Club Funded:
Our vertical band saw just broke and I checked out the Spectrum First 10K list but they don’t really list a stationary band saw. Would the WEN 94396 + Portaband combo outperform a vertical bandsaw in a non-competition setting? If not We were going to buy an Evolution Rage Cold Saw for the pits at comps but if the horizontal bandsaw table combo would be better than a chop saw let us know. We would like the most cost-efficient combo possible but if it is truly worth it to buy all 4 items let us know.
School Funded:
We have around $10k for a CNC mill to throw around from what I’ve understood from our tech department. Any recommendations for one of those?
Do you already have a CNC router? I ask because for WELL under $10K (leaving room for accessories, tooling, enclosures, ect.) you can get a great CNC router (or 2) which will be able to machine most parts you’d find on FRC robots, but my understanding is that $10K is on the low end for CNC Mills.
If you’re just getting your first CNC router, then $10k is more than enough for your needs. Indeed, you can get two excellent CNC machines for that, with accessories. My team bought an Omio X8-2200L-USB a couple of years ago and it has proven to be a fantastic investment. You could get one with an excellent set of accessories (enclosure, tube jig, etc.) for about $5k (the machine itself is about $4k, plus another $1k for all the accessories you could want.) So with $10k dedicated to this, you could buy two machines and really up your ability to crank out parts. Ours has certainly caused a radical change in our team’s ability to do complex manufacturing and produce much more sophisticated mechanisms. I highly recommend looking at the Omio line of machines.
We have a router but it’s small, roughly 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft build area but I’m not sure if we can use it and it doesn’t look maintained. I guess we’ll just go buy another one if we can’t fix it and I’m looking at the Omio line.
Please don’t take a cold chop saw to competitions. Those can be incredibly dangerous and can throw work pieces. Especially in the small area of a pit, I would never allow one. (I am not a safety official so what I would allow doesn’t mean much… But still…)
Definitely do not take a chop saw to a competition. I don’t know anywhere that would allow it, to begin with, and while they’re great to have in the shop (with proper safety) they just wouldn’t be safe in a pit. I’d suggest that you look at a good quality portaband (a DeWalt or Milwaukee rather than the WEN) and the SWAG table with the foot switch. A good way to get a solid saw in the pits without creating an unsafe condition for anyone.
You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a CNC mill for under $10k. I’m pretty sure even a Tormach 440 is more than that, after tooling and workholding and stuff.
Do you really need CNC? Depending on where you are, you can probably pick up a decent used Bridgeport clone for $5k or so. You can accomplish a whole lot with a Bridgeport and a DRO, and a student who knows how to use them.
My personal opinion is that you will never use the hand held mode on a portaband… our kids have -literally- never used ours. I need to fab the stand so we can take it to comp!
Personally, I use my metal cutting bandsaw ALL the time! Crazy useful tool now that I have one that is slow enough!
The portaband/stand combo answers both the “not crazy loud cutting” need and some profiling ability and is slow enough for metal, unlike 99% of the smaller bandsaws!
Swagoffroad.com sells a stand for a wide variety of portable bandsaws starting at around $150. Select the appropriate stand for your particular saw. I just got one for mine with the Incra miter gauge accessory and foot switch. It takes sgome fiddling to get the cuts to be square. I also added a larger fence on the miter gauge.
From what I understood last year, there were a lot of power regulations that differed at various comps. Would a portable bandsaw pass these regulations?
They’re 120V and draw 15A or less, can’t exactly ask people to not draw 15A from a 5-15r socket. IIRC most of them are closer to 7-8A. If they let you charge batteries in the venue there’s no stopping you from running a portaband, except maybe a UL safety rep that hasn’t learned to stay in their lane.
There’s even cordless ones, but you don’t get the benefit of a footswitch there.
Curious for those that use a foot switch in their portband, is there a large/obvious power switch for the unit that kills power regardless of input from the foot switch? I’m specifically thinking of what happens should someone walking by (say accidently in a pit during the heat of the moment) steps on the foot switch? Will the saw suddenly start, or is there other safety features to ensure that doesn’t happen?
There’s a Velcro strap around the finger trigger to hold it on during use. which could be removed when not in active use to prevent the situation you’re describing.
(I also would use a light switch attached to the stand or similar instead of a foot trigger for competition, to avoid the tripping hazard when saw not in use. The foot switches are literally a 120v 15a momentary switch in a box, any competent shadetree electrician could help a team rig up an alternative)
Occasionally at events you’ll see a robot that’s too tall. I’ve seen a portaband used freehand more than once to solve the height problem. Once on one of my high school team’s bots.
I think I’ve heard of a few RI’s that bring a portaband to events for “just in case” robot shortening.
Our school ordered one of those for our shop we should see it sometime this fall. Really looking forward to it as it should be a significant upgrade from the flimsy table attachment that our 4x6 horizontal band-saw has.
When we looked there was not much else easily available for vertical metal cutting band-saws at a reasonable price. The next step down is pretty much either a 4X6 like we have or a Porta-Band in a stand.
As an alternative to the Swag Off-road one it is not too hard to make your own. I made one similar for my own use as have been thrilled with it. Definitely recommend as an option for the budget and or space constrained over a chop-saw.
The saw plugs into the foot switch. The foot switch plugs into your AC supply. As s-neff stated, there is a strap around the handle of the saw to keep the saw on all the time. As soon as one steps on the foot switch, the saw runs. Those are the only two switches in the circuit and nowhere to install it. I doubt that the typical inline switches have sufficient current rating for the saw.
To prevent what you are describing, unplug the foot switch from the AC supply after use.
