Anyone using a Porta-Band?

Well the wife and I were going to home Depot at 6am for some lights for my shop.After that she asked wat else I needed and I said go over to HF to get one of those cheap portabands.Well she said we are here and will get one here.So being a guy who didn't want too complain I walked out with a Milawukee I was happy.
 
I have both an older Porter Cable porta-band, as well as a vertical/horizontal Wellsaw with a table, and I still use my porta-band the most. It's actually got a pretty short throat capacity compared to other porta-bands I've seen, but I'm able to cut most profiles on it without a ton of trouble. If I need more capacity, there's always the Wellsaw, but the porta-band definitely sees a LOT of use.
 
Chris Railey said:
Ok I could not stand it any longer so I faked a seizure and got to leave work early.
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Now that is die hard!! You will wonder how you ever lived with out one. I use to could make cuts with a right angle grinder most would not even attempt. I do a lot of metal fabrication and after I got mine I set it up like some I had seen and I have never looked back!! I use it all the time for knife related and non knife projects!!
 
I can't even imagine how I got along without mine. I use it for every single step when I'm doing material removal. Rough cut the blank, cut the pins/lanyard tube, rough in the scale shape. After glue up cut off excess pin material.
 
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18 or 24 TPI is what I generally use. I've learned to avoid the multiple size toothed blades on the porta-band...... usually during the first cut on a new blade of that type, 1 or 2 of the lead in larger teeth get knocked off, and then it's just a "bang, bang, bang" experience.
 
After having a bandsaw you'll cringe every time you see one of the countless videos where guys use a cutoff wheel. I used my portaband and a SWAG table for a couple of years. When my buddy wanted to start making knives I gave him my portaband/SWAG setup to help him get started and picked up the HF Vertical/Horizontal saw. There are still times when I miss my portaband setup. I had the cheapest of the SWAG tables that you clamp in a vise. It worked like an absolute champ and also allowed me to stow the saw under the bench when I didn't need it.
 
That is high on my list of purchases to add to my shop. Wire feed welder comes later this week and the saw shortly after
 
John Wilson said:
After having a bandsaw you'll cringe every time you see one of the countless videos where guys use a cutoff wheel. I used my portaband and a SWAG table for a couple of years. When my buddy wanted to start making knives I gave him my portaband/SWAG setup to help him get started and picked up the HF Vertical/Horizontal saw. There are still times when I miss my portaband setup. I had the cheapest of the SWAG tables that you clamp in a vise. It worked like an absolute champ and also allowed me to stow the saw under the bench when I didn't need it.
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That's the one I have. I stow it away when I'm not using it. That thing is heavy, I think its 1/4" steel.
 
I am a newbie knife maker. I just bought a SWAG table and a Grizzly portaband. The Grizzly seemed to have more clearance between the blade and the saw on the left side than the other saws in the SWAG pictures, due to the way the blade is angled.

I can cut circle with a five or six inch radius, but with some difficulty. The blade that came with the saw seemed to wear out quickly. It was 18 TPI. I'll need to try some 24 TPI blades.

It is a pleasure to use this saw and table combination after struggling with an angle grinder for a year. I consider the angle grinder is the most dangerous tool on my bench. It is good not to be stabbing myself with the steel splinters it creates, not to worry about kickbacks in the direction of my head, and not to be blinded by the radiance of the sparks it throws.

You should definitely by the SWAG table, regardless of which saw you get.
 
So I was messing around on Amazon today looking at the dewalt band saws and noticed something odd this model is a lot more expensive and nothing in the description other than the weight suggests any differences
 

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This item is less expensive and the description shows it being lighter. What am I missing here?
 

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I am not a huge fan of HF power tools. A quick YouTube search of that product reaffirmed my stance on that. I would rather get a smaller variable speed saw
 
My HF saw is GREAT!! Would I rather have a Milwaukee or Dewalt?? Hell yeah but you can buy 3 of the HF + for the price of one of the others! I bought my entire setup including the better SWAG table with a HF foot switch for less than 250 bucks! At 99 dollars that saw us awesome!! I watched some of those videos and one guy on there would have destroyed anything he used.
 
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