Hello again
Call me a snob or whatever, but I think a lot of these strange alloy parts should be done away with on most bits of machinery.
I experienced this with the green saw above, and once was enough.
Imagine if the wheels decided to fail!
I would try and steer towards cast iron bits and bobs, you still might end up with the guides made of cheese, but that's not the most important part of the machine.
Presumably you might take a peek in "the other place" and seen Steve's newly fixed part on his bandsaw, and it failing again, and then getting made again from proper mild steel and it is the best part of the machine now.
If you'd only posted this a fortnight ago, I would have suggested Mock's post on hammer bandsaw for 500 near you. It's gone now, but take a look at what you can get for the cash.
There was another Jet machine here for the same money, likely gone too.
Both machines have cast iron wheels, which is about the most important thing on a bandsaw.
Everything else is gravy (on a modern machine) and can likely be sortable,
but not many would bother if the wheels were to break.
But guessing like anyone, you don't want to be working on the machine if you can help it.
Depending on what you plan on cutting, that might require a hefty blade and therefore would be strenuous on a smaller machine.
Take the tension screw for instance, a better system (on modern made machines anyway)
will have the tension handle under the top wheel, as it will be a heavier thread.
Plenty of folks having to replace threadbar on the green one above.
And just incase you believe the manufacturers statements about max blade width,
note that that is nonsense and misleading.
"But I've seen it with my own eyes, on youtube, I'll go get the video to show you" one might say....
Look at the video again, take note of the soundtrack which a small bandsaw will very likely have!
Why am I saying this?, is because the soundtrack is there to hide the cunning editing going on,
which one might not notice if looking at the machine as a whole using every opportunity to try and get a better idea, (along with whatever amount of tabs with bandsaws open to distract further)
Ask yourself why they won't show you a full cut, start to finish, on any bandsaw in twice that price range.
Ask yourself why they don't use a surfaced face and edge bit of timber to demonstrate with,
these are all sneaky as you would see a lot if both those things were included.
I'll tell you although you've likely guessed already, unless you're making excuses
Marketing is clever, often Mr Trustworthy seems like a likable character.
They, wouldn't have chosen him if he were not.
So with a more cynical approach...
Note the fence is useless on these smaller machines, well it might not actually be the fence being useless, not that it matters.
It's because the machine can't handle a wider blade, (even though within the machines
"specs")
This means you have to freehand the cut following a line.
If it were surfaced and tight everywhere along the fence, you would see a gap appearing when the timber walks away from the fence, due to drift if it were surfaced already.
Surfaced timber shows up the error, just incase one might think that were the opposite case.
i.e don't presume...well they don't have the timber surfaced as a planer might be a bit much for some folk to buy.
Or think..this guy is doing a real test, if it were in best case scenario everything would be tailored to favour the machine.
Don't make excuses, and for the money you have, should you be patient you will get a good machine.
listening to a bandsaw ripping something decent or resawing should not be so unpleasant
that would require whoever you're watching to do any editing of the cut.
So along with the fence being not needed on a 300mm wheeled machine
(unless you're a model maker)
The next thing you would notice is the screaming guides, which are gonna need be changed often.
A 3/4" blade will have enough "beam tension" not to give in and ride constantly against the
thrust guide.
A bigger saw should be able to tension a 3/4" blade
honestly
Manufacturers would state the blade thickness (gauge) if they stood behind these statements
.
Those two machines that were for sale would just about have got there, definitely the smallest I would go, maybe not enough saw for some who have to resaw longer stock, and not just a box lid.
There's no difference in going up to a 20" saw in size, as who uses the back of the saw anyway?
Unless you're in a micro workshop and need to stow it away, it doesn't matter.
The footprint grows after the 20" size, as in..
say you've got the spine (column) against a wall, in a rectangular garage, the column of the saw is what grows and you can loose about 10" between that and the table.
So depending on you're space, that might make the difference between a Far Eastern compact 20"
(the table will be small)
or getting something more premium (Italian, or Italianish) with likely a bigger table, so might have to go a size down on those machines to fit.
I can dig up a thread and add it in a bit, concerning size.
Or can dig up a thread about cheaper 3 phase machines, should you be on a budget,
or should you have only a 13a plug, then three phase machines,
(ones which can be run on 240v that is) makes sense.
That would be evident on the motor nameplate
240v
You would need a hundred quid VFD for the job, but opens up a whole world of bargains and options compared to what you might be looking at.
All the best
Tom
