Bandsaw £700 budget

[Armagh]

Firstly:

record-bs350s-bandsaw-first-impressions-and-pics-t20001.html

Further to that, I own a BS350S myself. I liked the depth under the guides, which is actually something like 235mm. I use mine for resawing redwood. I buy 9"x3" lengths of redwood and machine it myself. It is capable of ripping the redwood, but rarely to a consistent thickness, this is despite trying every tip I read on the forum. If I want half inch finished I usually set the guide for 5/8 or 3/4 and then use a thicknesser to dimesion it down to size. Somedays everything goes to plan, others I can end up leaving the shed in a very frustrated fashion. I can however vouch that the blade supplied is not as good as the tuffsaw blades everyone on here recommends. And in fairness to previous posters, I can see where they are coming from, this a hobby machine and I sometimes wonder if I'd have been better finding a second hand industrial one.

 

[giantbeat]

Sorry GB. Didn't mean to preach as you put it, just sharing an opinion and my own experience. Although I don't have one, I have read many good things about the Hammer n4400 which appears to be an excellent machine. You might struggle to find one in your budget though, even second hand.

If you will be taking a punt on a new Chinese made machine then, if it were me making that choice, I would pick the manufacturer and supplier that provided the best after sales service. Axminster and Record Power both score well in these respects and have machines within your budget. That's about as much help as I can provide though as I don't have either! I'm a Startrite 352 man as you know!!

cheer man, i will have a look for the hammer, i appreciate & do want opinions based on experience but i only need to be told the same thing so many times. i have bought new & used machines before so don't really need the plus points & negatives outlaying quite so much as it was... though i was back in year 11 for a while, was waiting for one of you to hit me on the head with a ruler or board rubber :lol:

a startle 352 single phase machine is on my hunt list.... having spent the night looking at them i think its the same machine my school had back in the early 90's

as i can't collect from far I'm very limited on options & have had very mixed results with companies delivering used machines, i watched my new to me jet bobbin sander get dropped off the back of a lorry 10 weeks ago by the ***** driver who then asked me "what was it". had several used machines that have been pigs too.

STARTRITE 352 BAND SAW
EXCELLENT CONDITION RESTORED AS NEW
£780.00 INCLUSIVE OF VAT
http://www.altsawsandspares.co.uk/352sh.html

too much with delivery & phase 3..... BALLS....im loosing phase 3 power in my workshop in about 5 - 6 weeks, so my sp12 is going.
will msg them to see if they can let me know if they get a single phase version, they look like the propel to be in touch with.

Record Power band saws above the 250 have a good reputation, I have a 350S and could not be more happy with it: http://www.yandles.co.uk/record-power-b ... dsaw/p5010 beware Yandles do put a delivery supplement on some machines.

Mike

good to hear.... yeah, i tend to use AIMtools for my record stuff, had great service from them & they price inc delivery usually.

I had a budget almost exactly the same as yours when I bought my bandsaw last year. Eventually settled on the BS350S. I'm absolutely delighted with it. Got myself a few blades from Tuffsaws and it now does everything I ask of it. Cuts straight with no drift, it's quiet and smooth and easy to move with the mobile base. It spends most of its time with. 3/4 in blade on, which it can tension with no problem.

Hope this helps
Simon

thats good to hear, i have a Tuffsaw blade in the little machine i have at home, it made the saw twice as good as when i got it. being able to move a machine is a bonus, thats the big downside of the industrial stuff, my workshops not the most level floored & moves a bit & occasionally springs a leak so i like to be able to shift things until issues are fixed.

Firstly:

record-bs350s-bandsaw-first-impressions-and-pics-t20001.html

Further to that, I own a BS350S myself. I liked the depth under the guides, which is actually something like 235mm. I use mine for resawing redwood. I buy 9"x3" lengths of redwood and machine it myself. It is capable of ripping the redwood, but rarely to a consistent thickness, this is despite trying every tip I read on the forum. If I want half inch finished I usually set the guide for 5/8 or 3/4 and then use a thicknesser to dimesion it down to size. Somedays everything goes to plan, others I can end up leaving the shed in a very frustrated fashion. I can however vouch that the blade supplied is not as good as the tuffsaw blades everyone on here recommends. And in fairness to previous posters, I can see where they are coming from, this a hobby machine and I sometimes wonder if I'd have been better finding a second hand industrial one.

i have read that thread & checked the pics about 30 times which is what i landed on the Bs350

i dont re saw often currently, though i do occasional make things from constructional veneers, so i imagine if i have a machine the temptation to cut my own will grow, so i know i would try it, this is where an industrial machine would be the winner... the table saw is the back bone of my shop form making drum shells, i would not use a bandsaw daily just on certain projects.....

think I'm doing my own head in with this more than anyone else is.

im not ruling the RP machine out, but i might step back, wait & try and up my budget if I'm buying new (time to find stuff to sell), if a 2nd hand shows up in the next few weeks i will pounce on it i think.

 

[custard]

I've got a Hammer n4400 and it's a smashing machine. But is it any better than the dozens of Startrite 352's I've used over the years in various workshops? Probably not. So a refurbished and warranted 352 with a cast table would be my recommendation.

If you absolutely must buy new then there's nothing wrong with the Record bandsaws. I once had a 350 and it did everything I asked of it, and I once worked in a workshop that had a giant old bandsaw plus a little Record 250 with a thin blade for small curved work. As is always the case in commercial workshops, if there was a queue for the big bandsaw then rather than delay we'd all just use the little Record instead...and within reason it pretty much always got the job done.

Moral of the story is that bandsaws fall into an extremely rare category of woodworking machinery, a category where you don't need a huge amount of money to get something that'll work perfectly well. Just don't start thinking that this magical outcome of good performance for not much money can be repeated for other machinery, for most woodworking kit you generally get precisely what you pay for!

Good luck!