New cheap (ish) 16” bandsaw

[sometimewoodworker]

I don’t know if there is any interest in what is available in Thailand.

I just took delivery of a 16” bandsaw that cost ฿29,000 or about £650

As you can see is a very basic machine and it will blow 13A fuses on starting

It doesn’t even have tyres on the wheels so is remarkably noisy, I think, at 80db~90db
I am going to upgrade it & if there is any interest I will post a longer review along with everything I’m going to do.
I already have some items coming, they include a better rip fence (฿4,142), rubber tyres ($20.59) and a TCT blade 2,921mm x 20mm (36.82)

Comments will determine if I should continue posting.

 

[AJB Temple]

Comments will determine if I should continue posting.

Generally it is better not to adopt that attitude if you want people to engage. What do you want us to say "ooh, yes please"? Post for yourself and just see if people engage with you.

 

[Spectric]

I don’t know if there is any interest in what is available in Thailand.

Lets keep this thread clean please as many of us can imagine what is available in Thailand as my freind has a thai wife !!

Well they certainly know how to be creative with names, fancy calling a machine Bigwood !

We know that an awful lot of machinery is made out in the east as we get many people complaining about quality and how it could be made better but then also want it cheap so having some information about products made and used in Thailand would be good. Interesting to hear it has no tyres yet they are available as extras.

Lets have some pictures of it's internals please.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Comments will determine if I should continue posting.

Generally it is better not to adopt that attitude if you want people to engage. What do you want us to say "ooh, yes please"? Post for yourself and just see if people engage with you.

You are welcome to do as you wish, as am I, however without at least an expression of interest, as has been shown by @spetric above, decided it is pointless to waste the resources of the forum (and myself) posting stuff that is of no interest.

You may feel that is something you should do, others disagree.

 

[imageel]

Wow, this thread has gone awry pretty quickly, a bit like that bizarre guy the other weekend - given the geographical disparity it can't be a seasonal effect.....

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Lets have some pictures of it's internals please.

Rather than making an extremely long post with all the pictures I’ll go with the request first.

This is the upper wheel with detail of the roughened surface


The the tensioning rod has an Acme

Here you can see the correct way to run a bandsaw that doesn’t have a crowned wheel. The teeth MUST overhang the wheel. Fortunately the bandsaw I’ve had for 50 years, though it has a rubber tyre is not crowned and the instructions give this detail. The saw blade maybe a little too far onto the wheel here.

Here is a broader view of the upper wheel


Here is the lower wheel, again the saw blade position is clear,

I have added some dust mitigation with a couple of pieces of cardboard and Gaffer tape, which as you can see has proven quite effective. I have a ¾ HP (I think) 4” dust collector



Though so far I’ve only run the packing crate boards through it, just lopping of enough to get rid of the staples.

Interesting to hear it has no tyres yet they are available as extras

There is nothing that I know of that is sold as an extra.

All the extras are coming from China through AliExpress
The tyres

The upgraded fence

And most importantly the TCT blade

It is very useful that we are so close to the major supplier of most things I could want.
The only difficulty is in knowing exactly how the items are named and deciding if I am sure though of what I want to order.

AliExpress has a good complaints process, so far only 3 items of the hundreds I have ordered have had a problem and they have each been refunded and I haven’t needed to return the incorrect or faulty item. It is likely that because the amounts involved are a small percentage of my successful purchases that that is probably why I’ve been refunded each time

Lets keep this thread clean please as many of us can imagine what is available in Thailand as my freind has a thai wife !!

What you are talking about is a tiny part of the attractions available. You have to go looking for it, though the 3 small areas in Bangkok are widely publicised, they are an area of a couple of hundred square meters in a city of 1,568.7 square kilometres.

The thing that is probably more attractive to many are the hundreds or thousands of ganja or marijuana shops, these have sprung up since it was Legalised about 2 years ago, so far this probably hasn’t been talked about much. They can be found in almost every city and in all the tourist areas. I can recommend the Space Cookies though 1 is enough for 4 days for me. There is talk of it being banned again next year.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Well they certainly know how to be creative with names, fancy calling a machine Bigwood !

It’s actually the brand name for quite an impressive range of machines the catalog is attached
The Thai’s would have no idea of the prurient thoughts the name suggests to the Brits and Yanks. They just think of the two words and think of the quite, to very large pieces of wood that can be processed using a 3phase 5hp machine

 

[Fergie 307]

I don’t know if there is any interest in what is available in Thailand.

I just took delivery of a 16” bandsaw that cost ฿29,000 or about £650
View attachment 187819
As you can see is a very basic machine and it will blow 13A fuses on starting
View attachment 187818
It doesn’t even have tyres on the wheels so is remarkably noisy, I think, at 80db~90db
I am going to upgrade it & if there is any interest I will post a longer review along with everything I’m going to do.
I already have some items coming, they include a better rip fence (฿4,142), rubber tyres ($20.59) and a TCT blade 2,921mm x 20mm (36.82)

Comments will determine if I should continue posting.

I have an old Kitty 612, no tyres. Yes it is noisy but works perfectly well. As you say crucial to get the blade positioned correctly.
Would certainly be interested to see how you get on with it.

 

[Jester129]

I for one am interested in this, I find the machine quality and pricings fascinating, so please continue. As usual with Aliexpress, their prices are really good, but I understand where you're coming from for what to search for. Thanks

 

[sometimewoodworker]

With the above replies.
Hear are the guides

Both are roller bearings, there is no fine adjustment

This is what is supplied with the machine, though I made the inserts myself



The only Bristol leaver is on the tracking adjuster, I will probably add a couple more


It did come with an angle guide/ mitre guide of sorts




It’s cheap plasticky material and may work IDK

The motor will blow 13A fuses on startup


TBC
In Bangkok ATM so will continue later

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I for one am interested in this, I find the machine quality and pricings fascinating, so please continue. As usual with Aliexpress, their prices are really good, but I understand where you're coming from for what to search for. Thanks

No problem, if there is anything that you want to know, I will be happy to help if I can. We use 3 aggregate companies, AliExpress, Lazada & ‘Banggood. For other things we generally go to the business directly.

If you discover something interesting do please post.

I have an old Kitty 612, no tyres. Yes it is noisy but works perfectly well. As you say crucial to get the blade positioned correctly.

there was one contributor, who for whatever reason doesn’t post now, who was absolutely sure that the way you must position the blade on a flat wheel with the teeth overhanging the edge of the wheel was totally wrong. And that the only way to adjust for blade drift was to change the blade position on the wheel. This of course only works if you have a crowned tyre on the wheels. The method of adjusting the rip fence to the blade is of course the only way that works with flat wheels where the teeth must overhang.

I will be very interested in your experience and any information you may have, from the manual it looks as if the Kitty 612 originally came with a flat rubber and wood tyre, is this wrong for your one?


FWIW the company I’ve ordered my tyres from also supply tyres for a variety of smaller wheel sizes so you can probably get a set quite easily if you want, though mounting them on the wheels may not be so easy YMMV

 

[imageel]

My Kity 613 was set up as per diagram 3 above- it even had a sticker on the throat illustrating the top blade position with the teeth set just proud of the top wheel rubber. It used to track pretty well, albeit I never used it to cut veneers.

 

[Fergie 307]

I have seen a few 612 models and none have had tyres. I have always assumed they just didn't, reinforced by the fact that no one lists tyres specifically for the 612.
The original handbook that came with the machine has a similar illustration regarding blade position, but does not show a tyre. Is your image from a 612 manual, or 613?
My wheels don't have any sort of insert as in the image you posted. I think what you have labelled as wood is actually the cross section of the wheel casting.
As far as I am aware tyres appeared first on the 613.
For a long time I used mine slowed down by pulleys for metal cutting. Lack of tyres maybe an advantage in this case as nothing for any swarf to get embedded in.
It has now been returned to its original configuration. I have always set up the blade with the teeth just over the wheel edge as shown. Can take a couple of minutes to get it correct, especially with a narrow blade. The track adjustment has to be made very carefully as the screw thread is perhaps a little coarse, so very small movements of the adjuster move the blade across the wheels more than you might expect.
Have had it for maybe 20 years now, and it has done a lot of work. I have been very pleased with it, very robust and, if you take the trouble to set it up properly, very accurate.
Can't find the manual right now but the illustration on the back of the machine also doesn't show a tyre.

 

[imageel]

I have seen a few 612 models and none have had tyres. I have always assumed they just didn't, reinforced by the fact that no one lists tyres specifically for the 612.
The original handbook that came with the machine has a similar illustration regarding blade position, but does not show a tyre. Is your image from a 612 manual, or 613?
My wheels don't have any sort of insert as in the image you posted. I think what you have labelled as wood is actually the cross section of the wheel casting.
As far as I am aware tyres appeared first on the 613.
For a long time I used mine slowed down by pulleys for metal cutting. Lack of tyres maybe an advantage in this case as nothing for any swarf to get embedded in.
It has now been returned to its original configuration. I have always set up the blade with the teeth just over the wheel edge as shown. Can take a couple of minutes to get it correct, especially with a narrow blade. The track adjustment has to be made very carefully as the screw thread is perhaps a little coarse, so very small movements of the adjuster move the blade across the wheels more than you might expect.
Have had it for maybe 20 years now, and it has done a lot of work. I have been very pleased with it, very robust and, if you take the trouble to set it up properly, very accurate.

I had my 613 from new so >30y ago I can't remember the precise year I bought it from local shop Isaac Lords in High Wycombe.
I agree wrt the 'wood' is likely the aluminium casting of the upper wheel.
Agree they are very capable machines, I cut many meters of 3-4" thick sawn stock prior to running it through my P/T and only if I hadn't set up my in and outfeed rollers correctly and the timber started to wander off course did it struggle.
I did use it to cut the odd piece of ally sheet and channels over the years which worked quite well with a fine-toothed M42 blade and I was always careful to clean the rubber wheels after to clear out any residual chis embedded into the tyres - I found using a hand scraper held at a critical angle worked very efficiently whilst rotating the wheels by hand.
I only recently sold off all my tools so another member is currently its new owner..!

 

[Fergie 307]

I had my 613 from new so >30y ago I can't remember the precise year I bought it from local shop Isaac Lords in High Wycombe.
I agree wrt the 'wood' is likely the aluminium casting of the upper wheel.
Agree they are very capable machines, I cut many meters of 3-4" thick sawn stock prior to running it through my P/T and only if I hadn't set up my in and outfeed rollers correctly and the timber started to wander off course did it struggle.
I did use it to cut the odd piece of ally sheet and channels over the years which worked quite well with a fine-toothed M42 blade and I was always careful to clean the rubber wheels after to clear out any residual chis embedded into the tyres - I found using a hand scraper held at a critical angle worked very efficiently whilst rotating the wheels by hand.
I only recently sold off all my tools so another member is currently its new owner..!

The only criticism I would have of mine is the rubbing block guides, rollers might be better. Having said that they work very well and only take seconds to adjust, and I think mine still has the blocks it came with, certainly don't recall ever changing them !

 

[imageel]

The only criticism I would have of mine is the rubbing block guides, rollers might be better. Having said that they work very well and only take seconds to adjust, and I think mine still has the blocks it came with, certainly don't recall ever changing them !

For sure the upper guides were a bit of a pain to set correctly and I found the thread locks on them difficult to lock by hand, but as you say the lower wooden blocks a bit fiddly to adjust but mine too were still the originals when I sold it it on !
I did consider fitting bearing guides however it would have required skills beyond me to fabricate something that both allowed fine adjustment and which wouldn't hinder the tilt action.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I have seen a few 612 models and none have had tyres. I have always assumed they just didn't, reinforced by the fact that no one lists tyres specifically for the 612.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I agree wrt the 'wood' is likely the aluminium casting of the upper wheel.

That is not what the manual says, but I don’t have one so am just posting the manual I have got

 

[imageel]

That is not what the manual says, but I don’t have one so am just posting the manual I have got

I didn't have a 612 but did a 613.
I think the manual you have has been written upon in what looks like blue biro..
also in the cross section as drawn the labelling CAST is actually the outer edge of the wheel, since the wheel was not solid but spoked and only the central arbor and rim were 'full' width, and the label WOOD simply erroneous that is merely depicting the rim between spokes.

Either way it will be interesting to see how you get on with both fitting and using rubber bands - I recollect there was a video on YT where a guy demonstrated fitting them I think using a ty-wrap to hold the start and some string to tease the rubber on easing around until fully on.

 

[Fergie 307]

That is not what the manual says, but I don’t have one so am just posting the manual I have got

That is interesting.
Must dig out my manual, but pretty sure it doesn't refer to them as I remember checking when I first got it.
I believe the illustration in my manual is exactly the same as the one on the back of the machine.
Maybe an age thing, mine is a very early one.
Would certainly be interesting to hear from anyone else with one.
I have just found a you tube video of a German chap repairing one. His is in the Kity green colour with red wheels, and has tyres!
Interestingly, although it is very similar to mine, there are some subtle differences. Mine has metal scrapers that run close to the wheels, and don't appear to have sufficient adjustment to accommodate a tyre, these fittings are not present on the German guys machine. The frame is also subtly different.
Mine is painted a sort of off white colour with unpainted wheels, which pre dates the green and red colour scheme. No idea of it's exact age. I have a 636, which is in the early light green and red hammer finish. This machine is dated on the bed, 1976. So my 612 must pre date that.
The others I have looked at have also been old ones in the white finish, never seen a green one in the flesh.
So maybe they started out with no tyres, and they were added later in some revision of the design?
No idea.