Bandsaw

[Jim Weidenfeller]

I am in the market for a new bandsaw. Looking for 14". Minimal resaws although there may be some in the future. Recommendations so far include: Delta, Powermatic, Grizzley and Laguna. Would like to stay in the $1,000 price range.

Any suggestions from anyone. Thanks

[Denny]

You should also consider the MiniMax S14 (about $700 plus shipping, with 8" resaw) and the Jet 16" ($775 delivered into your garage from Amazon). The Jet has 10" resaw capacity, not as many bells and whistles but seems pretty solid.

Denny

[Billy Smith]

The most recent issue of American Woodworker magazine has a review of bandsaws. It is the first of two parts, the second to appear in the next issue. I thought their material was very good.

[skiea3b]

"Jim Weidenfeller" wrote

Jim - If $1000 is your max. I'd go with the Grizzly GO513 17" saw. 12" resaw and the beef of a 2hp motor. I have the GO555 14 inch and love it. But if I had a $1K max then the GO513 would be the best value for the money. Leaves some money to buy some good Timberwolf blades. Check it out at

[patriarch]

"Denny" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

If you don't need the resaw capacity, the Minimax seems a better saw. I own the Jet 16. The lower blade guides are difficult to reach, without removing the table.

[Unisaw A100]

I'd start by camping out on this auction, or one similar close by you (1).

it goes in the $200-$600 range you can pretty much feel you've done very well. With the left over money you could either set yourself up with a rotary phase convertor or re-motor it. Later, if you wanted to sell it, you could/would re-coup what you have/had in it and buy something else.

Not a problem.

(1) They aren't always close by but I'd not ever not consider a one day "out and back" for that "just right" machine. For instance,

Some Machines Considered "Just Right"

?ViewItem&category=57124&item=3851280185or may look as though I favor the Powermatic (I like mine) but really it's just a matter of available (at this time) inventory. The underlying theme here is, if you buy a used machine you can usually recoup your investment and sometimes more. Buy new and it depreciates before the nice lady at Master Card/Visa/AmEx charges the charge against your permanent record.

In My Humble Opinion/Your Mileage May Vary/Don't Ask Me How I Know This.

UA100

[Norman D. Crow]

the resaw kit, everything still dead on. I've resawed 8-10" stuff(slabs of quilted material from a Norway Maple stump slab) with it, only bogged down a couple times when I fed too fast. This was with a Griz 3/4" 3 T.P.I. blade, no skewing of cut, fence dead on as delivered.

[Prometheus]

Whew... for under $1000, you could get one of those 17" Grizzleys- possibly a 19", with S&H and all. I don't have one *yet* myself, but a fellow woodworker in the area has one, and I was checking it out when helping him build his shop- they're nice peices of machinery for the price! So far, I don't like Delta for bandsawing, but I only have a 9" benchtop, so there may be a signifigant increase in quality when you move to a larger model.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam