Aldi bandsaw

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Bought one of these today because the box said it could cut non-ferrous (although the handbook does not mention this fact). The blade supplied and fitted has large teeth and is obviously meant for wood/plastic.

I have quite a large pile of .070" thick brass sheet. Will this machine cut it with the correct blade fitted? If so, what sort of blade should I be looking for. i.e Width -TPI – bi-metal etc. etc.

Never used a little bandsaw before, only experience was with one with a 1" wide blade in a die shop many years ago.

Rik

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I think a scroll saw is better suited to thin material because it can use very fine blades, bandsaws tend to have blades that are too coarse for thin sheet materials. I think tooth pitch should be chosen to have a minimum of 2-3 teeth in contact with the material.

Mike

[Old SchoolParticipant @oldschool]

Not seen the Aldi saw but have an old black decker bandsaw with a fine pitch blade it cuts metal just have to go steady.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Rick I had a Clarke band saw to review and it also came with a course wood saw blade but when I fitted a smaller tooth metal cutting blade it cut brass and aluminium with no problem. To fast for steel.

David

Edited By David George 1 on 10/06/2018 21:48:05

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

When you say "obviously meant for wood/plastic", are you claiming to know what the approved blade looks like? These modern "Rage" type blades don't look a lot different – they are carbide tipped blades, rather like, well, a wood cutting blade. I suggest you are overthinking this….

I expect the Aldi saw is similar to the Evolution Rage saw I have myself. Did you RTFM?

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 10/06/2018 22:32:26

[Marcus BowmanParticipant @marcusbowman28936]

One possible factor you might need to consider is blade speed.

Marcus

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Murray isn't the rage saw a rotary disk saw not a band saw?

David

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

350W motor.

900m/min cutting speed!

IF the band has about 4tpi, it is most certainly not for metal!

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

That little saw should be OK at up to 6mm aluminium & brass so long as you don't push it hard and realise the body of the saw will flex if you do. It may go thicker with care. The blade tpi should be such that you aim for a minimum of 3 teeth in the depth of the material. So, for 3mm (or 1/8&quot brass you're looking for a blade with 24 or more tpi. I doubt if you'll get much higher tpi, though I've not looked. So, this suggests that 3mm is probably the thinnest you should cut & expect full blade life. If you go thinner, the load per tooth will be higher & teeth will snap off more quickly. You will still cut the material, just reduce the blade life.

On my Clarke metal band saw I have cut sheet steel of .75mm with an 18 tpi blade. Had to be careful as occasionally the saw tooth in contact with the steel bent the sheet rather than cut it if I let the feed rate get too high, and the blade lost teeth fast, but it did the job quicker than any other tool I had available to me at the time.

Regards,

Richard.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Yes, use a fine blade more than 18 Tpi, perhaps a 24 Tpi. I found it helpful to draw a line of bees wax down the cutting line as it gets quite hot at the cutting edge. Be careful with round items as it tends to roll and draw the work into the blade, sheet will chatter and the rough edge will scratch the alu. table.

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

I have a home-made bandsaw to which I fit the common DIY 1/4" x ~59" blades. My "standard" blade is 14 tpi, with this recently I've cut loads of 1.6mm brass sheet for a 5" tender, plus thicker and thinner oddments including 12 mm steel and some round bar with no problems.

The blade speed is reasonably lowish though, about 250 ft/min at a guess, I'll have to check.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

"I suggest you are overthinking this…."

Your remarks puzzle me!

Rik

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

So are we debating the merits of band saws or chop saws and their respective blade types?…..

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Thanks to most of you for blade advice. I'll order a couple of blades today to deal with my brass sheet.

Rik

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

Have you seen the latest offering from ALDI, another bandsaw but only available on line at £150.If I didn't have a Kennedy, this would be on my want to have list.

[VicParticipant @vic]

Posted by David George 1 on 10/06/2018 22:58:43:

Murray isn't the rage saw a rotary disk saw not a band saw?

David

Yes, Rage sell mitre (circular) saws.

[Ian Skeldon 2Participant @ianskeldon2]

A long time ago before I had better machinery, I cut some very thin plate, I think it was called 'litho' I used broad double sided tape and stuck it to a sheet of ply wood, did the job quiet well.

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

Not to be confused with the usual woodworking bandsaw, this one is powered by a variable speed 1100 watt motor and has a cutting capacity of 127x127MM. It can be mounted on a stand or bench and hung up for storage. The only downside is that it is only available on line so no chance of examining before purchase.

[Paul AinsworthParticipant @paulainsworth93685]

Posted by Ray Lyons on 27/09/2018 19:24:16:

Have you seen the latest offering from ALDI, another bandsaw but only available on line at £150.If I didn't have a Kennedy, this would be on my want to have list.

For not a lot more you can get a dedicated metal bandsaw from the usual suppliers, eg this one from Chester

https://shop.chesterhobbystore.com/collections/saws/products/h80-swivel-arm-bandsaw

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Do you mean one of these… 'Scroll saw' … just bought one myself today, in the process of trying it out…

**LINK**

George.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

As mentioned had a try out of my new Aldi 'toy' today, so a brief summary.It's not a light piece of kit but easily lift able for one person. the overall finish is not bad for a Chinese machine & is very similar to one that can be bought at Machine Mart ( usual disclaimers apply in all cases. ) one difference being this has a120 watt motor as opposed to MM's motor rating of 85/90 watt, so a plus.

It comes with a small selection of 'bits', hex allen key, blade gauge, 2x pinned blades & a pair of adaptors for non pinned blades. With one of the supplied blades I tried it out with an assortment of material…

Brass – 3mm / 4mm
Aluminium sheet – 1mm
Acrylic sheet – 2mm
MDF 18mm.

With the blade having only 18 tpi it was not really suited to the material other than the MDF/wood & I had to go slowly even with variable speed facility but cut through all the samples. One thing I found was that you have to go slow & not to apply too much pressure with brass / thick MDF otherwise the cut 'wanders off' a lot so some mods are on the toduit list, I didn't try any 1/16" – 1/8" MS plate, I doubt it has the oomph to tackle it, besides I have a Clarke 4 x 6 bandsaw to do that sort of work.

I modified a coping saw blade with 24 tpi & fitted using the adaptors… works much better on the metal samples, cutting through a piece of 4mm brass fairly easily. In essence, for a Chinese import that is for the model maker / hobbyist & at a budget price, I can't complain… some might tho'. Just need to get some 24 tpi blades to suit, I believe M/Mart have them for their equivalent.

Blade… 18 tpi.

bits 'n' pieces…

samples… 3 mm, Brass, Ally, MDF,

with fitted adaptors & modified 24 tpi blade… 4mm Brass…

Will it do what I want it to do… I reckon so.

George.

[the artfull-codgerParticipant @theartfull-codger]

I've owned a few scroll/fret saws over the years, nearok is good [all cast iron] I have a hegner, good of course but my favourite is my american delta with a quick release blade clamp, I use them for cutting out parts for pattarnmaking in the foundry as well as metal cutting, cut down eclipse fine teeth metal cutting coping saw blades work well,not keen on eclipse piercing saw blades,tend to wander,I used to purchase blades from shesto, not cheap but really good,swiss blades are the best, they don't easily snap & keep to a straight line with a little beeswax as lubricant, most blades have a slight bias usually toward the left but you soon get used to that.

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

The bandsaw I was referring to is very similar to the popular 6"x 4" metal cutting saw which has been about for years. I have one which although neglected (abused) is still going strong after more than 30 years service. This saw advertised by Aldi is only available on line and cuts about 3" square. They may have got it wrong but the quoted motor rating is about 1.5HP. You need to go on line and look at the offerings for last week. They also had a cement mixer on the list but this was deferred for a later date.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

As mentioned by Ian on 27th for all thin sheet attach it to or even between some sheets of wood.

The reason for the '3 teeth in work' advice is so that the material does not jerk forward at a microscopic level as the tooth leaves the cut and the next tooth comes in which leads to too deep a cut per tooth. A bit of wood helps stop this quick advance. This applies to all cutting, including had hacksawing and even drilling which is why you use a backing block to stop snatch at drill breakthrough.

[Author]

Posts