band saws

Those are woodworking saws, right? A woodworking bandsaw runs far too fast to cut steel of any thickness. They work OK for aluminum but make a lot of racket. Try one with steel and you'll blow the teeth of the blade in short order. I think wood saws run about 2000-3000 sfm and to cut steel the speed needs to be down around 100-300 sfm, so about a 10:1 reduction. The only home sized saws I'm aware of that work for metal are some of the older Delta/Jet /Rockwell 12" that can be setup for wood or metal with multi-sheave pulleys. Or you could do a 10:1 reduction on the drive on a dedicated wood one. Not a lot of good quality metal cutting blades available in that size though. There is also the HF horizontal/vertical saws. They can be a bit of a kit but do work well for metal and correct blades are readily available. Not much throat on them though.

If you can't find or afford a proper metal cutting saw, I'd suggest going to a fab shop that would have a plasma torch or table. I've got one locally and the charge for one-off quick cuts is very reasonable and low enough that I have no desire to get the equipment. Thought a plasma torch would come in handy on the car sometimes.....