Bandsaw Pros and cons

[John Quinn]

I am close to finally buying a bandsaw. I've been looking at 14" saws from Jet, Grizzly, Delta, and General. I've pretty mush ruled out Grizzly based on reviews here and in magazines, my shop time is limited and I want to make sawdust not fuss with the tools. The Jet open stand sells for about $400 w/ a 3/4 HP motor. The Jet and General about $600 (closed stand 1 HP motor) the Delta about $750 (similar specs to Jet and General). I've used my FIL's General and liked it and haven't cut wood with any of the others. Can the motor on the open stand Jet be upgraded later? What do you think cost/functionality i.e. which is going to give me the best value? Right now I'm leaning toward the $400 Jet or the General. With two pre-school children I don't get a lot of shop time now, but I expect that to change as they get older. I don't want to get too little saw and I don't want to buy capability I'll never need.

John

[Tom Kohlman]

I bought Delta 14" with closed stand only a month ago for less than $600. Looked identical to the Jet other than color. I am new to the bandsaw (other than the meat cutting variety where I could do 75 pork chops a minute) but from what I see the closed stand is a plus...it throws off alot of sawdust for such a thin blade but that may be the particular blade I am using as I experiment with resawing. Not so sure how well the motor is protected on the open stand model. In any event I have to say that I am "taken" with the new possibilities and have tended to use it in many cases where I would have gone to the TS or CMS

[Gerald Ross]

[Howard Lee Harkness]

I saw some disparging words writting about some of the smaller Deltas... Something about use of thin sheet metal. I saw what I thought might be a good price on a 14" Jet (