After more than 3 years of waiting, I finally purchased my first larger piece of woodworking machinery back in July this year. I looked at many reviews and posts over the years, deliberated over the pro's and con's of new versus old. The older Startrite's are readily available, and look like really good saws with plenty of satisfied customer on here. I also nearly bought a new Hammer N4400 on a really good deal, but this one came up on e-bay. It's ex-school, and when I went to collect it I could understand why the Italian made machines are held in such high esteem, it's massively constructed!
Only down side is that this particular bandsaw has an odd centre of gravity that means it's not particularly stable unless it's bolted down or has an additional Minimax bracket fixed to the bottom at the side of the lower bandsaw door. Anyway, I needed it to be mobile, so I bought some 50mm angle iron from my local blacksmith, some nylon wheels / adjustable feet and spent a day or so with and angle grinder and some cutting discs and knocked up a mobile base with an outrigger to fix the centre of gravity issue. All-in cost for the base including the blacksmith welding totalled £50 but this included more steel for the lifting handle and I had enough left over to make another mobile base for my morticer as well.
Just waiting now for a new blade from Ian at Tuffsaws and I should be ready to try it. Now looking at a some proper dust extraction for it as well and considering the Numatic NVD750. Any other suggestions for an a dust extractor with a 100mm connection that is not too noisy and preferably cheaper also considered!
See pictures below.
SCM Minimax S-45 bandsaw Front
SCM Minimax S-45 on its mobile base
SCM Minimax S-45 rear
Only down side is that this particular bandsaw has an odd centre of gravity that means it's not particularly stable unless it's bolted down or has an additional Minimax bracket fixed to the bottom at the side of the lower bandsaw door. Anyway, I needed it to be mobile, so I bought some 50mm angle iron from my local blacksmith, some nylon wheels / adjustable feet and spent a day or so with and angle grinder and some cutting discs and knocked up a mobile base with an outrigger to fix the centre of gravity issue. All-in cost for the base including the blacksmith welding totalled £50 but this included more steel for the lifting handle and I had enough left over to make another mobile base for my morticer as well.
Just waiting now for a new blade from Ian at Tuffsaws and I should be ready to try it. Now looking at a some proper dust extraction for it as well and considering the Numatic NVD750. Any other suggestions for an a dust extractor with a 100mm connection that is not too noisy and preferably cheaper also considered!
See pictures below.
SCM Minimax S-45 bandsaw Front
SCM Minimax S-45 on its mobile base
SCM Minimax S-45 rear
