trochoidalpath
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2016
I used to just order stock pre-cut to size. But the Speedio is so fast that it has become glaringly obvious I need to bring in lengths of bar stock and cut them to length as needed.
My overriding limitation is space. The closer I stick to 2 ft square the better off I am. As much as I'd love a 36" throat vertical band saw, that isn't gonna work. And because I only have enough room for one saw, I need to be able to cut everything from aluminum to stainless on the same saw. I never use tubing and only work with solid stock; the largest stock I regularly need is around 3.5" round or 3x6" flat. This is much more in the prototyping end than the production end. (If I have to run 500 parts I'm going to get it cut to size by someone with a good autosaw.)
I think I have two reasonable options. One is a very small vertical contour saw -- something like a Dake V16. I don't think I have enough room for something like a DoALL 2013, unfortunately.
Or I can go down the route of a 350mm cold saw. A little smaller, nicer cut quality might save me a cleanup op, but it's hard to find one that has enough range of blade speed. Looks like most of the decent ones nowadays are made in Italy by either MACC or imet? Are columnar saws worth the price premium over a pivot-style saw? The big problem I've seen with so far is getting a wide enough RPM range to be able to go through both stainless and aluminum.
Am I going to hate life with one or the other?
My overriding limitation is space. The closer I stick to 2 ft square the better off I am. As much as I'd love a 36" throat vertical band saw, that isn't gonna work. And because I only have enough room for one saw, I need to be able to cut everything from aluminum to stainless on the same saw. I never use tubing and only work with solid stock; the largest stock I regularly need is around 3.5" round or 3x6" flat. This is much more in the prototyping end than the production end. (If I have to run 500 parts I'm going to get it cut to size by someone with a good autosaw.)
I think I have two reasonable options. One is a very small vertical contour saw -- something like a Dake V16. I don't think I have enough room for something like a DoALL 2013, unfortunately.
Or I can go down the route of a 350mm cold saw. A little smaller, nicer cut quality might save me a cleanup op, but it's hard to find one that has enough range of blade speed. Looks like most of the decent ones nowadays are made in Italy by either MACC or imet? Are columnar saws worth the price premium over a pivot-style saw? The big problem I've seen with so far is getting a wide enough RPM range to be able to go through both stainless and aluminum.
Am I going to hate life with one or the other?