You don’t saw what type of bandsaw you have which would save suggesting teh same.

I like quite a few other forum members use a Femi band saw. I find this quite compact and is said to be capable of cutting upto 105mm but I have done larger. Typically a cut across say 3″ round bar needs less than a 10 thou skim to clean up the end which is square enough for me.

There are several designs for making a hacksaw attachment for a lathe.

On 17 January 2024 at 08:58 Paul McDonough Said:

…the small band saw which was donated to me isn’t great at cutting metal in a straight line

So fix the tool you have until it works as it should.

It is not that the tool is incapable of perfoming satisfactorily. There are a good few online and published resources available to guide you in the process.

The biggest win for the smallest effort will be a new, quality blade for the machine.

As some comments above check the set up is correct and blade is a good one.

However if you need to buy something like THIS is what I use small yet large enough for my needs and seems to cut square and cleanly. It does not take up a lot of room and the saw can be separated from the stand and be used freehand but this can be a bit of a faff as there are three alan head bolts to undo. It is designed for this function

I did not buy from there but screwfix but they don’t seem to have one now

On 17 January 2024 at 13:19 Paul McDonough Said:

Having posted this note I did wonder if a circular chopsaw might be the right thing to go with? it will certainly be a good general purpose tool.

I would think twice (or more times) about a chop saw. I have one which I bought to cut wood and metal – so a tct blade. It does work, but the noise and flying red hot chips are no fun. I would certainly not use mine inside. After a couple of uses on steel I sprang for a small FEMI bandsaw. Far, far kinder on the ears and heart!!

On 17 January 2024 at 15:11 Paul McDonough Said:

I hear you Peter, I’ve only ever used a chop saw on site, it was a big one and it was outside. I don’t remember the flying chips of doom, perhaps I didn’t challenge the saw on that occasion.

I don’t know what you were cutting – mine is fine on wood and OK(ish) on thin/small aluminium. If you were using a commercial device designed to cut steel I suspect it’s chip control was suitably engineered. Mine is an Evolution 210mm multi material  blade – chip control is not well engineered for steel.

You need a cold saw if that’s the way you wish to go. Same layout as a chop saw but much lower RPM and flood coolant. For home workshop use one of the horizontal bandsaws is probably optimal. They are usually on one set of wheels so a bit of ingenuity and they can slide back under a bench when not in use.

regards Martin

I usually spot my typos after posting and correct them using the edit button in the grey header line of a post.

Usually plenty of edits in my posts although they do not seem to get listed in the new system.

Angle grinder in a chop-saw attachment? A friend uses one of these a lot, although for smaller metal.

James.