Anyone ever use a PortaBand Saw? Need advice, ideas.

[lendaddy]

I am doing a side job, steel support posts and I-beams for a deck on a downtown building. Anyway, we have vertical standing posts that are 5" x 5" x 1/4" wall square (18 of them). Once these are fastened to the interior of the building they come through the existing roof a few feet. We will then need to use a transit to establish the proper height and cut the tops off at that height. Seemed like an afterthought at the time, but now I'm wondering how well this is going to work.

So, do any of you guys have experience using a PortBand? If so, am I nuts to think about cutting (18) 5 x 5 x1/4" posts with one? Any other ideas? My back is against the wall here. TIA

[vash]

no torching and cleanup with a grinder?

is it impossible to do the transit work to predetermine the length, then cut them on the ground?

my contractor did use a hand held band saw. didnt know what they were called at the time. he used it to cut through heavier material than you have. maybe 1" wall thickness, square bridge sections. it was amazing that it cut but it was slow.

[RickM]

Can you get your hands on a big azz chop saw?

[RickM]

I thought they made portable chop saws lartger than 14". However, this 14 will do up to 5" square: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=200307901&R=200307901

[vash]

he is looking at one of these:

[URY914]

I have a Port Cable porta-band just like the above picture.
Great tool. We use them at work also. It will do the job for you. It cuts fast and clean.

Buy it.

Paul

[dad911]

Rent a torch or a plasma cutter?

[lendaddy]

Thanks guys, good info. We are actually talking plasma cutter now. Paul, thanks for the first hand info on the PortaBand, the problem we are having now is capacity. Most say 4-3/4" which wont work. Also, the throat depth will be an issue as we have to cut one that is 6" from a wall behind it, which prevents access from the back. I would need one that goes 5" deep. I'll keep looking, thanks again.

[lendaddy]

OK, we're going Portaband. I had some brain fade there, the 4-3/4" cap doesn't matter because we can just do four "corner-cuts". Thanks again guys!

One more thing, any input on blades? Will I need a few? Any favorites for this kind of work? Bimetal,cobalt, etc..

[vlocci]

Forget the portaband, it will take forever and your wind up cursing the thing 20 minutes into it. They seem more suited for things like chain link fence posts than this job.

Plasma is quick and easy, but if your looking for even cheaper spring for a carbide tipped sawblade.

Mount the blade in a decent wormdrive circular saw. Having said that, I've made a lot of cuts using a cheapie direct drive circ saw. These are dry cutting blades, so no need for coolant. Wear ear and eye protection.

I use Tenryu blades but there a a bunch of manufactures out there. A 7 1/4 blade is under 80 bucks and zips through steel at an incredible rate.

I' ve used my steel cutting tenryu for the better part of 2 years without any lost carbide or loss of performance. A buddy also used it to hack through some 1 1/4 inch plate before I told him it is only rated for 1/4 material.

Between a blade and a wormdrive saw your in for under a 300 investment, and both will come in handy in the future.

[Eric 951]

We cut 1/4" thick steel tubing all day. The portaband will work--I would figure on 4 blades. A Stihl TH350 chop saw would work better--just make sure whomever is running it has used a chopsaw before, as they can tend to buck, unless really holding it--especially sideways. You would probably only need 1 blade, but I would have a 2nd on hand just in case. You can also use a 6" grinder with a wafer wheel--but I would figure on using a box of blades if you go this route. Plasma cutter would be nice, but $$$--a torch would be too sloppy.

So, in summary, my list would be
plasma cutter
6" grinder
Chopsaw
Portaband

[RickM]

This is the type of chop saw I mentioned. 5" square capacity.

[lendaddy]

I 've seen that one Rick and I'm sure it does a good job, but it's impracticle here. These will be cut while standing, not horizontal. I could probably rig up a way to mount it on the tube but......

Anyway, I've heard two sides of the Portaband story here and will report back my third. We did consider the circular saw as well and I may regret not going that way. If worse comes to worse I'll run out and snag one. Thanks for the advice guys.

[RickM]

Originally posted by lendaddy
I 've seen that one Rick and I'm sure it does a good job, but it's impracticle here. These will be cut while standing, not horizontal. I could probably rig up a way to mount it on the tube but......

Oops, I'd better brush up on my comprehension skills.

[widebody911]

Rent one of each!

[CarreraCab]

Lendaddy, I used a Porta-Band for 35 years in the electrical trade, they are great for small channel, and conduit under 6" in dia. but they will wander a bit, I vote for using a large throat band saw. That would work if you could take the columns down and cut them one at a time. Good Luck, Doug

[lendaddy]

Well I'll find out tomorrow, I hired my Uncle to do the onsite welding (he has a portable) and he'll be doing the first few cuts tomorrow. I'll be golfing in Northern Michigan for the next 3 days He'll give me the skinny on how it went. Here is the irony of the whole thing:

We own a tube cutting company I have personally cut over a million tubes by hand myself with manual cold saws(I figured it out once). Infact we even have our own model cold saws that we make! But we just never did anything like this and we don't use bandsaws for anything but fab work. 99% of our production work is on thin wall stainless to 4" diameter so this was an oddball. We'll get through it and maybe learn a little something.

Doing these things in a factory environment is worlds different than doing them on a cold rainy rooftop with only 110V and no air supply. I'm sure some of you guys understand.

[North Coast Cab]

Portaband is a great tool and will certainly do the job. The hardest part of using it is keeping it cutting straight. It wanders very easily and the blade flexes to continue in the wrong direction. Best advice would be to start cutting very carefully and don't put much pressure on it. When cutting flat you simply rest the guard arm on the piece and let the weight of the tool push through it. If you push on it the blade will flex and it will wander badly. I would have a nice grinder available and cut the first one well outside the mark for safety and see how it goes. Good luck.

John

[911boost]

I have used them over my head (in my plumber days) and while they are not the most conv. tool, it did work well.

I am interested in hearing what you choose.

[lendaddy]

Ok, PortaBand was a huge success! All 18 posts are cut and it went great. I did not personally cut with it but my guy said it was great. I did see the cuts and they looked excellent. He did use some of our "special" lube on the blade, which he said made a huge difference. No real wander problems reported. He said about 10 mins per 5x5x1/4 wall beam. Not bad. Oh yea, if you remove the guide the throat will take 5".

Thanks for the advice guys.