Cold Saw Vs Band Saw

For many metalworking shops, owning both a band saw and a circular cold saw is ideal. These powerful machines are reliable and increase production output. But due to budget issues, shops often choose one or the other.
Making the wrong choice hurts your short-term productivity. In the long run, it can limit your chances of earning clients that need certain cuts in specific material.

It can sometimes be a daunting task choosing from a wide array of saws. Do I need a cold saw or a band saw? If you are in this predicament, this cold saw vs. band saw article is for you.

A cold saw and a band saw can both slice through metal with ease, but what exactly is the difference between the two?

Cold Saw

What is a cold saw?
Cold saws are designed to slice through metal using a toothed blade that transfers heat generated during cutting to the chips that form during the cutting process. In essence, it allows the blade and the workpiece to remain cool.
Cold saws offer accurate and clean cuts compared to band saws. Although it can handle a smaller capacity, their speed makes up for this inadequacy.

These are the best saws to use since they are reusable. In fact, you can sharpen them for more than 30 times before the blade becomes too small to cut the required diameter.

Where can I use a cold saw?

Well, it is applicable in any pipe cutting task, especially if you are looking for more precise and accurate cuts at high speed. They are used in mostly; 
-    Metal furniture industries,
-    Medical industries; hospital equipment producers such as hospital beds and chairs,
-    Automotive industries; all the pipe and profile cuts
-    All the metal workshops

Pros
    Accurate and precise cuts at straight or mitre cuts
    Clean and high quality surface finish
    Reusable; can be re-sharpened more than 30 times
    High-speed cutting

Cons
    Can’t handle large workpieces
    Expensive compared to the band saw

Band Saw

What is a band saw?

Simply put, it is a tool with a rotating band propelled by a motor running on numerous wheels. They are more versatile compared to cold saws.

However, the downside of it is that their cuts are not accurate and clean. They leave a burr on the cut edges.
Again, they are disposable and cannot be sharpened. Therefore, you have to replace the blade severally.
They are large cutting machines that can handle numerous materials at various volumes. 
Moreover, with band saws, you don’t need much expertise to operate them. Simply choose the blade and do the cutting.
Where can you use band saws?
These saws are applicable specially solid metal cutting tasks. 

Pros
    Purchase cost is cheaper than cold saws
    Require minimum expertise to operate
    Can handle heavy-duty cutting tasks

Cons
    Cannot be sharpened
    Leave a burr on the edges of the cuts
    Low quality surface finish

As a result; a high-volume, high-production application likely would require a circular cold saw. If tolerance and finish were not critical, a less expensive band saw probably would have sufficed.
Circular cold saws deliver high speed and good finish. Band saws generally are less expensive and offer flexibility in the long run in terms of saw capacity.