SWMBO is after suggestions for my Xmas present and I was thinking of the small Perform Bandsaw (currently £60). I want to use it for small items like toys and the like rather than huge projects. Obviously I would like one of the expensive floor mounted jobbies but neither the wallet or the garage is big enough.
Has anyone tried one of these and if so what do you think of it? Or has anyone any other suggestions?
Cheers
Mark
Hi Mark, I don't know this particular machine but many of the small bandsaws in this price range are let down by their lack of rigidity and the guides for the blade. I have a 3 wheel type that can be tweaked and coaxed into giving a decent cut but is not rigid enough to maintain the settings. In fact the instructions say that the macine should not be left with the blade tensioned!!
The net result is that I rarely use it and it just clutters up the workshop.
I suggest that you attempt to get a test drive on one first. This should include de-tensioning/refitting a blade and see how easy it is to get a decent cut from scratch.
Sorry to put a potential damper on your Christmas pressy idea but if you want to do accurate work it will be best to be sure.
Bob
White or Yellow ? The yellow one (like all such things) is just too small to be any use. The white one that's about 12" wheel diameter and just over £100 is _much_ more useful.
In general, real bandsaws begin with 14" wheels (like the Axminster
350).If you get one, also get the Mark Duginske "Bandsaw Handbook" and don't be slow to buy a range of blades (Duginske offers good advice).
Agreed. There is also a DVD by Duginske which is quite good.
Most of the material is relevant to bandsaws sold in Europe as in the U.S.
The only thing that I noticed is that most U.S. bandsaws have blocks as guides, whereas it's more popular here to have ball bearing guides (normally an assembly with one bearing each side and one behind. Having said that, the setup procedure seems pretty similar.
There are two sorts of bearing guide. The "high-end Euro" sort is very good and surprisingly rare in the USA. Some US saws do have bearing guides though, but these are the simpler and less good ones made from off-the-shelf bearings. As we get globalisation rammed down us, we're seeing these come in on Jet and similar kit. AFAIR Duginske describes the second sort, but not the first.
I converted my Axminster 350 from Cool Blocks to their bearing add-on. It was such a piece of junk that I went back to the blocks. Cool Blocks are excellent and well worth the upgrade, if you've currently got brass or other plastic guides.
Oh dear. Yes I've seen some of those (I think) on a Jet saw. I am sure they do it so that they can claim to have bearings on the spec sheet. I did have a brief play with an upper guide on one, but the adjustments are poor and the guide is not very rigid. I think that under pressure it would bend so in effect be a chocolate teapot.
The ones on the better quality Italian saws are a lot more solid and can take fine adjustment without deforming.
I have a friend in the US who has a Delta saw to which he has fitted these. As you say, they are pretty good. I am not sure what they cost here, but in the US are cheap enough that the wear and eventual replacement is not a big deal.
About 10 quid a set. This is clearly led by what the market will stand, rather than what they cost, but it's still worth it.
The nice thing about them is that they're so easy to set up - you can just slam them into a narrow blade and the teeth will cut their own clearance. No more rolling the set off the teeth, as is so easy to do with a mis-adjusted bering guide. The Axminster bearing guides were finally binned when they destroyed yet another brand new 1/4" blade.
How did that happen? Do you mean that the side positioned bearings effectively squashed the teeth? Didn't the rear bearing prevent the blade from going back so that that wouldn't happen? Something seems very wrong if that can happen.....
The problem with the Axminster bearing guide set isn't that its a bad guide set, so much as it being a parts-bin engineering exercise. Wherever they get these tings, they clearly weren't designed around the
350 saw. The under-guide didn't last more than a week because it's simply unadjustable when installed. Even if you remove the much-vaunted micro-adjust screw, there isn't space to fit it. The upper guide almost works, but not for narrow blades like the aforementioned 1/4". You can't adjust it so there isn't a risk of the blade popping over the side of the rear guide wheel, at which point the blade moves backwards and there's a brief squeal as the teeth get ruined.
Ah, OK, now I understand.
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