Thread: Bandsaw advice

I've been thinking about getting a bandsaw lately and I was wondering if you all had some advice on what to look for in one. I don't want to spend tons of money, but I have a feeling that the $99 Ryobi might be lacking in certain areas. I'm hoping to spend about $300.

What are some things to look for in a bandsaw that someone not totally familiar with them might miss? I'm guessing that having a rip fence would be a good idea. Any other attributes?

you might find this thread of some help.

Are you looking at just cutting wood or also metal? I have a 14" Rockwell ( now Delta ) with a riser block. Instead of a 93.5 inch band it takes a 105.5. It has a 1/2 hp motor. Probably a little under powered running a wide band.

You might look for a used Delta, Jet or the like. There is a difference between those and the little hobby machines.

Rick

Thanks, guys. I remember reading that topic, Toxik. It's one of the posts that started me to thinking about it. Does that smaller bandsaw fit your needs? Or do you think you'd move up to a sturdier model?

Mainly, I'll be using it for cutting wood, but I was wondering if it was possible to put a metal cutting blade on there for doing thin stuff like liners and whatnot. Very light metal work.

Two of the models I was eyeballing at Tool King yesterday were Deltas and a Jet.

I think that 99 dollar job would suit your purposes. I used a small 9" bandsaw for a long time and still use it occasionally but after getting my 16" Delta, it's my go-to saw for most things. For cutting scales and light sheet metal, the 9" did fine for me. It's not a powerhouse, but you don't need a powerhouse for small work.

I bought the $99 Ryobi a few years ago for doing my Shakihachi flutes. No heavy work just cutting to length and trimmin the root ends. It looked cheap but worked well. I ripped a bunch of 1 1/2" beech, a pretty hard wood and it surprised me at how well it did.

For knife and razor handles it is probably just fine really.

That said I will spend a fortune on other tools that are used daily. My table saw was a Swiss made Inca, 20 some years old and still performs flawlessly. Even used it was $1000 with extras, more than it cost new but they are in high demand.

Weigh it's usability vs. frequency of use.

Tony

It shouldn't be a problem to cut soft metals if you go slow. The metal cutting Deltas allow for speed changing.

Rick

Depending on the length of the blade you might have trouble sourcing metal cutting blades for the wood bandsaw.

You will definitely need to modify the wood saw to use it on metal by reducing the speed (just add different diameter pulleys to step down the rotation if the saw has a belt drive).

The metal saws are different that wood saws and you might be better off getting a metal saw and fitting it with a wood blade instead when you need to cut wood (metal blade will cut wood but slowly). The metal saw has mulple pulleys to control the speed (no need to make changes) and even a small saw has a sturdy frame to allow for very tight tensioning of the blade. A small metal bandsaw one will run you about $200 to $300.

If you want a small size bandsaw for precision work you might look at Proxxon. They are in the $300 range but designed for precision model work. The metal version comes with a coolant tank for cooling the workpiece being cut.

It really depends on what you can/want to spend and for what application you will use it. A $100 dollar investment might be good enough and once you've used it you will know what to look for in your next bandsaw.

Thanks for the tips guys. You've really given me some food for thought on the bandsaw idea. I'll do a little more research and see what I can come up with.

If you are making scales I would think a scroll saw might be better