IS ACCURA 01079VS THE BEST BAND SAW FOR SMALL SHOP PRODUCTION? | AKA CY-275 Metal Cutting Band Saw Machine Review- Unboxing, How To Setup, How To Wire Electrical, Is It Any Good?
- May 17
- 5 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
Our stock cutting needs have grown to exceed the capacity of our little faithful Northern Tool band saw, which is a 5x6" swivel head band saw sold by several brands. It's a good machine and will remain our backup saw, but it struggles with production stock cutting.
Recently we had to replace the bronze worm gear on the little 5x6" band saw. See this post for the details on that ordeal. Bronze worm gears are considered a wear item and will need to be replaced. Finding a replacement was the tricky part.
I purchased the replacement bronze worm gear from Hamilton Tool & Supply (Accura machine tool), and they sent me a catalog where I saw the ACCURA 01079VS swivel mast metal cutting band saw. It looked like a reasonably priced, quality upgrade that fit a lot of our requirements.
Compact
Small footprint
Coolant
1" blade for more accurate cuts and longer blade life
Infinitely variable speed
No belt drive (belts wear out and get damaged)
Chip brush
Heavy duty construction
Blade tension gauge
Swivel head (although not used that much, when you need it, it sure is nice to have)
Although the saw appears to have been on the market for many years, I could only find one or two mentions of it or reviews online, one dating back to 2009.
Different configurations of the same base saw, model CY275A, are sold worldwide by other companies, such as Grizzly. The Accura model costs more because they have more features, like variable speed and blade tensionn gauge. It appears to be more well-refined.
The saw appears to be manufactured in Taiwan by the Chyun Yow Machinery Industry Co Ltd. The CY in the model # must stand for Chyun Yow.
Most configurations of the machine appear to be single or multispeed, but not continuously variable like the ACCURA 01079VS configuration.
PURCHASING
The saw can be purchased directly from the site or eBay, but I had a few questions so emailed Accura Tool (Hamilton Tool Supply) them directly and purchased it through PayPal invoice.
It was shipped immediately and arrived in a few days by freight. The box appeared to be in good enough shape to accept the shipment without being concerned about any damage. 2 wood blocks on top of the cardboard box had become dislodged, but were still riding on top of the box 😂. Not sure how they expect it to stay there, considering how compressible cardboard is.
UNBOXING
Opened the box to check it out.
The manual that is included is from the manufacturer and is stated for the CY275 series of band saws.
MOBILE BASE
We love the mobile base on our old saw. So easy to move it around and put it out of the way. Wanted something similar for this saw.
The stand it comes with is small. Too small to support the saw free standing, and requires being bolted down to the ground.
The manual says the base dimensions are 550mm long by 520mm wide. The saw is not stable with such a small base footprint, so the mobile base will need to be longer and wider.
Based on past experience, the bigger the wheels, the better. 4in wheels are the minimum diameter I would use. Most off the shelf mobile stands have 3" or smaller diameter wheels.
This VEVOR mobile base has good reviews, says it's very strong. It has 4 casters. However the wheels are only 3in in diameter. There are 4 levers which push feet onto the floor raising the machine. This makes it easier to level the saw.
WHERE TO BUY:
This VEVOR mobile base has 2 casters and 2 fixed wheels. Only 2 levers are engaged with the floor to stop motion, and the rear wheels stay on the floor.
WHERE TO BUY:
Although much more expensive, I decided to buy this BORA one because it was the only heavy duty mobile base I could find with larger 5in wheels.
WHERE TO BUY:
I expect I will still need to add some angle iron inside the bars of the mobile base to extend the footprint of the base to make the machine more stable.
AC POWER CONNECTION
Our previous saw was 115V AC. This is a 220V saw. I will need to run a wire for a 30A 220V circuit about 100 ft to the saw. This requires 10-gauge wire, 3 strands plus ground, metal-clad for a commercial space. Metal-clad 10/3 wire is expensive!
This wire on Amazon appears to be the same quality as the big-box store wire and was $100 less for a 125ft roll.
WHERE TO BUY
Amazon:
Home Depot:
Solid Metal Clad cable from Home Depot costs almost $100 more than the Amazon one.
Stranded 10/3 Metal Clad cable from Home Depot is exactly $100 more.
REPLACEMENT WORM GEAR
Since the most recent repair to our current band saw was the bronze worm gear, which is a wear item, I figure that what originally took over 10 years to wear out, would wear out in only 1-2 years at the current cutting rate. Therefore I wanted a replacement in hand, so we can quickly replace it when it does wear out.
I haven't gotten a clear answer yet on how to buy a replacement worm gear. They did have a spare from a sheared shaft. HTF that shaft was sheared, I don't know, because the gears show no signs of wear. I would expect some damage to the gear before shearing the shaft. Whatever, they sent me a free spare worm gear with the saw.
The worm gear is number G6 un the drawing.
I received it still on the shaft. Shaft G2 with Gear G6 and bearing B5. I could not see the keyway for the gear, so at first I thought it might be heat pressed on, but that seemed like a bad idea, because it could slip, especially since it operates submerged in oil.
This is what it looked like:
The bronze gear appears to be pressed onto a steel (or cast iron) hub. I needed to press the bearing and gear off the shaft, but did not want to damage the connection between the gear and hub.
I cut a small piece of steel pipe that could be used to push against the hub instead of the gear.
Steel pipe ring shown seated against the worm gear hub.
Using the hydraulic press to push the shaft out. We previously tried a bearing puller, but did not succeed out of fear of damaging something. The hydraulic press pushed it out like a soft poo.
Yay! It separated and here are the parts. Now I can store them away and sleep well at night knowing I have a spare worm gear under my pillow.
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