Folks, one of my challenges is that I have a small shop. When making my grips and handguards, I use a bandsaw to cut off the sprue – the waste plastic from where the liquid is poured into the mold. Since I started, I used the relatively cheap Ryobi bandsaws from Home Depot and would get about a year to a year and a half out of them. The glass fibers in my plastic would dull the HSS blades pretty quick plus it would absolutely eat the unsealed bearings alive to the point that they would fall apart. I can’t fault them too much – the bandsaw was intended for wood really.
So as my last Ryobi started to get worse and worse (even with teflon sprayed into the bearings to coax a bit more life out of them), I knew I needed to move to something better. During surfing, I found a company called SWAG Offroad made a really cool little table that could hold a Milwaukee Portaband saw and let you use it then as a vertical saw. Now this seemed like a perfect fit – small, portable, sealed bearings, metal cutting capability and Milwaukee quality. So, armed with that, I bought the SWAG Offroad table with Incra Jig and foot pedal plus a Milwaukee Portaband (Model 6232-21 Deep Cut Saw) in January 2017.
There are only certain models of saw that the table supports so be careful to get the right one. In fact, they say it fits:
- Milwaukee 6232-20, 6232-21, 6238-20, 6238-21
- Milwaukee Fuel M18 2729-20, 2729-21 & 2729-22
My 6232-21 saw has a deep throat and uses a power cord as I really didn’t need the portability of a battery model or having to deal with keeping the battery charged given the way I use it.
Set up was very easy. I think I had it all together in about 30 minutes including using a square to get the blade trued to the table. I have been using this combination for about three months now and love it. The table is heavy gauge and has held up great and I really appreciate the excellent Incra mitre guide and the foot pedal. I’ve cut a ton of grips, Kydex and even steel with this and am still on my first blade. Another positive is that the blades are much more sturdy and don’t “walk” around as easy when I am cutting something.
The only con I have encountered is that the blade faces you. This means when you feed something to be cut, it is going straight back towards the neck of the saw vs. parallel. This is not a big deal for me as I can turn around whatever I am working on and come at it from the other direction if need be.
In short, I really recommend this combination of saw, table, Incra mitre and foot pedal. They definitely work great for me.
June 2, 2019 Update: Still going great. I’ve cut a lot of steel, aluminum and composites with this unit. It’s holding up great. By the way, the foot pedal and Incra jig are totally worth it.
June 30, 2017 Update: I’m still very happy. Not one glitch and I have cut a ton of steel, aluminum, wood and the composite plastic I work with. I had to cut a free float AR handguard to a custom length and that combination of the Incra mitre and heavy blade cut it as square as I could ask for with no wandering.
February 7, 2020 Update: I use this almost every day and it is still going strong. Other than changing blades, which is to be expected, nothing has worn out. I’ve found Milwaukee blades hold up the best – at least of the brands I have tried – and Amazon is a very good source for them.
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