What Band saw for planking.

[woodfarmer]

I will be visiting the UK shortly and would like to get a bandsaw for converting some of my firewood logs (rarely longer than a metre into short planks which eventually I hope to use for making segmented bowls.
something like a Charnwood w730 as I hope to rip reasonably wide planks,

Any suggestions as to models and suppliers?

Thanks

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I'm upgrading from the BS300 to do bigger log work and I've narrowed my search to 3 saws at the moment:

1) Startrite 352E (or even 401 if 2nd hand and reasonable)
2) Hammer (Felder) N3800
3) Axy SBW4300B

Today I saw the Felder machine and its very robust. The guide assemblies are huge. But it has a non standard mitre slot, the extraction is poor apparently and its a good 4 weeks delivery. On the plus side the delivery is assembled so that will save a morning. Its a 2HP 16amp machine. Nice though and seriously sturdy. They quote max blade at 3/4" which surprised me for a trade rated machine as the startrite can take an inch. Looking at the tension spring assembly I would say it looked no more robust than the one on my BS300 which will explain the blade capacity as that will also take a 3/4" blade. My understanding is the Startrite has a massive tensioning cast assembly with huge spring but I'm yet to se it in the flesh. The Axy is a Korean machine which are apparently better quality than the Chinese ones but the guide assemblies were very wimpy indeed though its capacities on paper look great, the build quality is worse than the reviews set my expectation for. I think it is Axy's best seller now in that category and I saw its baby brother demo'd which certainly gave a very clean and accurate resaw performance. But I don't want to resaw fine dry hardwoods, I want to create blanks from huge masses of tree so niceties aren't that high on my shopping list whereas capacity and grunt are!!

 

[woodfarmer]

I'm upgrading from the BS300 to do bigger log work and I've narrowed my search to 3 saws at the moment:

1) Startrite 352E (or even 401 if 2nd hand and reasonable)
2) Hammer (Felder) N3800
3) Axy SBW4300B

Today I saw the Felder machine and its very robust. The guide assemblies are huge. But it has a non standard mitre slot, the extraction is poor apparently and its a good 4 weeks delivery. On the plus side the delivery is assembled so that will save a morning. Its a 2HP 16amp machine. Nice though and seriously sturdy. They quote max blade at 3/4" which surprised me for a trade rated machine as the startrite can take an inch. Looking at the tension spring assembly I would say it looked no more robust than the one on my BS300 which will explain the blade capacity as that will also take a 3/4" blade. My understanding is the Startrite has a massive tensioning cast assembly with huge spring but I'm yet to se it in the flesh. The Axy is a Korean machine which are apparently better quality than the Chinese ones but the guide assemblies were very wimpy indeed though its capacities on paper look great, the build quality is worse than the reviews set my expectation for. I think it is Axy's best seller now in that category and I saw its baby brother demo'd which certainly gave a very clean and accurate resaw performance. But I don't want to resaw fine dry hardwoods, I want to create blanks from huge masses of tree so niceties aren't that high on my shopping list whereas capacity and grunt are!!

although they all look to be very good machines, bit more expensive than I want to pay
I may regret buying smaller
seems there aren't any charnwoods to be had until May

Perhaps I should try training some of the local wood worms to bore in straight lines ?

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

 

[Grahamshed]

That was a good working summery Bob.

 

[woodfarmer]

Bob, have you seen the Fox 230mm Bandsaw Ref: F28-194B ?

It takes blades up to 35mm and has a 2hp motor all for around £500.

regards