- Horizontal band saws are common features in well-equipped machine shops. Typically running a 1-inch-wide saw blade, a band saw with a 12-inch throat has more than twice the cutting capacity of a 12-inch circular saw. Metal working saws can be hydraulically controlled and have options for wet low-friction cutting. In the horizontal machine the work is clamped in a miter vise while the blade pivots through it. The work produced by a properly maintained and operated horizontal band saw is clean and accurate.
- Many vertical band saws are designed to do both straight and scrolling cuts with a variety of blade widths. Re-sawing lumber from large stock with a vertical machine is often inaccurate. Horizontal band saw mills are designed only for re-sawing. The height of the blade is adjustable and sets the thickness of the plank cut. Wide band saw blades under proper tension produce accurately sawn lumber with less waste than a circular saw.
- Portable horizontal band saw mills built for operation by one person can produce unique beams and timbers unavailable from commercial mills. Highly figured wood can be re-sawn in thicknesses as fine as 1/8 inch on some machines. Thinner blades and narrow kerfs result in as much as 25 percent more yield than a circular saw mill. Machines such as Kasco's Saw II-B can cut usable lumber from logs too small to be of interest to large mills, but can also re-saw logs up to 30 inches in diameter and 16 feet long.
- Larger versions of the horizontal band saw mill, like Blue Steel's HP-42D, are used to process valuable hardwood logs up to 5 feet in diameter. The log is held in place on the saw's track while the band saw moves the blade through it. The lumber is often sold as a matched stack in order to preserve the character of the grain pattern. Even more precise saws, such as the Ogden Re-Max 500, are capable of cutting musical instrument slats as thin as 2 millimeters.
- The horizontal band saw provides the most accurate results with the least waste. Metalworking versions cut precise angles in solid or hollow stock without wandering. Re-sawing horizontal band saws offer safe one-man operation for work in remote locations or the production of custom timbers and specialty lumber. Commercial horizontal band saws process the most valuable and rare hardwoods with a higher yield than any circular saw mill.
