Bandsaws---what type?

[jwmorris]

Blade welders can be had pretty cheap from eBay and Craigslist up to 1/2" I have some blades that are 2 or 3 different blades with problem spots cut out of them and welded together.

Get the rite deal on an old band saw and they have one on them already.

 

[sparc]

There are many saws which come with blade welders built in, and those saws are not $100k machines.

some fab shops I have worked in had Marvel vertical saws which had blade welders on them (but I don't remember if they were a Marvel accessory or something the shop added on) and I know those saws were under $100k new. We used them to cut 18" H beams and 12" tube steel on down.

They looked like this but earlier versions. I would love to have one of these if I had the space in my shop, even one 25 years old.

 

[Arc weld]

A lot of commercial vertical bandsaws that are made for hand feeding material doing intricate shapes and stuff have a blade welder on them. A vertical structural saw that has power feed like the Marvel in your picture is a really expensive saw and doesn't have a blade welder. I've never seen a bandsaw designed for cutting structural steel that had a blade welder on it. A blade welder for those saws is very expensive. The blade welder I used would do from 1/4" blades up to 2" blades and was water cooled. 1/4" blades for wood working were the most troublesome to weld.

 

[jwmorris]

This is a video of one of my automatic band saws running.




The idea is to multitask. So while it's cutting 100 of the box tube sections I sheared 182 pieces of angle at the same time. Thus doing the same amount of work as two guys or cutting time in half.

 

[Budweiser John]

I own a screamer Dewalt 12" abrasive cut off saw that found it's nitch in job site cutting of steel studs. Now seldoom used. Also owned an Atlas horizontal band saw, probably 6' x 8" capacity, 1/2" X 60" blade, better than a hack saw and slightly more acccurate than an acetylene torch.
The Mother Lode metal cutting saw I found is a 1940sh Kalamazoo 8" X 16" cast iron beauty that needed a lot of TLC. This machine is a dry cut but is dead nuts square on the money. There must stilll be a bunch of them out there as the Wilton Corporation still stocks a limited number of parts and I found replaceent bearings at Motion Industries. Need to whack off the end of an 8" I Beam, no problem, finding a few young bucks to carry said beam..........Good Luck

 

[Agent Blue]

I bought a new Ellis 1600 for $2100. I had an older model and just wanted a new piece for the shop. Incidently the old Ellis brought more money than What I paid for it. It is a dry saw that is extremely accurate.

 

[Attono]

I still don't get exactly what the difference is between a "roll-in" saw and any other metal band saw. Google is no help.

 

[jwmorris]

A roll in is different because it combines the offset blade of a horizontal (so you can cut any length) while still being a vertical band saw with a table for "hand work".

It is also self feeding using gravity, you adjust the counterbalance on the left side of the machine to set the cut pressure, clamp the work and let it go.

It can miter and the table is already drilled an tapped for stops, like the adjustable on I threw together.

I also added a switch to mine so it will turn off once it completes the cut. Lets me know when the part is ready for my attention again.

 

[Attono]

IF only they weren't so expensive...

 

[jwmorris]

No such thing as a free lunch.