Somehow after years of thinking I couldn't find room for a horizontal bandsaw I've ended up with 2 power hacksaws and 2 horizontal bandsaws... I have a Harbor Freight 4x6" vertical / horizontal bandsaw, a Kalamazoo 6x10" horizontal bandsaw, an Excel (same saw was also sold as Atlas and Craftsman) 4x4" power hacksaw and a Keller 6x6" power hacksaw. I keep them all because it lets me be lazy. I've set up the 4x6" with a fine tooth blade for cutting tubing, the 6x10" is set up with a courser blade for larger solid pieces, and my intent when I get the Keller all cleaned up is to use it for heavier rounds and square stock. The little Excel amuses me, it doesn't really do anything special but it is a neat little saw and doesn't take up much space.
For cost, and ease of purchase (just go to the store and buy it) it is very hard to beat the import 4x6 bandsaws (HF, Grizzly, Jet etc), even at the current price of $300-400. Personally I don't see the benefit of paying more for the Grizzly or Jet, just go HF and look it over well to make sure you didn't get a dud. HF is very good about exchanges if you find defects. Buying used these saws are all basically all the same just different brands. I've used Grizzly parts on my HF saw with no issue.
Older USA made bandsaws Wells, Kalamazoo etc are markedly better than the imports, but the smallest tend to be 6x10" and 7x12" so significantly larger than the 4x6" saws. There are some small USA branded bandsaws Craftsman, Delta etc generally marketed as 3x6". I have always assumed they were roughly equal to the 4x6" and likely just a measuring difference, but based on some comments here they do use different blades and may actually be of an inferior design, so good to know.
Power hacksaws get kind of a (in my opinion) bad rap for being slow. There is some truth in this but power hacksaws are much more compact so can be a good option in a small shop. My little Excel 4x4" is no doubt slower than the 4x6" HF, but it is only about 2/3 the size, and they can be easily bench mounted. Since they can be run unattended while you do something else in a hobby shop the extra time isn't really that big of a deal. They perform better with a real power hacksaw blade, but you can use standard hand hacksaw blades on them.
Because they are more compact, size for size, a power hacksaw has more capacity. At the size of the 4x6" bandsaw you can get a 6x6" power hacksaw which tend to be much more solidly built and while their chug chug chug cutting cycle appears slow they can actually cut faster than the bandsaw because they take a bigger bite with each cut. My Keller 6x6" takes up about the same floor space as the 4x6", but weighs about 2x the weight so is very solid. Smaller Marvel 4x4" and 6x6" hacksaws often turn up cheap because they look antiquated (1930s design), but they are very capable. There is video on youtube of a 6x6 Marvel hacksaw going head to head against a HF 4x6" bandsaw both using brand new blades with the same tooth count and the Marvel hacksaw cuts faster than the bandsaw against most people's expectations.
