Band Saw recommendations?

[edwardb]

Lots of good feedback here. But to the OP, when you say cut "metal" what do you mean? I agree one of this big Powermatic industrial metal cutting saws (or similar) is great for an all purpose machine shop. But for these builds, at least in my experience, 80-90% of the cutting and fab work I do is aluminum. For that my little 10-inch Craftsman bandsaw with a metal cutting blade works very well. (Now waiting for you serious machinists to stop cringing...) It's getting a little long in the tooth, and have looked at replacing it. But it just keeps going. I wouldn't buy another Craftsman today. H-F isn't really my choice for that kind of thing either. Our local tool store has several I like. Jet, Rikon, Delta, just to name a few.

For the few things I fab that aren't aluminum, Dremel or my new Milwaukee equivalent with a cut-off wheel does some. Larger air driven cut-off wheel for some. Or my bench vise and a hack saw when all else fails. That Portaband recommendation looks interesting.

I like big tools as much as the next guy, and have worked in places that had them. But for home use, at least for my purposes, would be overkill.