Dry cut saw vs. portaband for metal square tube cutting?

I have a small hobby shop and acquired a Fein Slugger (rebranded Jancy) carbide dry cut chop saw for cutting mostly steel square tube stock. It worked fine, and I probably got 250 cuts out of the factory blade before it started getting stuck. I've purchased a replacement Diablo Metal Demon 14" blade which was about $80. Other replacement blades seem to cost in the $80-140 range, and there are poor reviews across the board for "stainless steel" blades. I know stainless is way tougher on blades than mild steel, but I want to do more stainless work in the future as I'm learning to TIG weld, which got me thinking...

Should I sell the dry cut saw, purchase a portaband, and add or fab something like a SWAG portaband table? I know replacement blades for portabands are in the $10-20 range.

Also, while the dry cut saw doesn't heat the parts much, it makes a massive mess of shavings in the shop which are a pain to clean. I mostly do woodwork, and I hate mixing metal and sawdust (I know, it's a bad combination that can lead to fires).

Thoughts?

ryanjg117 said:

I have a small hobby shop and acquired a [URL="https://www.diespammerdie.com/URL] for cutting mostly steel square tube stock. It worked fine, and I probably got 250 cuts out of the factory blade before it started getting stuck. I've purchased a replacement Diablo Metal Demon 14" blade which was about $80. Other replacement blades seem to cost in the $80-140 range, and there are poor reviews across the board for "stainless steel" blades. I know stainless is way tougher on blades than mild steel, but I want to do more stainless work in the future as I'm learning to TIG weld, which got me thinking...

Should I sell the dry cut saw, purchase a portaband, and add or fab something like a [URL="http://www.eatcrapanddiespammer.com]? I know replacement blades for portabands are in the $10-20 range.

Also, while the dry cut saw doesn't heat the parts much, it makes a massive mess of shavings in the shop which are a pain to clean. I mostly do woodwork, and I hate mixing metal and sawdust (I know, it's a bad combination that can lead to fires).

Thoughts?

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Spammer......

some metal tooth saws really are sensitive to thinner vibrating parts where abrasive saw is cheaper per cut.
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if thickness is 1/8 to 1/4" i have seen some metal tooth saws cut at high speeds like 10x faster if cutting less than 3/8 thick but if cutting say 1/4 by 4 flat if you cut the 4" side it wont cut but if cut the 1/4" way it will cut 100x faster hard to describe.
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slow metal tooth saws less sensitive to not being able to cut thick stuff but literally can be 10x slower. hard to describe. big abrasive saw often cuts any thickness of steel but clogs with aluminum and if metal tooth blade used to will cut aluminum like cutting a piece of wood almost.
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literally i have portable hand held metal cutting saw at slower rpm than wood saw but still going fast rpm and i can buy a $5. construction wood saw blade made for occasional nails and it will cut 1/4" thick steel plate like cutting wood literally cut maybe 10 feet worth before $5. blade needs changing. hard to describe. same saw no way it will cut over 1/2" thick. hard to describe but over certain thickness it just wont cut. optimum is 1/8 to 1/4" thick with occasional 3/8 thick

digger doug said:

Spammer......

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Doug... He posted links to two different, unrelated websites, asked legit questions, and the mention of not mixing sawdust with metal chips makes me think this is a legitimate post. I could be wrong...

TeachMePlease said:

Doug... He posted links to two different, unrelated websites, asked legit questions, and the mention of not mixing sawdust with metal chips makes me think this is a legitimate post. I could be wrong...

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DD is going full-on "Man yells at clouds" mode...

Get one of the small 64 1/2" blade import bandsaws, used ones are cheaper than used port a bands. I was given one years ago and it is my go to saw for most quick cutting. Took a bit of tuning it to get it to cut straight and square but it works great now with 10-14 bi metal blades. Anything bigger or for production cutting it goes on my Marvel #8

I fabricate literally tons of stainless a year. Stainless costs more to work with, in every way.
A portaband is ok for very small quantities, if you dont mind having to touch up the cuts with a sanding disc, because portabands have very primitive guides, and they all wander, especially after the bits get a bit dull. And portaband blades, relatively speaking, are expensive.

do what the previous poster recommends- get a 4x6 chinese 64 1/2" bandsaw. It will cut stainless, mild, and will give you squarer cuts at a long term lower cost.

Ries said:

I fabricate literally tons of stainless a year. Stainless costs more to work with, in every way.
A portaband is ok for very small quantities, if you dont mind having to touch up the cuts with a sanding disc, because portabands have very primitive guides, and they all wander, especially after the bits get a bit dull. And portaband blades, relatively speaking, are expensive.

do what the previous poster recommends- get a 4x6 chinese 64 1/2" bandsaw. It will cut stainless, mild, and will give you squarer cuts at a long term lower cost.

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Not sure why my original post was marked as spam, maybe because I put in links to the parts I was using? And this is just my third post...

Anyway, I like the idea of a portaband because it doesn't take up much space, and I can also bolt it to my welding table that I'm designing fixtures for now:





It's a fairly shameless ripoff of common tab and slot tables, but let's fact it, nobody owns the patent for "tab and slot." I found I could design it myself and have it lasered locally for about 60% of the cost of common DIY kits online. Anyway, you'll see my portaband fixture on the left-side of this table. I'm designing it flush with the rest of the table to act as stock support.

I have had a bad experience with a cheap horizontal bandsaw. It never cut straight (meaning as the cut progressed, it would go inward/outward and result in a big bevel). Also, they take up a lot of floor space. I like the portaband because it doesn't take up much space, and this is not a production shop, so I think the relatively low volumes I'm doing will be fine. I agree that the guides are primitive and accuracy might not be the best, but I'm going to also design a little miter gauge to fit in those tracks so 90° cuts should be pretty achievable. This is all going to be welded generally, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

A portable bandsaw (Milwaukee etc.) WITH the optional table and vise might be a good combination. Price will be about 2x the cheap horizontal bandsaw Ries suggests, unless you find one used. And it will have a smaller cut capacity.

All that said, it has two possible advantages. First, it uses very affordable bi-metal vari-pitch blades. Second, those blades are a bit thinner and cut faster. So, if space is at a premium and you intend to cut a lot of small tubing -- it could be a solution.

At one point I had a deep cut Milwaukee and its stand -- replacing the pipe vise with a proper vise. It cut square and worked fine within its roughly 4" x 4" capacity.

Since you already have the woodworking equipment, it's also possible to mount most portable bandsaws to an aluminum plate and drip them them in either a router table or a table saw extension wing -- giving you the options of using miter jigs and even creating a self-feeding saw. I still have a DeWalt portable bandsaw modified to drop into a shaper table extension for a Delta Unisaw. Worked well. You could also mount one to the side of the fixture table shown above; though I think the vise/stand is the better option since you don't have to tend the cut.

That said, now have four proper bandsaws - two vertical, one horizontal, one for timbers, a plasma cutter, etc. plus the old DeWalt portable that's only used in portable mode these days. At some point you'll want to be cutting larger plate, pipe, and rounds than a portable saw will allow.

digger doug said:

Spammer......

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You will never give up.

I have a Milwaukee dry cut saw. Works great until you feed too fast or something catches and then you are out a $100 blade. Saw was originally $500 and I've probably put $4k of blades on it over the last 13 years.

Given your situation, I would for sure do the portaband. With a good blade on it, the cut quality in SS tubing is really good. Do not buy the milwaukee portaband base. It is the biggest stinkiest pile of garbage there is.

I'm a big Milwaukee tool fanboy. But their consumables are generally not good. Drill bits and saw blades and what not are sub-par and should be avoided. But I've actually been impressed with the quality of their portaband blades. I think they are about $14 for a 3 pack.

abrasive saw with coolant or dry. the dry cut skill saw is handy, but the dry steel chop saws are a gimmick. abrasives are cheap, forgiving, and can cut better than fairly square. Great small band saws do not exist; it has to do with market I think - a cheap horizontal delta is not magnitude difference to an Ellis. The HeM NG semi-auto saws are best price/design I have seen, and the blades are reasonable.

I have experience with almost every way you might go. I use a Milwaukee Portaband all the time and did a big 304 stainless project with it. I also had the displeasure of using a horizontal bandsaw to cut stainless castings open to make displays.

Portaband: These are designed to destroy blades and cut crooked. You will not get straight cuts from them. They work well for some things... not for cutting straight. Buy Lennox blades by the 5-pack and you'll get a few cuts per blade through tube before they burn up and snap on the low speed setting. I do use this all the time for DOM steel and it works great to get pretty close, then I finish by other means. Like I said I use this all the time and it works well, but between the flimsy 1/2" blade and the guide that comes crooked you won't cut straight.

Horizontal bandsaw: Even with flood coolant we were burning through blades like mad cutting stainless castings. Couldn't get the speed low enough, stainless would work harden and we'd get halfway through one part before blade was gone. We ended up dropping some real coin on carbide insert blades and they would finally cut like butter but still had to keep it real slow. You do need a good quality bandsaw to justify those blades or the deflection will kill them. A better bandsaw will pay for itself eventually in blade life and cut quality.

Cold saw: My favorite, but we still killed blades fast in castings (high speed steel blades). If you're not cutting castings these do work well. Best cut quality you can get.


A GOOD horizontal bandsaw or cold saw is the best pick. Very good cut quality, control, clamping, flood coolant.

DethloffMfg said:

Horizontal bandsaw: Even with flood coolant we were burning through blades like mad cutting stainless castings. Couldn't get the speed low enough, stainless would work harden and we'd get halfway through one part before blade was gone. We ended up dropping some real coin on carbide insert blades and they would finally cut like butter but still had to keep it real slow. You do need a good quality bandsaw to justify those blades or the deflection will kill them. A better bandsaw will pay for itself eventually in blade life and cut quality.

Cold saw: My favorite, but we still killed blades fast in castings (high speed steel blades). If you're not cutting castings these do work well. Best cut quality you can get.


A GOOD horizontal bandsaw or cold saw is the best pick. Very good cut quality, control, clamping, flood coolant.

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A good saw will not burn thru a blade quickly. A saw that doesn't have the feed force to prevent work hardening is not a good saw. And I cut tons of steel a day, sometimes stainless- I never cut stainless with less than 3000 lbs max thrust, except cold saw which maxes at roughly 750#. Somedays I do not cut tons, just hundreds of parts. There is no such creature as a good horizontal, until you get into post saws. There is no way to have tooth load big enough on inside on cut without a massive bue on front of cut, either chipping teeth or work hardening and burnishing blade to zero set. Sawing is a science and art, feed, speed and dynamic cross sections, and full moons. Blades make a big difference in speeds, finding the harmonics of material and blade will instantly strip a blade, and with stainless then you have imbedded teeth to cut off wheel out before you can finish cut. - sadly there is no chart I have found for that, just experience.

Most small/medium shops can not invest in vertical or post saws, so you opt for most forgiving and accurate, abrasive always works, and blades are cheap in operator error moments. Loud and slow (compared to band saw), I do not like that, but something has to be sacrificed.

memphisjed said:

A good saw will not burn thru a blade quickly. A saw that doesn't have the feed force to prevent work hardening is not a good saw. And I cut tons of steel a day, sometimes stainless- I never cut stainless with less than 3000 lbs max thrust, except cold saw which maxes at roughly 750#. Somedays I do not cut tons, just hundreds of parts. There is no such creature as a good horizontal, until you get into post saws. There is no way to have tooth load big enough on inside on cut without a massive bue on front of cut, either chipping teeth or work hardening and burnishing blade to zero set. Sawing is a science and art, feed, speed and dynamic cross sections, and full moons. Blades make a big difference in speeds, finding the harmonics of material and blade will instantly strip a blade, and with stainless then you have imbedded teeth to cut off wheel out before you can finish cut. - sadly there is no chart I have found for that, just experience.

Most small/medium shops can not invest in vertical or post saws, so you opt for most forgiving and accurate, abrasive always works, and blades are cheap in operator error moments. Loud and slow (compared to band saw), I do not like that, but something has to be sacrificed.

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I disagree that there is no such thing as a good horizontal. For massive cut volume, a post saw is the ticket. But almost every shop in the US has either a horizontal or a cold saw. They are both great. Horizontals can vary from cheap crap to outstanding. 3,000 pounds of cutting force? Maybe in your application, but most guys don’t need that nor can most blades handle it.

For a small time need for cutting stainless my post still stands. A cold saw or a middle of the road horizontal is a good pick. You don’t need a $25,000 saw to start cutting stainless. Abrasive saws leave a crappy edge, dust everywhere, Carbon and other impurity impregnating in the weld area, and are loud and make everything dusty. They work, they just suck.

DethloffMfg said:

I disagree that there is no such thing as a good horizontal. For massive cut volume, a post saw is the ticket. But almost every shop in the US has either a horizontal or a cold saw. They are both great. Horizontals can vary from cheap crap to outstanding. 3,000 pounds of cutting force? Maybe in your application, but most guys don’t need that nor can most blades handle it.

For a small time need for cutting stainless my post still stands. A cold saw or a middle of the road horizontal is a good pick. You don’t need a $25,000 saw to start cutting stainless. Abrasive saws leave a crappy edge, dust everywhere, Carbon and other impurity impregnating in the weld area, and are loud and make everything dusty. They work, they just suck.

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About all i can add would be if are using a abrasive saw, use the thinnest wheel you can find for it. It does make using one slightly more tolerable

abrasive saws can leave the cleanest edge of all saws (lab grade cuts are abrasive), of course you are now in the cold saw price range, and slow. Even a mid grade abrasive shouldn't leave a torn edge, and if carbon contamination is happening the blade has to be beyond glazed to get that kind of heat and should be dressed asap. Abrasive saws are not that dusty with proper grit catchers and coolant, and cut at respectable 3 to 4 ipm per inch solid. The idea of abrasive saw without coolant or decent vice makes a cut off wheel and grinder appealing.
1 1/4 blade is not that big, the force is to keep feed rate steady - just as servos need to be oversized to normal load. If you think of saw blade as end mill with 20 teeth engaged at once it is awe inspiring. Each one of those teeth needs a chip load or it is just rubbing metal making heat, and making the next tooth in line do double the work- the blade has zero rigidity if bouncing or rubbing start: also, that same tooth has to twist into cone and carry all its chips entire length of cut.
Scissor horizontals can not have a proper blade feed by the way the saw moves. 300 dollars to 50000 still has same problems, the design is from a time when rails/ways were an expensive high skilled operation, now we have linears and cnc machines that can spit them out... and the design should retire. Saw companies still sell them because it is what people expect, not for performance, and not for the research into modern saw blades.
You do not see fab shops with hf/klucth welders, or machine shops with tormach; so why skimp on a tool that touches more parts than any other machine in the shop? Why expect it to be the one with no training? I can attest, training saw people is hard, the math on the fly for feed rates is not hard- there is no just run button, and every shape is an exercise in set up.