Welding Tips and Tricks

Looking for feedback on the smaller swivel head bandsaws, particularly the Baileigh BS-128M. Are they accurate? Will they return to square if swiveled to cut an angle?

I currently have an old Jet horizontal bandsaw, 64.5" blade, the typical 4x6. I work out of my garage making custom furniture and creating pieces on spec... whatever pops out of my brain. I have very limited space, all of my metalworking and woodworking tools are on wheels so I can pull out what i need, use it and then put it away. The little 4x6 slots into a small space perfectly.

The problem is that I find that I am doing quite a few curvy pieces of furniture which entail angled/mitered cuts on mostly square tubing. Cutting accurate angles on my saw is a painful process of wrenches, protractors, etc. and resetting back to square is just as tedious.

While a cold saw, dry saw, or chop saw setup will do the angles, I don't really want to deal with the noise and metal chips flying all over my workspace. An Ellis saw would be a dream but I don't have space for one at this time.

So I'm wondering if these smaller swivel head saws like the BS128M will cut square and return to square if swiveled? I have found a pair of these Baileighs for a decent price and am wondering if I should sell my Jet and get one of these or should I just hold my nickels until I figure out how to store a nicer Ellis-type machine?

thanks.
steve

sru_tx wrote:Looking for feedback on the smaller swivel head bandsaws, particularly the Baileigh BS-128M. Are they accurate? Will they return to square if swiveled to cut an angle?

I currently have an old Jet horizontal bandsaw, 64.5" blade, the typical 4x6. I work out of my garage making custom furniture and creating pieces on spec... whatever pops out of my brain. I have very limited space, all of my metalworking and woodworking tools are on wheels so I can pull out what i need, use it and then put it away. The little 4x6 slots into a small space perfectly.

The problem is that I find that I am doing quite a few curvy pieces of furniture which entail angled/mitered cuts on mostly square tubing. Cutting accurate angles on my saw is a painful process of wrenches, protractors, etc. and resetting back to square is just as tedious.

While a cold saw, dry saw, or chop saw setup will do the angles, I don't really want to deal with the noise and metal chips flying all over my workspace. An Ellis saw would be a dream but I don't have space for one at this time.

So I'm wondering if these smaller swivel head saws like the BS128M will cut square and return to square if swiveled? I have found a pair of these Baileighs for a decent price and am wondering if I should sell my Jet and get one of these or should I just hold my nickels until I figure out how to store a nicer Ellis-type machine?

thanks.
steve

I was going to suggest the Ellis myself when I read the first sentence then realized you already knew of it. No info on the Baileigh that I can add. I too, will buy an Ellis for my next saw.

sru_tx wrote:Looking for feedback on the smaller swivel head bandsaws, particularly the Baileigh BS-128M. Are they accurate? Will they return to square if swiveled to cut an angle?

I currently have an old Jet horizontal bandsaw, 64.5" blade, the typical 4x6. I work out of my garage making custom furniture and creating pieces on spec... whatever pops out of my brain. I have very limited space, all of my metalworking and woodworking tools are on wheels so I can pull out what i need, use it and then put it away. The little 4x6 slots into a small space perfectly.

The problem is that I find that I am doing quite a few curvy pieces of furniture which entail angled/mitered cuts on mostly square tubing. Cutting accurate angles on my saw is a painful process of wrenches, protractors, etc. and resetting back to square is just as tedious.

While a cold saw, dry saw, or chop saw setup will do the angles, I don't really want to deal with the noise and metal chips flying all over my workspace. An Ellis saw would be a dream but I don't have space for one at this time.

So I'm wondering if these smaller swivel head saws like the BS128M will cut square and return to square if swiveled? I have found a pair of these Baileighs for a decent price and am wondering if I should sell my Jet and get one of these or should I just hold my nickels until I figure out how to store a nicer Ellis-type machine?

thanks.
steve

I hear good things about these http://www.trick-tools.com/Femi_782XL_B ... 0_000_2209

Welcome, Jim,

That's an interesting little machine you shared. I'm sure it will serve someone well, and I hope folks will look at it.

If you'll study the topic you're replying on, you'll find the OP has far better equipment with much more capacity than what you've shared. He's looking for a vertical bandsaw that will tilt, and have a fixed, reliable, repeatable return to vertical in at least the same capacity as he already owns.

Steve

There's an Ellis 1100 for sale on my local craigslist for $750 they do pop up. https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/tls/6131561306.html

I went with this one, a lot more money of course but more compact and mobile.



Here's the test cut they did on it at the factory, its about .040 thick, accuracy over 3 inches about .003 variance.

Thanks for the input y'all!
Coolidge that Jet looks like a very nice saw. Impressive accuracy. I've been watching for Ellis and nothing pops up around here.
Jim, Steve is correct that I need a little more capacity than that saw.

I decided to buy the two saws yesterday from a local company getting rid of them. Both were practically new. Hardly a scratch in the paint on either one. One saw was dissassembled and put on a pallet with supposedly a "bad" motor. When I got home I pulled it off of the pallet and the thing fired right up. The blade jammed immediately but with a bit of tracking adjustment it appeared to run just fine. I'll tune up both saws, pick one to keep and sell the other. For the price I paid I should be able to sell one of the saws and my Jet and recoup a fair amount of my expenses.

I believe this saw is going to fill the bill.The footprint and height is only slightly larger than my horizontal Jet which is perfect for my space. A big feature other than the swivel head is that the vise always clamps squarely to the material. On a non-swivel saw, cutting at angles means the fence moves but the clamping jaw doesn't move with it. As you cut steeper angles, tighter clamping forces result in the material creeping in the vise instead of staying put. It's a small subtlety that I didn't appreciate until I saw it... now I say to myself "Duuuuhhhh"

I will try to follow up on this thread later on as I use it.

Thanks.
steve

Update:

I've been using the saw for the past month, mostly square cuts until yesterday. Yesterday I was mitering a lot of 45's with some interesting Y junctions of 3 square tubes. The fit up was perfect. The particular features I like are the quick adjust vice, the hydraulic feed, and the ease of angle setting.

The vice has a nice feature when you back the vice clamp a turn or two, the clamping jaw just is able to freely slide. That feature is very nice when switching between cutting tubing and flat stock. A quick backoff, slide the jaw open, drop in the material, slide it snug, a turn on the vice and your locked. You don't spend all the time cranking the vice jaw open and closed.

The hydraulic feed is nice. I don't spend any time switching blades depending on the metal thickness I'm cutting. My previous saw was spring loaded and getting the saw to cut straight was always touch. The hydraulics removed that problem completely. Adjusting the feed rate from fast to slow to glacial (and all rates in between) ensures that the blade doesn't get overfed. Cuts are square and exactly where I dropped the blade.

And finally the angle adjustment capabilities is the reason I bought this saw. It's very nice to swing from one angle to another by simply loosening a single bolt/handle, no tools necessary. I was able to swing between 90 and 45 easily. Vice held the work secure. The one downside is that there are no stops to bring the saw back to a know setting, like 90. My advice is to always have your square handy.

The one annoying feature is that the swarf (the metal sawdust ) drops onto the deck of the machine, onto the sliding surface of the adjustable head, into slots that drop through and into the storage below, etc. It makes a mess on all of the moving and sliding bits of the saw which potentially impedes the smooth operating features you bought the saw for. ah well. Temporarily I have a cardboard piece collecting the swarf but I'll eventually make it out of sheet metal.

So that's my review of the machine. Really like the features. A big leap forward compared to my previous horizontal bandsaw.

Can you post pictures of your saw?

I took delivery of the same Baileigh model last week. Tried it out yesterday cutting some mild steel tubing 1.75" .125 wall. After the first cut I thought the swivle base and the workpiece deck were not parallel as the cut was not straight. Turns out I adjusted the cylinder incorrectly and it feed into the pipe too quickly after it cut through the top part of the pipe so it's not a set and forget it with thick wall pipe. I adjusted the cylinder during the cut and it was square. Overall I am happy with it

Coolidge wrote:There's an Ellis 1100 for sale on my local craigslist for $750 they do pop up. https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/tls/6131561306.html

I went with this one, a lot more money of course but more compact and mobile.



Here's the test cut they did on it at the factory, its about .040 thick, accuracy over 3 inches about .003 variance.

Thats a good looking piece of kit!