My Wadkin BZB 24 saw.

[porcupinewood]

My new saw! This is my new Wadkin 24" bandsaw. It is a 3hp direct drive 8 pole motor to get the lower blade speed. It's the Rolls Royce of bandsaws with very finely made parts. At 1400 lbs it was a beast to move because I had to flop it over to move it safely. I used 3" steels rollers to move it and an engine lift to lift it up again as far as I could then I pushed it up myself to the upright. The 6" slab floor bounced!
The machine was imported by Williams and Willson from Leicester, England. My Dad bought machines for the school boards about 35 years ago, he remembers them costing 50% more than the Canadian General machines at the time.

<img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/Porcupinewood/bandsaw001.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">
Pulling it home on the trailer. $40 for the trailer rental and $150 in fuel to Montreal and back! Lots of salt spray to clean off!
<img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/Porcupinewood/bandsaw007.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">
Upright again! I love the drum and brake on the bottom wheel.
<img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/Porcupinewood/bandsaw010.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">
<img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/Porcupinewood/bandsaw011.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">
Back together! You can see the French for "wood only" I think I will leave it on the machine for its Montreal history!
I hope my pictures work! It my first try!
Mark

 

[Noel]

Hi Porc, images didn't come up. Click img, then paste the image properties and then click img again.

Now, that is some BS, industrial proportions. What lenght of blade?
Rgds

Noel

 

[DaveL]

Hi Porcupinewood,

Now that is one mean :tool: as its a Wadkin I think it should be good.\/
My AGS Wadkin table saw is the best power tool I have, green who me. :^o

 

[Unlucky Alf]

Hi Mark,

Glad you got it back OK, I was a bit worried when you posted the weight in a previous thread. It seems very at home in its new domain, looks like you have a very nice shop. Perhaps you could post some more photos once it's up and running, i'd love to see a demonstration of its resaw capabilities.

Simon

 

[Scrit]

Hi Alf

The BZBs were really designed for stacked component cutting, not resawing, hence they have a relatively low 13 in / 330mm beneath the guides and are limited to about 1-1/4in wide blades. At that they excel. Prior to the 1970s most shops used circular rip saws such as the Wadkin BSW and BSS (many still do), although lightweight band resaws such as the Wadkin PBR and PBR HD have taken over:

these saws have much more power, take a wider blade (up 3in wide for the PBR HD) and a heavy duty feeder so are much more suited to heavy ripping.

Porcupine/Dave - nice buy and glad you managed to get it back without mishap. Once you've fettled it I'm sure that you'll be very pleased with its' performance.

Scrit

 

[porcupinewood]

Thanks for the comments and fixing my pictures! The blade length is 15"5" so it going to cost me for blades. I am going to use the saw for more general work and sell the 14" Delta I have.
Mark

 

[ProShop]

porcupinewood,

Nice machine, a proper bandsaw
Hope you'l post some pics when it's up & running.

 

[Scrit]

Mark

If you do decide to try some resawing I'd recommend either the WoodSlicer blade from Highland Hardware in the States (shortish life but rips really smoothly) or for serious quantities the Lenox TriMasterIII TCT bandsaw blade - with a cast iron saw you'll have no problem cranking on enough tension to make those babies work! If you can't find a local supplier there's a guy called Louis Ittura in Florida who's a mine of information and a great supplier of things bandsawy! Doesn't appear to be on the web, though he advertises in FWW

Scrit

 

[porcupinewood]

Scrit, Thanks for your input!
We have this great company BC saw here. www.bcsaw.com They are pro in industrial tooling and inexpensive! They have some great information on thier Web site and have had some of their products written up in FWW.

Mark