Kaka industrial bandsaw

[Harry Knutz]

I went Precision Matthew's. Made in Taiwan.

Good job!

 

[Batmanacw]

I almost feel cheated......the PM saw isn't supposed to be so good coming out of the crate. I didn't get to fiddle with it at all. It's just awesome.

First cuts with coolant were beautiful. No need to run a lot of coolant. Just enough so the coolant drains off as the blade hits the chip brush. I had a steady stream with no mess at all.

I had to improvise leveling so the coolant would drain better as mentioned earlier by another poster.

Pretty freakin sweet so far

 

[Batmanacw]

I moved around the hoses so they drain completely after each cut. The pan unfortunately is flat. I'm going to put a small machinist jack in the middle of the pan and put a small amount of pressure there to bow the pan just a touch. That might cause a tiny slope towards the drain.

 

[Larry$]

Depending on what you are cutting, a cold saw works very well. They are louder and throw more chips than a bandsaw but a lot quicker.

There seem to be two types of cold saws. Mainly differing in blade speed. I've got an old slow speed version running a steel blade, two speeds, slow & slower but the rate of cut is much faster than a bandsaw. Chips don't fly & it is pretty quiet. The head travels on dovetail ways instead of pivoting like a miter saw. I cut steel dry because I don't want to maintain the coolant system. Its old, Italian, heavy, was free! and a total mess, missing a few parts that I made. I still need my 4x6 bandsaw because it can cut things that the cold saw can't. I've added a small table to the band saw for vertical use. The 4x6 is about 30 years old, different color and badge but same design as the HFs. It took some slight mods to make it cut straight but it works reasonably well. A true industrial BS would be great if you can justify the price or get really lucky.
I wrote this before I saw your purchase. Congratulation, it looks great.

 

[projectnut]

While there are a couple different styles of saws sold as “cold saws” those with blade speeds above around 150 rpm are actually dry cut saws.

As for coolant vs no coolant a low speed saw using coolant can expect around 1000 cuts before the blade needs to be sharpened. The same saw not using coolant will get between 350 and 500 cuts before the blade needs to be sharpened

True cold saw blades are fairly expensive, ranging in price from around $100.00 to over $250.00. They can usually be resharpened or retoothed15 times or more before being scrapped.

A true cold saw is usually accurate to within .005” in a production situation and .002” in a fabrication or hobby shop.

 

[Batmanacw]

I mounted my HF bandsaw on a small table and put a table on it. I can still use it as a horizontal if I want. No more flimsy base tipping over.

 

[Batmanacw]

I sawed a couple of pieces of 1.5" 12L14 and faced one of them off. It took less than 0.005" to clean it up. I didn't need to leave much extra material to clean up.