Lidl Portable Bandsaw

[William ChithamParticipant @williamchitham75949]

I have the Aldi version, bought this spring. No problems to date, just bust the original blade so replaced with one from Tuf. Here is my minimalist approach to using as a vertical bandsaw. Spring clip on the trigger – switch it at the socket. 4mm plate for the table. Table is small enough that I can still use the thing hand held.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

My version is much more sophisticated William, it's a twin upright design with patented (removable) securing device (e.g. a bit of broom handle)

(and I've painted mine now too – he says smugly)

How big is your table – 4" square or so?

Regards,

IanT

PS Is there a way to rotate photos?

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

Have to say, the Aldi offering looks rather better made/finished than the Lidl one.

I was planning some sort of simple wood holder on similar lines to hang the saw vertically on the wall at the end of the bench. Compact and accessible, taking up no bench space.

Maybe if these become available in Aldi stores in future, I might be tempted to try again.

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

Martin

I bought the Aldi one earlier this year. I find it ok, the only problem is the vice. It is ok for cutting off from a long piece but no good for holding a small piece. It cuts ok, certainly sounds better than your Lidl one, but it cuts slightly off square. Not sure if this is due to the vice or the pivot for the saw.

It is available now on the Aldi website for delivery only at £160. I think it was £150 when I bought mine.

Stuart

[Keith FoxParticipant @keithfox28514]

I bought the Lidl band saw last Sunday, set it up to try it out on Wednesday and returned it today, Saturday. I tired it out cutting a piece of steel rod, which it started to cut okay, but then the blade just stopped moving. It would move briefly if I released blade tensioner a little bit, but would then stop. I think that for the time being, maybe I will just continue with the angle grinder.

Keith

[Matt CParticipant @mattc]

Aldi online have the Scheppach version on sale for £160.00, at the moment. That's £40 cheaper than Screwfix or Toolstation. Metal Bandsaw

Matt

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[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by Keith Fox on 07/11/2020 18:26:29:

I bought the Lidl band saw last Sunday, set it up to try it out on Wednesday and returned it today, Saturday. I tired it out cutting a piece of steel rod, which it started to cut okay, but then the blade just stopped moving. It would move briefly if I released blade tensioner a little bit, but would then stop. I think that for the time being, maybe I will just continue with the angle grinder.

Keith

I looked on the ‘net just now and the sheppach version shows no details of the base while the aldi listing says ‘no longer available’

[Anthony KendallParticipant @anthonykendall53479]

Posted by David Hill 5 on 05/11/2020 17:41:16:

I have considered buying the Lidl bandsaw on Monday (when we are released from our lockdown here in Wales) but now I am not so keen. I would rather spend a few, well quite a lot more bucks, and get a tool that I am very happy with rather that have the hassle of taking back the Lidl one. Was considering the Femi 782XL. Are people who have one very please with their decision?

Yes, I am David. I have a single speed 782 with vertical table. I use it more than 75% in the vertical position so Aldi does not really meet my needs. Changing modes is quick and easy. You can buy four Aldis for the same price though.

[William ChithamParticipant @williamchitham75949]

Posted by IanT on 06/11/2020 16:33:38:

My version is much more sophisticated William, it's a twin upright design with patented (removable) securing device (e.g. a bit of broom handle)

(and I've painted mine now too – he says smugly)

How big is your table – 4" square or so?

Regards,

IanT

PS Is there a way to rotate photos?

Very classy and much less likely than mine to be accidently cut up and used for something else. The table is about 4 – 4 1/2" sq.

W.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I do occasionally come across things that I know I've made but have no idea what for William

But I can probably remember this one. I was thinking more of 6" square table but I may have a smaller steel piece lurking some where, so will try it and see how it goes. I also need an easier, quicker way to get the saw on and off the horizontal stand – the three cap screws are not easy to line up whilst holding the saw with the other hand. Also the tapped holes in the alloy body will not last with continual use either…

Regards,

IanT

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

Sorry to all those who purchased the saw and then had to return it because of quality problems. When I spotted it in the flyer, it looked very similar to the Aldi offering. Because of the Fire Break in Wales, we did not see the specials for that week in the shops and when I called earlier this week that event had passed so it would appear that the warehouse never delivered.

Regarding the use of the cap screws to secure the arm, would it be possible to fit studs, using adhesive to lock them and secure using wing nuts?. I too found it a bit of a pain to fit the screws with one hand while supporting the saw with the other. Perhaps a distance piece could then be fitted to secure the wing nuts when operating off the bench.

William, your idea of using the B&D bench as a platform is great . I have to share a garage with my wife's car for all my woodworking gear. I partitioned off a section where saws,,planers etc. are kept. Most are fitted with a piece of 4X2 on the base for clamping in the B&D. I had bought two ladder hooks and was trying to find a place on the wall to hang the saw . Why didn't I think of it before.. It works just as well with metalwork machines as with wood. The only thing is that my bench is almost 40 years old now. Tempted to buy a new one.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Posted by Ray Lyons on 11/11/2020 21:39:26:

Regarding the use of the cap screws to secure the arm, would it be possible to fit studs, using adhesive to lock them and secure using wing nuts?. I too found it a bit of a pain to fit the screws with one hand while supporting the saw with the other. Perhaps a distance piece could then be fitted to secure the wing nuts when operating off the bench.

That would certainly help protect the tapped holes in the alloy body Ray – good idea. Maybe with the middle screw a little longer (with a plain run-in) to allow the saw to be roughly aligned…yes, very worth a look I think. I was probably going to overcook it with an adaptor plate of some kind but simpler is better (and this might actually get done sooner than later)

Thank You

IanT

[William ChithamParticipant @williamchitham75949]

Posted by Ray Lyons on 11/11/2020 21:39:26:

was trying to find a place on the wall to hang the saw . Why didn't I think of it before.. It works just as well with metalwork machines as with wood. The only thing is that my bench is almost 40 years old now. Tempted to buy a new one.

Still hoping to live long enough to inherit my Dad's which must be 70s vintage, the cast aluminium type. The one in the photo I bought second hand, I don't love it but it is very useful. I have a feeling they are good second hand buys, I bet a hell of a lot get bought, used once and abandoned.

William.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Here's my attempt:

6mm plate cut up with the reciprocating saw. The plate is 9" square. Each cut took about 2 minutes.

 

Sawn edges tidied up on the mill – pretty much at the limit size wise:

Still can't get the hang of welding properly:

Here it is cutting through 3/8" black mild steel (in real time!)

 

Works fine for me, quite noisy though.

 

Cheers,

 

Rod

 

 

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 12/11/2020 16:32:33

[Ian HewsonParticipant @ianhewson99641]

Seems I was right to think posting that my Lidl saw was working ok might jinx it. It packed up this afternoon, no drive from motor to gearbox as I was cutting some 30mm bar. Packed up and returned to Lidl for a no quible refund.

Now ordered the Scheppach from Aldi, fingers crossed with this one.

Ian

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

Afraid I weakened and after the dismal experience of Lidl's offering, decided to try the Aldi version (can always send it back, I reasoned and it might save me having to get a Femi!).

Arrived today, pleasantly surprised, substantially better made/finished than the Lidl version, in particular;

1. metal motor body not plastic
2. Thrust bearings on the radial support arm (almost assembled correctly!) and solid mitre mount
3. Two M42 blades albeit rather coarse 10/14 odd length (1141) but sure that 1140 would fit
4. Release lever tensions blade perfectly OK from A flat to F sharp
5. Out of the box, even with the joker vice/clamp arrangement cut true to within 1 degree of vertical

So deemed satisfactory for conversion to a vertical bandsaw (subject to acquiring finer blades). Base and hilarious vice/clamp tossed into scrap pile for the time being, pending attention at a later date – with a bit of thought and effort may be made serviceable one day by cutting a thread on the bar and inserting threaded collar in vice casting, or something along those lines.

Tips for new owners…

1. The alloy casting is as soft as Brie cheese and will cross thread if you are not careful, so I would get a decent quality M6 bolt that has a bit of a taper on the lead and run it part through the mounting holes in the saw for the radial arm support to start the thread. I say this because the on mine the threads were very tight and difficult to start accurately with the supplied bolts.
2. Remove the radial arm support by undoing the silver dome nut on the mitre swivel, and attach the support to the body of the saw as it lies on the bench (this is much easier than attempting to hold the saw in one hand and accurately locate and tighten the attachment bolts with your other hand)
3. Set the saw angle to the vice with a square and check work piece is resting on surface of vice by holding it down as best you can while operating the cam clamp – this may take several goes!

Speed 1 or 2 for steel and 3 or 4 for non ferrous seems OK – NO OIL. It is quite quick compared to a 6×4 type but also noisier.

Have fun with your new toy by gratuitously slicing up various materials lying about your workshop as a testing programme.

[Andy_GParticipant @andy_g]

Posted by Martin of Wick on 13/11/2020 20:47:41:

Afraid I weakened and after the dismal experience of Lidl's offering, decided to try the Aldi version (can always send it back, I reasoned and it might save me having to get a Femi!).

Arrived today, pleasantly surprised, substantially better made/finished than the Lidl version,

I also weakened, having missed out on the Lidl saw due to the Welsh lockdown ban on non-essential bandsaw sales, and ordered the Aldi one. It arrived the other day and I'm favourably impressed (apart from the comedy vice, but even that can be induced to work). It's quite gratifying to hear that it's "better" than the Lidl one, rather than being a dearer version of the same thing.

The threads in the three arm mounting holes on mine were also ridiculously tight – I thought I had cross threaded them, but I hadn't.

Other than that, the saw appears quite substantial and feels very solid. It's cured me of the urge to build a power hacksaw

[IanTParticipant @iant]

So it seems I don't have to kick myself for paying that extra £50 after all!

IanT

[Ian HewsonParticipant @ianhewson99641]

My Aldi saw arrived today, seems a lot better than the Lidl one that was returned faulty. Could do with a support for the saw when in the raised position as it seems easy for it to fall whilst you have your hands underneath using the vice, something I will have to attend to.

The instructions say not to use a soluble coolant whilst using the saw, rubber drive bands I suppose.

What do you use for steel cutting, any suggestions, or just use dry and increase wear on the blade?

Ordered a new blade from Tuff saws as the supplied blades seem a bit coarse.

Ian

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

Ian,

Make sure the bearing plates are set correctly on the swivel arm thrust bearings (mine were set to bear on the flat surfaces!!). Grease them up and tighten up the big silver dome nut so it will comfortably hold the saw assembly under friction when raised from the job.

DONT use oil, completely unnecessary, cut dry only or use some candle wax if you get a squeal , my original blade was a quality item, 10/14 I think, so good down to 2 or 3 mm. It just rips through thick stock with ease and hardly seems to get warm, Find a suitable small plastic tray (eg food packaging) to blue tack into place under the blade for collecting the copious stream of cuttings that is generated.

The work piece clamp can be considerably improved by making a keeper (a sort of shallow threaded T Nut ) to place under the body, secured to the moving jaw through the slot in the clamp base, with nut and bolt. This minimises the tendency of the moving jaw to lift when tightened. The hardest bit is to get unscrew the clamp shaft from the moving jaw. The 12m nut on the moving jaw is threadlocked, so I resorted to jamming a screwdriver in the nut end and levering a stilson on the handle end.

You may also find, that the clamp body casting is unevenly cast with bulges towards the fixed jaw end, certainly the case with mine, so I passed a file over the high spot until tolerably flat. Don't attempt to press any bulges out – you will crack the casting (go on ask me how I know!). To get a perfectly 90 degree cut in the vertical plane, you can shim out whichever pair of fore/aft clamp mount points to suit.

Does involve a bit of work to fine tune, but really worth it if you expect to use horizontally. Probably lots of other simple mods could be done to improve utility. Geometry is a bit awkward for detail cutting arrangements in the horizontal mode, more of a bar shredder in that mode. I expect good things for detail work when set up as a vertical saw, probably with a 14/18 blade.

[The Novice EngineerParticipant @thenoviceengineer]

I bought the Aldi version earlier, The only real issue was the Clamp Vice. I modified mine to be a screw vice

it has met all my cutting needs Metal, Wood, Plastic with out a problem ….other than using a coarse [8 tpi] blade to cut thin [16g] steel box section !! broke the blade at the welded joint

I bought a mix of TPI BiMetal M42 blades …no more cutting issues.

[Ian HewsonParticipant @ianhewson99641]

Hi Martin & Novice

Thanks for your posts with tips for the saw, much appreciated, good to know the saw works fine without oil whilst cutting. Always used oil on my larger bandsaw, but from memory it had metal driving wheels without and drive bands on them to wear or perish.

Ian

Edited By Ian Hewson on 25/11/2020 09:52:29

[clogsParticipant @clogs]

Several of u mentioned "ordering from Aldi"…is this the norm……

I dont live in the UK anymore but a friend could order/collect their Plasma cutter for me…..

Anyone got this cutter…any good tips…..?

it will only get used once in a while on 8mm plate or less….it's for a DIY jobs not production….

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Aldi "Black Friday" deal – their bandsaw is currently £129.99 on the website today…

Regards,

IanT

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Bump! (maybe I should have started a new thread) but just in case anyone wants one of these saws …

IanT

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