Cutting Stock with a Portable Bandsaw.

I remember being at an open forge at the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland's Accademy of Traditional Arts building trying to cut a bunch of 1" square with a cut off saw that was being contankerous. John Larson brought in a portable bandsaw and said to try it. After that I went out and got my own. 80% of all my metal is now cut with a DeWalt? port-a-band. Most of the metal I buy comes in 12 and 20 ft pieces, which I can get cut down at work into 6 and 10 ft pieces in order to haul home an then cut into my normal working pieces for doing demonstrations in the field at re-enactments or at the Union Mills Homestead.

The port-a-band has been great for this job. I am able to band lengths of metal together and cut multiples of the same size at one time. An example being when cutting metal for tent stakes, I can tape 4 - 6 bars of 3/8th square together and then with each cut I get 4-6 pieces.

This piece of equipment can also be used to split metal up to 5-6 in long. I use it to split the ends of metal that I am turning into forks or scrollwork by placing the saw into my post vise and using it like a benchmount bandsaw.

If you are cutting wide metal it will have a tendency to go crooked as this saw doesn't have a real fence and table to guide it. All cuts are by eye.

-- RebStaup - 29 Jan 2008