Benchtop power hacksaw - video

[clavius]

I'd love for anyone who has some experience with this to tell me: if you have a metal bandsaw, is there any advantage to having this too?

It seems like the one advantage is that you can set it up to cut, and let it run while you work at something else, even though no sane person would/should let it run completely unattended.

Then again, you can do the same with some models of bandsaw. You might save some money on blades, and you'd have an easier time switching between different types of hacksaw blades.

So what are the real advantages?

I had both, a horizontal bandsaw as well as a power hacksaw. As you note either could be set up to run unattended and would shut themselves off when the cut was done. To my mind, there is not really any hugely compelling reason to have both if they are of similar size. In my case, the bandsaw was the pretty common Asian made 4x6 type which was pretty worn. It was actually not a bad machine, but badly needed refurbishing due to many years of daily commercial shop use. The power hacksaw I have was recently gone through and had come out of a school shop where it saw far less use than the bandsaw. I was space limited so I kept the hacksaw and passed the bandsaw along to someone else.


The hacksaw is a nice old machine and works really well for what I do, but there is a reason you don't see power hacksaws in commercial shops anymore. Bandsaws are much faster and because any given cut is spread among a much larger number of teeth the blades last a long time if they are cared for and used properly. Overall, though on a "cost per inch of material cut" basis, I believe bandsaws come out well ahead, again assuming they are not abused. On the flip side the individual power hacksaw blades are not all that expensive and it's a bit easier to set it up to cut nice and straight as the blades (if you are talking about actual "power hacksaw" blades) are quite rigid.

And while you can set up the PH to run unattended while you do something else, it's fun to watch so I tend to sit there watching it more than I should be willing to admit.

Your other points are right on, swapping blades is quick and easy and the individual blades are not very expensive.

In my case, the PH was the better machine but it was not really a fair comparison. My PH was an old but pretty high quality machine made by Keller and in good condition. I was comparing it to a much lower cost machine that was very well used and worn. If I had a bandsaw of similar quality and condition to the PH I may have very well opted to keep the bandsaw instead. The PH had a somewhat smaller footprint, which helped in my case as well.

I think in a commercial shop environment a bandsaw is the better choice. In a home shop, it's probably mostly just preference and what you happen to have available and the advantage of one over the other is less clear. I did not see any clear reason to keep both.

I do still have a vertical wood and metal cutting bandsaw, but that is an entirely different tool.