Bandsaws

[poliopete]

I would like to replace my very old ex butchers bandsaw. I have had used it for more years than I care to remember and it has served me well and owes me nothing. Unfortunately, it's now beyond repair

I'm totally bewildered by the range of saws and the huge price differences.

Apart from preferring a "solid" blade, I have an open mind.

Any advice, opinions or recommendations will be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Peter.

[Not your average framer]

Good bandsaws cost quite a lot. Many of the budget priced band saws are a bit limited when it comes to the blade guides and also the available power from the electric motor. It's not particularly worth thinking about fitting a new motor and gearbox into a lower price bandsaw, but quite a lot of people make their own blade guides using skate board bearing bought cheaply from on-line sources, eBay being one such popular place to buy them.

I have a budget priced bandsaw, which I hope one day to upgrade with skate board bearing based blade guides one day. It's capacity for cutting significant thicknesses of harder woods is a bit limited and the motor stalls on anything other than softer woods, or thinner sections of hard woods. So if you are thinking about re-sawing larger bits of wood down to makes smaller profiles, you really need something with a decently powerful motor.

The needle point guides on my bandsaw are pretty much useless for cutting plywood as the blade does not cut straight where there are different grain directions within the same board.

[Tudor Rose]

Found these for you - quite a good discount on them at the moment!

https://adexa.co.uk/index.php?route=pro ... ption=true

[poliopete]

Mark, thanks for that. I definitely will avoid the cheaper models simply because I would not be able to undertake the upgrade you are considering.

Jo, thanks for the link I have not come across those before and the first modal as shown looks exactly what I'm looking for.

Peter.

[Not your average framer]

I've got one of these:

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke- ... 7-bandsaw/

It works extremely well on softer woods like Obeche, or Pine. If you know what you are doing, you can set it up to cut veneers, I've cut of strips at under 1mm thick from Obeche, but harder woods might be another story. One particular advantage of a bandsaw over other power saws is the fact that the saw dust goes down into the machine, where as a circular saw blades creates quite a bit of air bourne dust.

I was hoping to use the saw for making things from plywood, but the lack of ball races on the blade guides allows the blade to change direction some what when trying to cut through the different grain directions within the plywood. Having said all that I'm still very pleased to have got the bandsaw and it is quite useful for cutting many woods other than plywood.

[poliopete]

Thanks for the link, Mark. That looks a neat piece of kit. Because I cut hardwoods and softwoods, I feel a more robust saw would be more appropriate. Also, I'm familiar with the straight blade type as shown in Jo's picture of the "bone" cutting saw.

Your saw is priced very attractively as opposed to the other model so I need to do some serious thinking.

Peter.

[poliopete]

After further research, I have found a "bone bandsaw" much cheaper on a website I have not come across previously, "Alibaba.com". Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of this site

Any comments will be appreciated.

Peter.

[Steve N]

poliopete wrote
"After further research, I have found a "bone bandsaw" much cheaper on a website I have not come across previously, "Alibaba.com". Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of this site "

You might be buying a container load from China at that price each

[poliopete]

Thanks Steve.

[fusionframer]

I have a record bandsaw, which i got from yandles.

I have the big 16 inch for my joinery workshop, but this onw is good.
https://www.yandles.co.uk/record-power- ... 230v/p8211

If you look, the cheaper ones have aluminium wheels and you can, go for a model with cast iron wheels. I believe it helps the blade accuracy, and smoother running etc.

I think the record ones at about £400 may be cast iron, the one i put a link to has the stand with castors which can be useful.

I have used the one in the link a couple of times at a friends workshop and found it as good my one for most things (i rip down up to 4 inch oak hence the extra power i need).

If going for cheaper ones, the charnwoods are not a bad bet.

Cheers

Nick