Rigid Band Saws?

[mapdude]

Did some searching for reviews of the Rigid 14" bandsaw. Not too promising.

Are they really as bad as the posters are saying or is this just the people who have been unlucky to get bad units?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Do you really want to take a chance? If I have doubts, I just move on. There is nothing special about Ridgid that another brand does not offer.

[John Horner]

The ones I have looked at in person certainly had that made to a low price Chinese look to them. I'm very happy with my Made in Canada General woodworking bandsaw and I'm glad I bought a heavy duty unit at the time instead of one of the lighter ones. I expect to still be using that saw 20 or more years from now.

[Lowell Holmes]

Michael Fortune has a 3/4 hp Rigid that he uses to resaw 12" oak on according to one of the articles he wrote about tuning a bandsaw.

I tuned my 14" Jet in accordance with his suggestions and it does great. There is no blade drift and I can resaw 12" oak. I cut tenons on it instead of my tablesaw. I very seldom rip a board on the tablesaw.

The Rigid looks a lot like the Jet.

[Frank]

I picked one up off craigslist in my area for next to nothing.I spent the time to tune it up and put a Timberwolf blade on it. I'm a home hobbiest and and it fits my needs. Although the toughest thing I've probably done with it is re-saw some 8/4 x 6" cherry..it cut smooth with almost no drift at all. Did a wonderful job slitting the chestnuts yesterday too. I'm happy.

Frank from Florida

[Phisherman]

The better bandsaws are Luguna and General. Jet and Delta are not quite as good as they used to be. If you go cheap, you'll regret it when you must do a total bandsaw tuneup--one of the most dreaded operations in the shop.

[bookman]

This is good information. Take it. When I had to have a bandsaw I looked and looked, waited and waited for one to show up on Craig's lists within 200 miles and finally bought the Rigid on sale for $275. After reinforcing and redesigning the table supports, balancing the wheels, and installing cool blocks and a Timberwolf blade it now works like a champ. It's similar to buying an old Stanley #5 and spending hours leveling the frog, chipbreaker, sole etc. or buying a new platinum designer plane. One way or another you will pay in time or money.

[mac davis]

Depends on your budget, IMHO... I bought the Ridgid a few years ago for a little over $300 and I just don't see anything as good for that price.. I added the riser kit, not Ridgid but Grizzly, on the advice of some folks in this group.. same part, different color and about 1/3 less money..

The only changes I've made are blades, a link belt (which helped a lot) and a 4" hole in the lower clamshell for a DC port..

I've had no issues with alignment, tracking, etc.. cuts pen blanks square and bowl blanks round.. I'm a professional turner and use and abuse it a lot.. it always does what's needed, but slowly on the thicker, wet stuff.. it could use a bit more power, but as I said, it's a good saw for the price..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mapdude]

Thanks to all for the info.

I am in a quandary here cause I just won some gift cards to Home Depot. I already have a Rigid table saw and absolutely love it. I got a Rigid

15" drill press a couple of months ago and love it too. I have had a Rigid planer/joiner for a couple of years now, so I have been happy with their stuff for a while.

I just play in the shop at night and on weekends, so this is not going to be used in a production environment, and I am in the process of replacing all the 25 year old Craftsman stuff I inherited from my dad when he passed 5 years ago.

The Rigid band saw looks like it is solidly made, just wish it came with a fence.

Lowes has the Delta 14" open stand band saw on sale in my area for $399, but that is still more than the Rigid sells for. Wonder if they will honor a HD gift card?

I just don't think the Delta is that much better than the Rigid, and my budget (think SWMBO) won't allow me to climb into the $500+ range at this time....

bookman wrote:

[mapdude]

I had a feeling that most of the reviews I had read on the internet were from people who had problems and were basically the exception to the rule for these machines.

Worst case scenario, I will have to put a 200 lb. machine back in the SUV and take it a block back to the HD for a refund or order a Delta off the HD website...

mac davis wrote:

[Steve]

I've had mine for about 2 years, and it's performed well for me. I added a riser block and use Timberwolf blades, and when it's properly adjusted I've been able to resaw various hardwoods up to 9" wide. I agree it could use more power, but overall I'm happy with it.

I added a Kreg fence I bought from Woodcraft:

's $115 US, But I don't think I paid that much for it. I bought the

7" resaw guide separately, but it comes bundled with the fence now.

--Steve

[nailshooter41]

FWIW, I seem to remember this being reviewed by one of the wood mags/ rags a year or two ago, and it did well for the saws in its class. My old commercial rep from HD sold a lot of those and the folks seem to like them, especially when considering the bang for the buck.

As long as you know what you are getting and have realistic expectations, seems like a pretty good buy to me.

Having seen the fit and finish of the Delta over at Lowe's, I would probably make my own bandsaw from wood before buying that. The castings were so rough they used something like a thick plastic coating on the unmilled faces to fill in all the voids rough areas on it. The whole machine just looked like a primitive Chinese effort from one of those knockoff companies that come around from time to time.

Just my 0.02.

Robert

[Puckdropper]

mapdude wrote in news:ir-dndfRccP_ldranZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Don't forget you need wood to play with. ;-)

25 year old Craftsman stuff... That might be some good stuff. Make darn sure your replacements are truely superior before you "upgrade."

It might be something you have to take home and play with a bit before really deciding if it's good or not.

Puckdropper

[mapdude]

Part of what I inherited was about 1500 BF of wood that my dad bought from an old woodworker up in middle tennessee where he lived who had gotten too old to use it. He bought a Foley Bellsaw planer and some hand tools and two pickuploads of wood for $400 in 1987. I still got 3/4 of it when we moved him back to town after he got too old to stay at the farm by himself. Some of the stuff I had never seen before. Zebra wood, lots of mahogany, walnut, oak, cedar, maple. Had to leave most of the cedar and some of the walnut cause it had gotten warped beyond use cause my dad did not store it very well (read in a big pile next to the barn). I grabbed the best stuff and left the rest.

Yeah it held up for a lot of years, but it was starting to wear out. The arbor on the table saw was bad, could not aligne the blade for nothing. 10" band saw has a vibration since the tires rotted off and were replaced. The size of the cut is too small to resaw anything of an adequate size.

[Skip Williams]

I have the Ridgid BS and really like it. IMOHO, its a great value for the money.

Like others, I added the riser and timberwold blades. The fact that it dosent come with a fence is a plus, in that you can get a really nice after market addon that does a much better job that the factory fences on bandsaws of this price range.

Skip

[WD]

I love craigslist. You can buy anything at a fraction of the original price. I bought a Delta's 28-262 premium edition Made in USA (lightly used), with Carter's guide for $250 at SF's craigslist. For the last six months, I came across a brand new un open Delta hollow chisel mortiser for $100, an Atlas's lathe with full accessories for $250. How about a Performax 22-44 Pro Drum Sander for $250?

[Bob the Tomato]

You suck. Around here, they want higher than retail for old rusty POS tools. "Good" used tools are generally not available at any price.

[Tanus]

Similar situation in parts of Canada. Or at least around Ottawa. There are other lists that abound in tools with some very good deals. But craigslist has very few postings.

Tanus

[SBH]

I have found many tools/accessories on Craigslist also. One thing for sure, you can always find Craftsman Bandsaws and Craftsman radial arm saws, at least in my area. I see one of each about once a day or every two days.

[Bonehenge (B A R R Y)]

Depends on the area.

My local Craigslist is mostly scammers.