I have owned powered hacksaws and bandsaws and the angle grinder and cutting disk get deployed on occasions.

The chinese band saws in the 6 x 4″ style are fantastic machines for the money.  Mine lives on a hame built cabinet on castors which goes under the bench.  Mine does all the chop off work and will take this slices off 4″ steel bar – put a new blade in for that sort of insanity, though.  However, they are rubbish in the vertical mode.

To get round that, I made a 3 wheel horizontal machine that takes the same blades.  That does a lot of plate work and some chop off work when I can’t be bothered to walk the 10 yards to the Chinese machine.  I wrote up the design and build for EIM some years back.  I don’t know of a suitable off the shelf alternative.

A powered hacksaw can be good, but doesn’t have the versatility of the bandsaw.  Always keep a few cutting discs for the angle grinder in stock.

Martin

I do agree with, but would expand on, that “rubbish in vertical mode” remark.

When someone is trying to choose a power-saw they may wish to know why we are being unkind to certain classes of the machines.

The two problems with those horizonatal / vertical, badge-engineered bandsaws are:

1) The upper blade-guide does not approach the table so gives a long, unsupported length of blade in thin air above the work.

It is also unguarded unless either a guard is supplied, or you make one, that can be clipped in place.

2) The throat depth is “deceptively spacious”, as in estate-agent-ese: it looks large but is quite limited. The deception is from the obliquity of the machine’s layout.

More….

I found the countersinking on the pressed-steel table on mine, too shallow, so the two screw-heads that sort of hold the table to the frame, partially fouled the work. I was able to deepen them a bit but they are still slightly proud, which does not help accurate sawing. (If that is feasible on these things in vertical mode.) It can also scratch the workpiece.

Withdrawing the work part-cut, as e.g. in removing a square corner from a plate, needs great care to avoid pulling the blade off the pulleys.

…

There is an alternative form of cut-off saw that does not use an abrasive disc. It is a saw  – not a glorified angle-grinder.

Its steel blade revolves at quite low speed, and some such machines are fitted with a coolant system too. Big versions are often used by metals stock-holders. They give a very clean cut akin to that from a horizontal mill, and for many applications the result only needs “Remove all burrs and sharp edges”.

Unfortunately they seem rare beasts, at least from our regular suppliers and the major tool-stockists, are probably sold with 3ph motors only, and replacement blades could be expensive. They would need a proper T&C grinder for re-sharpening. They will also not be very useful as plate-cutters: they are intended for bars and tubes.

I used one once, as a workplace “bunny”, to make some sets of tapered gibs and cotters from steel strip!

Chinese 4.5″ bandsaw does most of the work, abrasive chop saw (Angle grinder) rarely used for cutting off material. The angle grinder is a much less accurate device, and cannot take such narrow cut as the bandsaw.

Yes, the bandsaw can be limited in capacity, and used in the vertical mode is very much a manual tool as regards direction.

Howard

I have to agree with Martin about my Chinese Horizontal Bandsaw in the vertical mode, although “rubbish” is perhaps a bit strong.  Yes, the pressed steel table could be more rigid, and the large throat opening could be described as a little sketchy, so I’m considering making a new table from some aluminium plate with a much smaller throat opening, minus the mitre slot.

Like my generic 6×4 horizontal too..

I made an ali vertical table and it was a mistake – ferrous chips embed in it / burrs drag on it and cause galling and tramlines.

Effective, ‘square’, quiet, and gets on with it’s own work, drops the bits in a plastic tub and turns itself off once done.

Hi, I have a generic type of 4 1/2″ bandsaw with the vertical attachment, but I don’t think the vertical attachment is rubbish, as I’ve used it many times. The thing to remember is that these are Hobby machines, and have their limitations, and are not designed for industrial type of work. So if you want to do industrial type of work, get an industrial machine, but of course it will cost you a lot more money. Abrasive Chop saws are really designed for site work, and are a rough and ready way of cutting steel sections.

Of course one has the right to improve their own machines to suite their own needs, and I have nothing against anyone doing so.

Regards Nick.

Can anyone explain what the particular advantage a power-hacksaw has?   Never used one, and watching one from a distance at a show I was struck by how slow it was.

A Chinese band-saw meets most of my sawing needs.  The main exception is small stuff, where it’s easier to stick items in a vice and hand-saw them.  Being a size thing means Junior and full-size saws are needed as well, but even they’re not enough!  I also have a power jig-saw and hand-nibbler for sheet metal, and a piercing saw for delicate Brass work.    And a thing like a coarse Abrafile, but much inferior, which was a waste of money.  I think I understand what chop saws are good at:  rapid rough work, hacking pipe, angle and box section.  The portable type must be useful.   But I don’t do much rough chopping, and find an angle-grinder does it well-enough for my needs.

Is a power-hacksaw for lots of medium cutting, where a handsaw takes too long?   Otherwise, what are they good for?  The appear to have disadvantages compared with a band-saw –  they waste time by not cutting on the backstroke and blade life must be low because relatively few teeth do all the work!

There isn’t a universal saw!  I don’t buy tools unless I need them, and now own several types… The bandsaw stands out as a good buy because it eliminates oodles of tedious sawing.  Though I haven’t identified a need for a power-hacksaw, I may be missing out.

Dave

The small ‘hobby’ power hacksaw designs pre-dated the availbility of (usable/cheap) Chinese bandsaw SoD. Given the choice back then of the ‘Armstrong’ or building a small power hacksaw – they were an attractive alternative.

If you could afford/find/house a commercial hacksaw, then that was a bonus. My McMaster sounded like a bucket of bolts being bounced around when i first got it but some new bearings and and a good clean-up gave me a usable saw.

The McM isn’t even one of the larger commercial hacksaws available (I remember one at night school 30+ years ago that was a real monster) but it is more than capable of handling anything I have thrown at it. With regards to blades, I was fortunate to get some new “old” stock quality (1.5″ deep) PH blades for a very reasonable price and they last a very long time if set correctly (on my second one now I think). I’ve never broken one of these blades but I certainly have ‘bent’ a metal bandsaw blade (and lost teeth too).

Which brings me to another point. There is some discussion on saw ‘cutting’ ability but rarely much about the need for a good/large vice. If the work moves in a bandsaw then you will probably distort the blade, effectively making it unusable. So you need to hold the work securely. The vice on the McMaster is as ruggedly built as the saw itself and I can torque it up tight. By comparison, the ‘vice’ on the Aldi bandsaw was practically useless and potentially dangerous ‘as sold’. Mine was quickly modified. If you want to cut 120mm round stock, then you need vice jaws at least 60mm high to grip it…

A large power hacksaw is fairly slow but then so is my 7″ shaper. However for many operations, I don’t really care as I can set them running and do a bit of tidying up/small jobs etc whilst keeping a weather eye on them. I can’t do that when using my Aldi bandsaw (or lathes or mills) so the ‘time’ issue is a non-issue for me.

Thinking about it, if I have any old/ugly/unknown material to cut (or clean) up my first thought is to use the McMaster (or Shaper) to do it, rather than risk my (more fragile) bandsaw blades or expensive milling cutters…

But as I said – if starting over and having to choose just one ‘cutting’ machine, I’d probably just go for a larger Chinese bandsaw these days…unless someone offered me a large power hacksaw for £50 again of course!  🙂

Regards,

IanT

Hi SOD, yes they can be slow, if you like watching the clock. I do like a bandsaw though, but I won’t stick a piece of 100 x 100 x 10 mm angle iron in it, my old Rapidor is much better suited for the job. You can of course gang sections like flat a square bar, so you don’t have to set it up so many times, just clamp then all together, or better still, tack weld the ends of them together. This will work in both types of saw.

Yes I know it looks as if the pigeons have been about in the photo above, but they won’t come apart that easy.

Even big bandsaws can take their time getting through some things, or so it seems when you are waiting for them. The two photos below were taken about 3 1/2 minutes apart.

I would also saw that a good quality HSS blade in my Rapidor will cut much more metal than my bandsaw, before it gets too blunt to cut. Angle grinders are OK, but not the best things for every job, and of course the discs do wear down fairly quick when cutting large sections.

Regards Nick.

That’s the exact same model I have Mark. It cuts surprisingly square (maybe I was lucky) and has given me no problems.