The school has one, a very large one, infact its a very very very large one. It's so unbelievably useful that I'd like to get one for home, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with the small ones (4x6" etc). All I'd want to cut is box section, round and flat upto 50mm, so size isn't a problem, but are there any makes to look out for? Theres a few on ebay around the £100 - £150 mark that seem about right.

Adam

the bandsaw which can be used both horizontal and vertically are very good for accurate work, a little slow but very good changing the mitre for angle can be back braking.

In the vertical position is only good for light stuff and it has a small throat.

If you intend to do a lot of angle work best to go for the dewalt DW series cut off saw which as a quick change mitre vice which I found very quick and easy to use.

How odd...I replied and it showed 3 times...then I tried to delete a copy and they all went....

Anyway I was saying....check out robustness and build quality, especially of the blade guides and tensioner.

Good, useful machines, well worth having.

Alan

try to get one with 1" wide blade, it will be far more acurate than a 3/4" blade machine. startrite made a single phase machine which was good, but you'll probably have to pay a bit more, but will always be worth more to sell on.

i bought a clark one. Not great quality but it does work. Not perfectly square, but im told they can be corrected with a bit of effort. The bolts that hold stuff down all broke, so i use clamps now, and the blade falls off the wheels if you let go (ie its weight causes the teeth to stall). Bloody crap when i think about it!

Mine has seen sterling service.

It's had a few mods, the main one being the coolant pump ( fish tank ) with blade spray nozzle ( squirty oil can ).
It's been used mainly on stainless and cut all my chassis and hundreds of bits of 2" exhaust pipe.

Screwfix sell the blades cheaper than Sealey.

Cuts bang on square till the blade get worn, and those compound angles are a piece of cake.
It's slow, but I wouldn't be without it.


Worth every penny of the £170 my brother paid for it.

Paul G
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Spot on. I've got one just like this, and it did my entire chassis without complaint. Only supposed to go up to 45 degree angles, but I coaxed mine up to 53 degrees for a couple of awkward cuts! It also works fine for compound angle cuts...I set it for the main angle, then prop up the work at the far end to get the other angle. Works a treat, with no grinding to perfect angles - they were perfect to start with! One hint, though...when cutting angles, use your protractor to measure the angle from the BLADE, NOT from the fence. That's where most people go wrong...if the blade is off angle from the fence, even a degree or two, you'll never get acceptable cuts. I always measure my angles from the blade itself, and have always had perfect angles. Another hint - I used too fine a blade. Cuts VERY slowly, but stays cool and makes a very polished cut.

Thanks guys.

Joel, I think I'll stay away from clarke then I'm looking at a sealey one at the moment which seems to have a good write up on several sites.

Adam

make sure if your using it to cut hollow section that you put a relatively fine blade on as the course ones can break teeth quite easily.