Just ordered my first Bandsaw - what do I need to know!?

[Palaswood]

I wanted to get the Grizzly 14" but my girlfriend is pregnant, so I settled on the Craftsman 10" for now. With 4 1/2" resaw, it will be enough to get my feet wet. I have a 2hp motor that I can use to replace the stock motor, but is that possible on this saw?

I can now do curved cuts for furniture, which is why I bought it. I got 4 blades in addition, all 70 1/2 in:
1/8" 14tpi
1/4" 6tpi hook
3/8" 4tpi hook
1/2" 3tpi hook

I will be experimenting with resaw, and small log milling as well, and I don't expect stellar results, but I have patience and I'm very resourceful, so I forsee some decent results and in any event, a lot of learning.

By the way, got it on Sears.com for $170 plus free shipping. :)
I challenge anyone to find a bandsaw to beat that price.

Any tips on resaw or general bandsaw setup and use are appreciated.

Thanks!
Joseph

 

[CWS]

I like the Woodslicer blades from highland Hardware. I have had good luck restating with them.

 

[Jim Beam]

There should adequate instructions in the manual on trueing the table to the blade. Obviously, the table must be perfectly perpendicular to the blade. Also ensure that your blade is parallel to the miter slot (do this with the widest blade you have installed) Then ensure that the fence is also parallel to the miter slot. Do all this with the bearings pulled back all the way so they don't touch the blade. Then adjust the bearings so that they are as close as possible to the blade without touching.

Prior to all this, play around with the tracking adjustment and the tensioner to get the feel of them. Your wider blades will require more tension.

Good luck on resawing. It's a mystical art and very elusive. I'm still working on it.

 

[Palaswood]

Awesome tips Robert, thanks! As with any power tool that is used for squaring up wood, getting the blade square to the fence (tablesaw) and/or table square to the blade (bandsaw) is the most important first step, that's a whole art in and of itself.

I bought a vintage14" Walker Turner off of craigslist for 100 bucks. I couldn't get the resaw blade to stay on, and drove myself nuts with the whole planar/coplanar deal, but in hindsight, I never should have tried to get a 3/4" in resaw blade (woodslicer) on there in the first place. I should have started with a 3/8" or even 1/4". I ended up moving, and couldn't take it with me, so it's lost to the past now. Maybe one day i'll try a restore on one of those, maybe the 16", if it ever comes up again.

In the meantime, I'm gonna get down with a 4.6 inch resaw capacity, and I've read review evidence that pretty nice veneers can be sawn on it (albeit 4.6 inch wide veneers).

A great starter bandsaw, to round out my shop equipment.
I don't really have any excuses now as to why I can't make furniture, aside from time constraints, but we all have those, so that's no excuse.

 

[Tony]

Google Alex Snodgrass and watch some of his videos. He's really good at demonstrating what to do and explains himself very well. I've seen his presentation in person a few times, very good information. Tony

 

[Nature Man]

The Bandsaw Book by Lonnie Bird is an excellent primer book that I recommend. Chuck

 

[Palaswood]

Google Alex Snodgrass and watch some of his videos. He's really good at demonstrating what to do and explains himself very well. I've seen his presentation in person a few times, very good information. Tony

Yes I've watched that video several times when trying to restore the walker turner. Great info

 

[Blueglass]

My dad always tells me he considers it the most dangerous tool in his shop. They use them to cut meat. Be careful with your hands. I am not trying to be sarcastic or obvious. It is just that he makes sure I know everytime I use it and I did enough damage with a tablesaw.

 

[JohnF]

First off, I have never seen a bandsaw as being dangerous. At least nowhere near what a tablesaw can do. Secondly, I doubt that 10" can hold enough tension on a blade to get any good resawing results, at least with anything fairly hard. I think you would have been way ahead to tweak the Walker Turner.

 

[gman2431]

I used to have one of these I picked up dirt cheap off craigslist. It was OK at best but a hell of a lot better than nothing at all.

I remember the bearings being a real pain to adjust and as said above it really doesn't do well on hard wood. I demoted it to just saying balsa for my floats until I eventually sold it.

 

[Jim Beam]

First off, I have never seen a bandsaw as being dangerous. At least nowhere near what a tablesaw can do. Secondly, I doubt that 10" can hold enough tension on a blade to get any good resawing results, at least with anything fairly hard. I think you would have been way ahead to tweak the Walker Turner.

Agreed on the bandsaw being way less dangerous. And, agreed on the resawing, but I didn't want to be the one to say it.

 

[Mike_d_s]

I had this saw and sold it when upgrading to a 14" saw. A lot of what was said above is on target to some extent, but I'll add my two cents.

With a good blade, it'll cut most hardwoods up to 1". I don't think I ever got good results trying to do anything thicker than that, resaw or otherwise. For other uses, like cutting patterns prior to final trimming on a router for 3/4" or less stock it does a good job. I also found it to do well for bandsaw boxes with a 1/8" blade.

Actually after selling it and going with the 14" saw, I sort of wished I'd kept it despite the space issues. It would be nice to have a dedicated scrolling saw for pattern and box work instead of going band and forth with blades on the big saw.

One additional thing to be careful about. I was in the habit of wrapping cord around the saw and one time I "just needed to make a quick cut" so I unwrapped one turn of cord, plugged the saw in and turned it on. It ran about 5 seconds before cutting halfway through the cord. So don't do that.

As a starter saw, you could do a lot worse.

Mike

 

[sprucegum]

One word of caution be extremely careful about trying to cut any round stick of wood. In fact don't do it without securing somehow to a piece of square stock or at least gripping it with something other than your hands. If the blade catches (and they do catch) it will try usually with great success to rotate your round stock and if you have it in your hand will likely pinch your fingers between the wood and the table. I only blacked a fingernail when this was brought to my attention and was reminded of it for 6 or 8 months while I grew a new one, they say it takes much longer to grow a whole finger.

 

[sprucegum]

Yes I've watched that video several times when trying to restore the walker turner. Great info

What do you have for a walker turner? I have a 1930's vintage craftsman 12" made by walker turner, I paid $10 for it and put on new tires. The thing is amazing for its size, it had no motor so I belted it up to a old 3/4 hp that I had kicking around. I have used it to resaw 6" thick hardwood into turning blanks, last year I cut arches into perhaps 70 3" thick pine knee braces for a timber frame project. Choosing the correct blade is key wider width and less teeth will work best in heavy stock. I definitely would like a bigger better one but for now the little 12" gets it done.

 

[robert flynt]

Use a push stick! There good at cutting fingers off.

 

[NeilYeag]

With band saws, in my opinion the key is don't get sloppy. Table saw is big and noisy, band saws tend to be quite, so it is easy to fool yourself and get your fingers to close. Keep you senses, use push blocks as needed and you should not have any problems.

 

[Aurora North]

Well... Congrats on the incoming new kid... But otherwise... As soon as that POS gets delivered, refuse and send it back for a refund. You can get the same results with a jig saw and a steady hand. And frankly at 4 1/2" resaw... You'll be happier putting the stock through a table saw half way, then flipping it and running it again.

Hunt craigslist or machinery sites for something worth buying. For the money spent on that 10" + blades, you can have yourself a deal on a bandsaw that will let you grow into it and last without having to buy again.

Veneering... I mean... Just buy figured veneer? It will be consistent which is very important for panel balance. But I get wanting to use wood that you buy and stretching the material as far as you can. Been down that road myself and still do it on projects when I need to stretch material.


Here's a 16" walker turner for $300.
https://santabarbara.craigslist.org/tls/d/1938-walker-turner-16-bandsaw/6446054879.html

Or a delta 14" for $250
https://ventura.craigslist.org/tls/d/delta-platinum-edition-14/6449165299.html

another delta 14" w/ extras $475
https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/tls/d/delta-14-bandsaw-with-kreg/6427977949.html

Not trying to be nose up or anything, but I always try to get the most bang for my buck in tooling and the most room for growth with that tool.