Bandsaw Recommendation

[Craig Davis]

I plan to buy a bandsaw but have almost no experience with them. Therefore, I am looking for advice on which brand to buy. From what I read, the 14" seems to be a good choice for a home workshop At this stage of the game, I expect to mainly cut curves with occasional resawing but realize this could change as I gain experience..I live in a rural area so my looking is limited to the internet right now. The Delta 28-206, Jet JWBS-14CF and the Grizzly G0555 offered by Amazon are in the price range I can afford. Including shipping, the Grizzly is $494 while the Delta and the Jet are $598. Any thought on which one offers the best value would be appreciated. Should I consider other brands?

[damian penney]

I'm a big fan of my G0555 and don't think you could go far wrong with it.

[stanley_clifton]

Consider Schappach (mine), Metabo (based on their other stuff), Record Power (typical starter machines). Mine is a Basato 3 and seems to be a good size for the home workshop with plenty of power for most functions. You must have the right blades. Buy Lonnie Bird's The Bandsaw Book - cool!

Buy the biggest machine you can fit in your shop and spend the most money you have. Otherwise you'll regret it. With a bandsaw you don't need jigsaws, table saws, scroll or fret saws and you can cut down on chop saws and stuff like that if you've got a decent cross-cut fence.

Make sure that you've got the right blades.

[J. Clarke]

Whether a band saw will replace all of the other types of saw you list depends on what kind of work you do. It certainly won't cut a sheet of plywood in half, for scroll work its radius of curvature is fairly large compared to a scrollsaw and unless you have a blade welder you can't do inside cuts, and you can't carry it to the job conveniently like you can with a jigsaw.

[DoubleD]

Like damian, I'm a fan of the Grizzly G0555. I started out with a Sears aluminum & plastic bandsaw in the 80s and pawned that piece of crap off on the local UPS driver. Then I got an AMT which has since gone out of business as far as I can tell. The AMT was a pretty good saw for me and I used to show it off to folks by balancing a nickel on the table and then turning it on to see the nickel sit perfectly still. I'd still have that saw had it not been for a divorce.

Now I'm using the Grizzly G0555, and I gotta tell you, every time I feel the power and steadiness of that saw coupled with the smooth low noise, I get a great big smile on my face! You can spend more, but if your a check to check guy like me, the Grizzly's price for what you get, simply can't be beat. I'm talking 'brand new' as I assume that's what your planning.

[Larry Blanchard]

Starting tomorrow (9/30) Woodcraft will have the Jet 14" with closed st= and (not the deluxe version) for $550 with a $50 rebate from Jet. And it c= omes with a free riser block kit that usually sells for around $75.

--=20 It's turtles, all the way down

[leonard]

Hi Craig,

I got the delta but I looked at the jet and grizzly(went and looked in person).they all will work fine and all have good reputations, I ended up with the delta only because it was free(super major gloat about two years ago when a wrecker gave it to me new mine has the 1.5 hp motor and all the bells and whistles). when you buy it if you expect to resaw any time in the future get the riser kit with the saw so dont have spend your money on two sets of blades.

Len

[Leon]

And you will not be cutting any dado's with a BS.

[WD]

I sold my G0555 recently before I moved. The reason I sold it cuz, it was under power and I had a lot of problems keeping the blade alignment properly each time I change the blade. I also found if I have upgraded the 1HP motor, it's impossible to find a longer than a normal motor shaft for this 1HP motor. .

[Len]

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appreciated.

I have a 14" Rigid BS1400 purchased from Home Depot for $349.00, including stand, in my home workshop and it does all the things I need it to do. Including occasionally resawing larger chunks of wood down to what I need for a project.

There was a problem a while back with the threads on the tensioning screw nut stripping due to out of spec. threads. But Rigid was very quick to correct the problem, and supply replacement parts manufactured to the correct specs, when it was brought to their attention.

Len