Horizontal band saw All the same?

[Col Mckee]

Am getting ready to purchase a horizontal band saw as my old Marvel power hacksaw won't hold a true cut and I'm not interested in overhauling it a second time. The new saw won't get much use in my remaining years: maybe an hour or two a month (on average) at most. Are all the 9 X 12 imports (Jet, Turn Pro, Birmingham, etc. et al) about the same, and if so, are they any good? Don't really want to drop 3 grand into a Kalamazoo nor do I want something no better than my worn out Marvel which runs out from top to bottom of the cut. Thanks.

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[Thrud]

Have you tried a fresh balde in your marvel? You do know that you never start a fresh blade in an old saw (kerf) cut - always teh opposite side? This is because the old kerf with strip the set off the blade and make it pull to one or the other side (crooked cutting) - if everything else is realtively tight on the old girl this is te most likely cause.

If you don't use it much, whay spend more money on new crap...

[Dave Burnett]

I have a Rong Fu horizonal and it is a great. I had it for about 7 yrs and cut a lot of steel,brass,aluminum,plastic,wood and never had a problem with it at all.

[Col Mckee]

My point, exactly! Is the new stuff all crap until one gets into the multi thousand dollar category of bandsaw? New blade won't help the old Marvel. Do you have trouble with runout from top to bottom of, say..... a piece of 5 inch stock? Thanks.

[JCHannum]

If you mean the 7" X 12" models that sell for around $1000.00, those mentioned are pretty much the same machine, painted and badged differently.

I had a Wilton in my last maintenance shop, and it was OK. Not great, just OK. It did the job adequately and reasonably accurately. It would be a decent home shop machine.

I had issues with the vise, it would not hold for beans, and the hydraulic downfeed lunched in short order. The rest was pretty much the normal Chicom machine, butter bolts, poor fit up and too much plastic in the wrong places.

[precisionworks]

For about the same $$$, you can buy a used, good condition, American made machine. Johnson (Kysor-Johnson, Dake-Johnson, Dake), W F Wells, Grob, Kalamazoo, and others come up frequently at auction & on eBay. Many USA manufacturers have parts available for saws built 30 and 40 years ago. IMO, one of these "old saws" will outperform & outlast a new saw from SE Asia.

[Col Mckee]

Thankyou one and all for input. Suppose I will keep looking for a decent condition 'Made In US of A' machine, although I was hoping for once to go buy something new and not have to fix on something old (like my Marvel). I don't own much of anything imported (that I know of) so don't know what to expect of the imports. Again, thanks.

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[Sunset]

Check out the "Ellis" brand of saws.

[Bob Quale]

I'm going to cause some trouble here, but here it goes.

I have the Turn Pro. It is in the Enco sales flier on sale, $699.95. Made in Tiawan. It works well, I have done nothing to it, but use it. It cuts well and straight. I did have one of the small importes(Delta) and felt they were garbage! It was worth its' weight as scrap. I am a home shop and do some repair work so it only sees a small amount of work.

The only thing I really don't like about the saw is that the coolant does not all go down the drain. The pan is flat and not angled on the bottom, so some coolant pools a little. Granted, my floor is not level.

I live in CT and getting a used saw here will cost about $1000, and it will still need repair.

The Turn Pro was good for me! I would buy one again!

My two cents. Bob

[Ted Coffey]

Try using a lighter downfeed. I find that these light saws tend to run "off square" I f the feed is too heavy.