737 noted, you'll still have deflection, and the smaller saws tend to be worse about this. They use smaller, more flexible blades, and often don't have adjustable blade supports like the bigger saws. My Wells has two blade supports with three wheels each....you move them as close to the work as possible and lock them in place. That way you wind up with the minimum amount of unsupported blade for a given cut. Still, you have to have a sharp blade and match up your blade speed and downward pressure/feed rate to get square cuts and they're still not always perfect. With the chop saw you can get square cuts pretty easily.

At work we have a bandsaw similar to the one you posted and I've used it a few times. What I've noticed is that it really bounces around a lot and the cuts are on the rough side, but I don't recall what they're running for a blade. It only gets used to cut light angle iron and similar stuff, so it works okay, but it's far from a precision machine. Ours looks like the typical Harbor Freight bandsaw...not sure how that compares to the Klutch.

You’ll likely end up with one of each as you build up your tool set. If I had to pick one or the other it would not be the band saw. They wander to much and once you lose the set on one side the blade is shot for a decent cut.

I hardly use the my Klutch 7x12 bandsaw, but when I do need it, it was worth every penny, even if it sits for months at a time. Most of the time I use the EVO 14" metal chop saw with a Diablo Cermet II blade


Here I'm doing a lot of cuts at the same time due to needing many strips of flat bar for some shelf supports I posted in a different thread.








Just recently put a rolling base on it using casters, and makes it that much easier to use due to easier maneuverability.






The smaller benchtop model doesn't look too bad IF it has the proper blade adjustability to get nice square cuts. No Adjustability = no bueno.

My brother picked up one of those small 4x6" bandsaws that swivel like a Ellis for his cabin a couple of years ago and he said it works great. I'll get a hold of him to see what brand it is. At his shop he uses a big JET and cold saw as well, I used to have a Scotchman cold saw 12" and it would cut razor blade thickness cuts very accurate but lacked capacity, ended up getting a Ellis 1600 and for what I do it's more than accurate enough plus has more capacity.

Pete