Buying a bigger bandsaw...

[markymark12]

Being a bandsaw there is very little to them. Bearings on the wheels themselves, which is no big deal. A set of guides and a motor. Other than that not a lot to say. Regards running carbide bands, makes no difference what they are tipped with. I use Lennox CT1 myself on a Wadkin Bursgreen BZB this machine http://www.daltonsmachines.com/osb/item ... 760-mm-(30)-Bandsaw_279 the only thing i have done with it is change the spring to a larger die type. The machine can handle resawing up to the full depth and the accuracy is within 0.1mm top to bottom through the length when set up, and it keeps it, using the old guides, which are lumps of adjustable brass blocks.
I have used a few fabricated saws over the years and i would still buy a old machine as long as it has a good iron frame myself.
You can run smaller bands on them without a issue, the dust extraction is okay, but if you want to improve it i know others who have added a extraction point to the underside of the table just above the lower guides.
I really regretted buying a fabricated saw when i got it in the workshop and tried sticking through a big lump hard stuff. replaced it with the BZB and i have been using the same machine for years without any issues at all.

 

[ondablade]

Pardon my delay in responding guys, i've been buried in a plumbing job for the past week, with deadline to meet to get the laundry facilities up and running again - so i've been working late.

It's not a big job (DHW cylinder replacement, workshop heating, sink and waste) but it's been turned into a pain by problems in getting fittings. Our Irish lords and masters failed to standardise metric pipe and fittings sizes. Trouble is that in a tiny economy with bugger all manufacturing everything you want to install is imported and has metric connections. But nobody (especially since the crash) stocks anything like a full line of fittings, and nobody seems to have a clue as to what they actually have. (seems its normally gormless accountants that decide what they stock - so they have all kinds of weird bits, but not the bread and butter) So three of five days have been spent visiting possible suppliers and trawling through their stocks to get the right bits. It's like the 1960s all over again.

you really are putting it up to me, aren't you?? It sounds like i need to seriously consider an old charger if i can get a shot at one.

ian