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g/tools • Posted by u/dewalt_donna •

Anyone else stop buying cordless bandsaws after cordless track saws got good? Discussion

Genuine question, not a hot take. Over the last two years the amount of work I do with a bandsaw has dropped a lot and I think it is because the cordless track saw got good enough to take over the straight-cut work I used to do with a portaband.

Curious whether that is a general shift or specific to how I work. Trades where the bandsaw is still non-negotiable, speak up.

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u/pipefitter_pat •

Non-negotiable. A track saw does not cut 3 inch schedule 40 in a ceiling. The portaband is the only tool that cuts pipe in place, in an awkward position, without sparks. On any job with a hot work permit that last part is the whole reason it exists.

Different trades, different tools. Nothing has shifted on the pipe side at all.

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u/weld_wire_wanda •

Same answer from the fab side, and adding the sparks point because it is bigger than people think. In a refinery or anywhere with a hot work permit, the difference between a cutting operation that makes sparks and one that does not is the difference between a two hour permit process with a fire watch and just doing the work.

A bandsaw is not competing with a track saw. It is competing with a grinder, and it wins on paperwork.

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u/dewalt_donna OP •

The permit angle had not occurred to me at all and it completely reframes the question. I do residential and light commercial where hot work permits are not part of my life. Of course the tool looks optional from here.

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u/milwaukee_mark •

Even on the electrical side I am not giving up the bandsaw. Cutting strut and threaded rod overhead, in place, is a bandsaw job. A track saw needs a surface to reference against and half of what I cut is already installed.

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u/elevator_ernie •

Elevator work — bandsaw daily, track saw never. Everything I cut is in a hoistway, in place, at an angle, with no reference surface within ten feet. Some of these tool debates are really debates about whether your work happens on a bench.

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