Anyone have a cnc bandsaw?

ScubaSteve65 · May 24, 2018

Looking at getting one, sole purpose is cutting dowels for production.

I've called DoAll and talked with them. At the very least want something that can program to cut and feed it self. Will have a person to refill the tray with new material of course.

Nerdlinger · May 24, 2018

I don’t have a “CNC” bandsaw but there are hydraulic auto feed saws that will cut, advance, cut, etc until the remnant is too short and shut off automatically. Even old ones will hold +\- .005” in steel bars/tubes. Ooooooo maybe $20-30k new, $5-10k used for a general 10” capacity saw.

guest · May 24, 2018

I used to have a Daito automatic, great saws. Wish I had another one.

See them on ebay all the time.

New autos are pricey...

dalmatiangirl61 · May 24, 2018

Friend was telling me about his other friends saw last night, the guy took a plain horizontal saw and fabbed up his own bar feeder mechanism so that the saw works unattended. Guessing it can't be that hard.

Vancbiker · May 24, 2018

Some models (maybe all?) of Daito saws are kind of NC controlled. They could store a simple "program" that would cut a number of pieces by a length and then cut a new quantity at a new length. Maybe like 5 different steps. I don't know any more than that. The Daitos we had where I retired from both had that ability, but we never used it so never put any time into figuring it out.

Amada make a fantastic auto feed saw, but I've never seen one that could do more than a set number of parts at a set length, or just run until out of material. Any length changes had to performed by the operator.

guest · May 24, 2018

Vancbiker said:
Some models (maybe all?) of Daito saws are kind of NC controlled. They could store a simple "program" that would cut a number of pieces by a length and then cut a new quantity at a new length. Maybe like 5 different steps. I don't know any more than that. The Daitos we had where I retired from both had that ability, but we never used it so never put any time into figuring it out.

That's pretty much all there is to it. You position the bar for the first cut, position the moving vise all the way towards the blade and close it. Then enter in the cut length and number of cuts you want (including the first cut to square the end of the bar). HIt the button. You can cut multiple different lengths in a single bar.

Utterly simple to use and a robust and accurate saw. We never had any down time on that saw, ever.

ScubaSteve65 · May 24, 2018

Thanks guys. My family's business is in commercial building supply. We supply material to contractors to build malls, schools, etc.

We picked up a cnc rebar shear line. It's been my goal to move the company in to the 21st century and increase capacity for when we need to crank the through put up from the fab shop.

I hope one day to take my hobby side of cnc to another business, one day.

Tedger · May 24, 2018

Look at getting an automatic cold saw. They are usually cheaper than a band saw and hold pretty tight tolerances.Also take up less room in the shop.

SND · May 24, 2018

I'd think cold saw too, I can't imagine these dowels are all that big in dia?

garyhlucas · May 24, 2018

There is a DAKE automatic cold saw sitting at Fazzios scrap metal in Glassboro NJ for $2500. I think it is sitting because the control is shot. However saws are not CNC. They use a simple PLC that doesn't use G-Code. Instead you have an user interface that simply asks how long, how many, etc. So replacing the PLC for $500 might give you a great saw. I have thought of us buying it as our cold saw is not automatic, be we don't have the room.

litlerob1 · May 24, 2018

I was thinking CNC, meaning programmable length obviously, but maybe an Encoder and rotary drive for the Angle of the cut about, and also Angle of the cut Vertically.

Let Generic Default know, he'll build you one for cheap.

R

Garwood · May 24, 2018

I have a Kalamazoo made in 1965. It cuts dead nuts and is very simple. All hydraulic, no electronics whatsoever.

These things aren't very complex, but you can buy a real one used for far less than you could build a feed table.

Vancbiker · May 24, 2018

SND said:
I'd think cold saw too, I can't imagine these dowels are all that big in dia?

Since he is making dowels for commercial building supply I've seen those up to 1 1/4" diameter. They are cut from rebar. They may do larger, but I've never seen any. An auto cold saw would be a good choice.

ScubaSteve65 · May 25, 2018

Vancbiker said:
Since he is making dowels for commercial building supply I've seen those up to 1 1/4" diameter. They are cut from rebar. They may do larger, but I've never seen any. An auto cold saw would be a good choice.

They are smooth dowels but we have cut up to 2.5". We do fab rebar, lots and lots of rebar.

The thinking is to have system where we input the cut length, the material and the saw cuts the material almost unattended. Few feet will be a guy on shear line or bender. Now we just have a Jet 9x16 manual saw, when you have 5,000 or even 500 dowels to cut it ties up that guy for a long time.

Reason I was thinking it's cnc is because it has to have some numeric control (so I was thinking), my apologizes.

Nerdlinger · May 25, 2018

ScubaSteve65 said:
They are smooth dowels but we have cut up to 2.5". We do fab rebar, lots and lots of rebar.

The thinking is to have system where we input the cut length, the material and the saw cuts the material almost unattended. Few feet will be a guy on shear line or bender. Now we just have a Jet 9x16 manual saw, when you have 5,000 or even 500 dowels to cut it ties up that guy for a long time.

Reason I was thinking it's cnc is because it has to have some numeric control (so I was thinking), my apologizes.

The two auto feed bandsaws I have use a hand crank to turn a screw that has a limit switch on it that sets the travel of the shuttle during material regrip. The other limit switch is fixed toward the front of the machine by the blade so that’s what tells the shuttle to stop moving forward during material advance. It’s understatedly simple, accurate, and reliable. Your life is about to get so much better. I found one at an auction for $2,500. Good luck!

ScubaSteve65 · May 25, 2018

Nerdlinger said:
The two auto feed bandsaws I have use a hand crank to turn a screw that has a limit switch on it that sets the travel of the shuttle during material regrip. The other limit switch is fixed toward the front of the machine by the blade so that’s what tells the shuttle to stop moving forward during material advance. It’s understatedly simple, accurate, and reliable. Your life is about to get so much better. I found one at an auction for $2,500. Good luck!

Thanks Nerdlinger,

We are in the process now of building a new building. I was looking at auto saw that uses hydraulics to move the shuttle and clamp. Would be nice to have a vertical clamp so we can stack the bars. Kinda curious how this would increase production, as it would be a longer cut cycle (stack of bars) but more bars per cut VS. laying the bars flats and cutting them that way. Less bars per cut but less cut time per cycle.

Something like this but don't need a mitter...if we can get it with out costing additional arm, I would prefer to have it

Garwood · May 25, 2018

Might be a bit tricky to stack rebar and reliably feed it.

You cut 5000 part orders on a 9x16 Jet? I have the same saw and that's crazy! I've had mine for a decade and I doubt I have cut 5000 parts total. And I've hired part time guys just to stand in front of that thing.

You need an auto saw. Should have bought one a long time ago.

guest · May 25, 2018

All of the major saw manufacturers offer bundle cutting vises that clamp from the top. It really depends on the details. If the parts are longer, you get fewer parts per bar, bundling is better because you don't need to tend the saw as often. If the parts are short and you get a lot of them from each bar, the bundling advantage is not as great.

It sounds like this is proprietary work (not going away at the whim of some buyer) with sufficient quantities, capitalizing a new saw is probably the best choice. A 5-year lease with a 1$ buyout would keep the monthly cost down if the money isn't there today to pay cash.

The reduction in labor required for sawing would cover the monthly payment pretty quickly.

Matt@RFR · May 25, 2018

We don't do much cutting, but we just went from an Ellis 1600 to a Spartan 16/3 auto saw, and I'm here to tell you even cutting single bars is a MASSIVE difference in any category you care to look at. Accuracy, employee moral, mess, setup, production. We just ran a job out of Ø2.5" 303 Round, cut two bars in to 2.450" blanks. I figured that would take about 1 day to cut in the Ellis, the Spartan cut it in 1.5 hours, and the guy that ran it didn't want to quit and burn the building down afterwords.

bryan_machine · May 25, 2018

Maybe look at what Pat Mooney has to offer.

The other name I don't think I've seen in this thread is Trumpf. (Competitor to Amada in several machine markets.)

Anyone have a cnc bandsaw?

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