Bandsaw

looking for recommendations for a descent hobby bandsaw.
coastie

first rule of the day, and never consider any other...…...you want a 2 wheel saw.....NOT A 3 WHEEL one...……..as the 2 wheel is easy to adjust the running true of the blade...……….use a 3 wheel and any adjustment that is off on one wheel and you may as well cut by hand, as the saw will throw blades for fun and you'll spend more time reseating the blade than you will cutting....

I was a woodwork teacher for 22 years...…...both school and industry will not touch 3 wheel saws.

second rule, spend as much as you can afford...….it is one saw you will never do without once you have one in your workshop.

I bought my Electra Bekum 25 years ago and touch wood it has never ever let me down...….and I have even cut tree logs on it.

I do own a 3 wheel bandsaw and it works very well. It is one that was built in former communist Germany:



As you can see in the foto, it is simple, it is solid and it does its job very well.





As you can see, its cover is made of the same kind of plastic used for car bodywork. To the right of the last foto, you can see its table.

I spent 80 Deutschmark, about less than 40 Euros. The former owner, from whom I purchased my lathe could not use it. It was very dirty so that the bandsaw blade jumped off again and again. Just cleaning it properly the problem was solved!

Lots of fairly decent band saws out there.  My 60 year old 14 inch Delta Rockwell is hanging in there very nicely.  The big deal for a bandsaw, or table saw for that matter, is to attend to its accuracy.  That will take a bit of time and patience but accuratizing is well worth the effort.  WIth a bandsaw the guides and  blade back bearings are important to get right.  They are adjustable on any saw worth your consideration.  The blades are the determining factor. The welds at the ends are rarely perfectly aligned so you need to do some grinding.  While the saw is running use a hand grinder  such as a Dremel and grind the back of the blade carefully until it is making sparks all the way around the perimeter of the blade. Now use the grinder to grind the sides of the blade where the weld has left it not quite perfectly straight.  Be careful not to grind the set of the teeth away when you are doing this deal. Sounds like a lot of trouble but when you get the saw working perfectly you can rip slabs of wood as thin as one millimeter. 

Obviously you wont be ripping with that kind of accuracy unless your rip guide is perfectly aligned with the blade.  That is another of the accuratizing deals that you can do. You can find a video on you tube that shows you how to do all that stuff.  It is easy and an essential job for the serious model maker.

As someone else said above, buy the best....read: heaviest saw that you can afford.

When I built my new workshop last year I still kick myself to this day I opted to put ina. Table saw rather than a ban saw....

There are many good options but neils right 2 wheel systems work best... also older tools tend to run better than a new modern machine ( just better made! And not Chinese)

Rule of thumb... buy the best you can afford, and never discount a 2nd hand tool... I just proved that fact picking up a 40 year old unimat sl lathe this week!

well said arron old is best . even me,neil Damion and barrie  are old   ,   parts may be a bit worn but still going just 


david

I find a bandsaw to be an invaluable tool for use as a model boat builder, and use mine for both large and small cuts, stripping planking and veneers, and for cutting keels bulkheads and smaller parts when building from plan - or for just making new or replacement parts.

My band saws have only ever been used for cutting plywood, hardwood and balsa wood, but they could be used for cutting thin metals and plastics etc with a suitable change of blade.

I have had a BASA 1 for the last 5-6 years and it has been superb, but more recently I also bought an Axminster Craftsman with the idea of using narrow 1/4 blades in it with fine teeth for cutting tight shapes and thin plywood and although it works really well, it has hardly had any use as the BASA 1 can do the same job with a simple blade change!

I like to keep my bandsaws clean,  and I always brush and vacuum clean them inside and out after every use.  I also use machine wax on the tables to keep them clean and to give smooth feeds.  I actually also use the wax on the rest of the machine too to keep them both looking like new - and I am sure that this has also helped to keep them working trouble free at all times.

The Hobby is the newer saw and has the superb Axminster support with spare parts and blades being readily available if or when needed, but both saws have an 8" clearance and for some other (full size) work I want to buy a 10" bandsaw, so I will be selling one of my bandsaws as I don't have the space to keep them all!

I still have and use my band saw. The problem I have with it is to cut precisely a straight cut. I guess when I will purchase again a band I will buy one that is as wide as possible. The other problem is to cut bigger boards as the rest on the band saw is relatively small, but big enough for things I have to cut for my model sailboat. I am working for a couple of years on my workshop, as my health problems make me very slow.

zooma wrote:

I find a bandsaw to be an invaluable tool for use as a model boat builder, and use mine for both large and small cuts, stripping planking and veneers, and for cutting keels bulkheads and smaller parts when building from plan - or for just making new or replacement parts.

My band saws have only ever been used for cutting plywood, hardwood and balsa wood, but they could be used for cutting thin metals and plastics etc with a suitable change of blade.

I have had a BASA 1 for the last 5-6 years and it has been superb, but more recently I also bought an Axminster Craftsman with the idea of using narrow 1/4 blades in it with fine teeth for cutting tight shapes and thin plywood and although it works really well, it has hardly had any use as the BASA 1 can do the same job with a simple blade change!

I like to keep my bandsaws clean,  and I always brush and vacuum clean them inside and out after every use.  I also use machine wax on the tables to keep them clean and to give smooth feeds.  I actually also use the wax on the rest of the machine too to keep them both looking like new - and I am sure that this has also helped to keep them working trouble free at all times.

The Hobby is the newer saw and has the superb Axminster support with spare parts and blades being readily available if or when needed, but both saws have an 8" clearance and for some other (full size) work I want to buy a 10" bandsaw, so I will be selling one of my bandsaws as I don't have the space to keep them all!

Since I wrote this I was given a new bigger bandsaw for my 70th birthday, so I really do need to sell one now - but the problem is - which one?

There is no possibility of selling my 70th birthday present (that goes without saying) but it does leave me with two others that are both performing well and really do look like brand new and unused machines.

I may (reluctantly) sell my Axminster Hobby bandsaw, but this would be a wrench as I had only just bought some new top quality blades for it and I have made a jig to fit it so that I can make my own triangular section strakes on it - and this is working superbly well!

The new blades are still in their packets and the quality of cut on the small section strakes proves that there is no need to change the one that is fitted to it for some time yet.

If anyone in the Manchester/Lancashire area fancies a nice small bandsaw , please contact me as it may finally help me move-on a lovely machine that I don't really want to sell.......and I don't really need or have the space to keep it!

Meanwhile I will try fitting my strake cutting jig onto another machine and see if it can perform this job as well as the Axminster Hobby saw can do it