I guess the other advantage is, if you are cutting a 6 inch billet is that you can walk away and it'll stop on it's own. I used to have a reciprocating steel saw. It was really old and slow. I gave it away a long time ago but I wish I kept it now. I mainly use a friction cut of saw, but I hate the noise and I'm sure the neighbors do to.
Roughly how much is a bandsaw worth. I might put it on my Christmas list.
JD