Bandsawr recommendation

[Larry Blanchard]

Leon is advising the "last" bandsaw you'll ever need. Of course, that depends on your needs. I'm strictly a hobby woodworker. I use my bandsaw about once a week. But I do small boxes and turnings, so I wanted good resaw and log cutting abilities. On a limited budget.

I wound up with the Rikon 14" deluxe. It has two speeds and the low speed has sufficient torque that I've cut up 12" walnut logs on it using a sled. It has a 13" resaw capability, even more than the 18" model. I've also cut 1/16" veneer, although 1/8" is a lot easier.

Leon mentions problems with roller guides. I only saw those when I was cutting green wood. After I cleaned off the blade I sprayed it with one of those dry lubricants and never had the problem again.

The Woodcraft store where I worked part time has sold a *lot* of these saws. I can only recall one coming back and I don't remember the reason.

Take a look at:

The Rikon came in 2nd only to a Grizzly model. But the Grizzly only had a 6" resaw capability.

[upscale]

Yes, thanks. What I've used for the past 15 years or so for projects with hardwood veneer is a Lee Valley mini plane with a little chisel that raises a sliver of wood, bang in a nail and then glue the sliver back down. Unfortunately, the quality of the hardwood veneer on some of the plywood I've bought hasn't been all that great and it's often difficult to raise the shaving properly and glue it back down without it being noticeable. It works better on hardwood face frames, but occasionally it's noticeable where I've raised the shaving.

In all honesty though, I might just be looking for additional reasons to buy myself a Domino. :)

[Leon]

Well what I/we do is simply nail through the face frame on the kitchen jobs. It is easier to desguise the nail on red oak. We put masking tape over the spot to receive the nail and shoot the nail through the tape. This keeps the putty out of the pores or grain of the surrounding wood and keeps the putty in the nail hole. And the nails are mostly to hold the cabinets together until the glue dries as we do dado the backs of the face frames and cabinet panels. We typically assemble the cabinets for a complete kitchen in 3-5 days after cutting the plywood panels, milling and assembling the face frames. Swingman and I have often done this in two locations. I typically cut all the plywood panels, I had 27 sheets of plywood to cut up one day for a double kitchen we were doing. He mills and builds the face frames. We get together to put all of our parts together...Fortunately they have always fit, then we install. IIRC we have done 5 kitchens so far this way.

[opalko]

I'll check it out - thanks!

[RonB]

Yeah. I'm still adjusting to a new environment. When we lived in the city we had a couple of sources for custom made blades and I could usually get them in a day or so. We recently moved to SE Kansas and I haven't scoped out local sources yet.

RonB

[J. Clarke]

Take a look at a Rikon 14" deluxe. 1.5 hp, 13" resaw, 2 speed, tension release, 799 at Woodcraft.

FWIW, I decided to go with a Craftsman Pro which has 1 hp, 8 in resaw capacity and no tension release but appears to be otherwise pretty much the same saw and it cuts anything I throw at it--even resawed some 7" wide lignum vitae a while back without any strain. At current prices I'd have paid the extra for the Rikon to get the tension release, which can't be easily retrofitted to the Craftsman, but the price differential at the time was a lot higher.

[charlie b]

Mentored an absoulute newbie woodworker making a floor to ceiling linen cabinet - for a SECOND floor location - with a 90 degree change in direction of the stairs - with a fairly narrow landing.

Had to assemble the sides to the front on site since it was 30" wide, 20" deep - and 94 1/2" tall. Dry fit in the shop, disassembled, carried the parts upstairs and did the glue up in position. Top and bottom and middle dominos were "tight", the rest "loose" (as in longer mortises). Used the outriggers and refereneced off previous mortises to run down the front to side dominos. As long as you start from either the top or the bottom - and the vertical elements are the same length - everything comes out fine at glue up time.

God help the person who wants to move this thing in the future

- either on the same floor, or tried getting it down those stairs.

BTW - she cut a few of the mortises wrong - somehow - but we just glued in a domino, let the glue dry and trimmed it flush. Then recut the mortise in the right location.

The source of the miscut mortises is an easy to make mistake

- accidently referencing of the bottom of the DOMINO foot rather than off the bottom of the "fence" (see this link

DOMINO is like the early HP programmable calculators

- a solution looking for problems to solve.

Hope this helps.

charlie b

[Leon]

Snip

I always advise that with the Domino and with a PlateJoiner to always reference/index off the fence rather than the machine bottom surface.

A slightly warped piece of stock, debris under the stock or depris under the machine can throw off the cutting location.

[Leon]

If the tension release is like the one on the 18" Rikon you probably would not miss it. On the 18" Rikon that I briefly had the tension release was so hard to activate the rubber knob on the end of the lever broke off.... and the tension release simply loosened the tension, you still had to screw the tension dial still further to actually release all the tension from the blade. I ma not quite sure what the tension release lever on the Rikon 18" saw accomplishes.

I really wanted the tension release also but the Laguna tension crank works so well that it is no longer an issue.

[Steve Turner]

No tension release on my MiniMax either, and I've never once found myself wanting for one. The feature sported by the MiniMax that I would *not* want to live without is the foot brake. Cuts power to the machine and stops those big heavy drive wheels in under one second; I love it.

[Vic Baron]

I have the Grizzly G0555 with the riser and it's handled everything I've thrown at it with ease. Regular cuts, scroll cuts, resaw. Most I've ever resawn was almost 10" red oak - no problems.

Vic

[Leon]

I have the foot brake too and it cuts power too but really don't use it much unless others are around. I kinda like to listen to it coast down to a stop. I recall how fast the MiniMax brakes worked.

I was using my Laguna this afternoon. I am attaching false frame and panel fronts to a dozen under bed storage drawers. The 1/4" panel being centered leaves a space behind it and will bow in when you attach a pull. So I needed a spacer behind the panel a bit over 1/4" thick. Having several scraps of 1/2" Baltic Birch left over I rewased 6" wide a 12" long pieces to fill the voids.

I thought I had toasted the 1/2" blade that was on there, it is a cheapo one that I have been using to split firewood and it had gotten to where it would absolutely not cut straight. Strange enough I simply retensioned the blade a touch more than recomended and slid my fence up to guide the resaw operation. The fence was not adjusted for any drift but my slices were perfect. There is something about a cool saw and being able to use it any time with out tweaking... I'm sure you enjoy the same.

[Steve Turner]

I hear ya, and yes I do; it's my favorite machine in the shop. I also love how, after aligning it once right after I bought the saw, the (rock-solid!) height adjustment for the upper blade guides continues to stay in perfect alignment after all these years, no matter what blade I use or how tightly it's tensioned. Set the vertical height anywhere along its 13" travel, install a new blade and adjust the bearings, then alter the resaw height to any position from 0" to 13" and the bearings will always be in perfect adjustment, even if you drastically change the tension adjustment. Try that on a cheapie saw with a flexible frame...

[Leon]

And that in a nut shell is what a lot of people don't realize. IMHO being able to USE the saw with out tweaking is worth the extra expense and you gotta think that the heaft in these saws will be like cabinet saws, they will out last you. ;~)

[Mike M]

I bought my Rikon about the same time that you and Brian did. I'm happy with it, but I never did sell my 14" bandsaw. I find I keep a

1" blade on the Rikon and have it tweaked perfect for resawing. I tend to use the other bandsaw for everything else. This isn't totally a comment about the Rikon as I've rarely had a tool I wanted to get rid of even if I couldn't find it or be sure someone had returned it.

Mike M

[opalko]

[opalko]

And by "as good as", I mean - will it not require constant tweaking and adjusting like Leon's?

[Leon]

And by "as good as", I mean - will it not require constant tweaking and adjusting like Leon's?

Hummmm you now have the bug.... I though that I was possibly paying too much also until I got the saw.... Will the less expensive line of Laguna's be more trouble tweaking?

Hard to say. BUT, IIRC the HD line of Laguna BS's are Italian build, supposedly the best come from there. MiniMax saws are made there IIRC. The less expensive line of saws are/were made in Bulgaria? I have heard of no complaints about any of the Laguna saws other than getting over the sticker shock.

One thing that was the deciding factor on the Laguna's are their unique and exclusive ceramic guide system. IIRC all of their saws have this system. Another reason I chose the larger line over the smaller line is that there is more room under the table to adjust the lower guides. That was important for me because I only have 1/2 of my left thumb and I had to be able to get my right hand in there to make adjustments to the thumb screws. Easier with the left hand with all 5 digits.

If you have any doubts call Laguna and talk to them, tell them where you stand and any doubts you may have about one line of BS's vs. another line that they sell.

I would say that they would be pretty consistent with the narrower blades for sure. When you start getting up into the wider blades maybe not so much.