Which band saw?

[tom_wales]

Hi all

Looking for some advice on which band saw to purchase. I was thinking of a Startrite 352 at £1299.00 from Screwfix, but I have just come across an Xcalibur 14" for 899.00 from Woodford on ebay.

Has anyone any experience of the Xcalibur? How does it compare to the Startrite?

I need to make a new kitchen and larder, plus bits for a bathroom and a children's room, plus my 16 yr old son is using my Makita mitre saw to make garden furniture at the moment, and he would love to be able to use a band saw, which is why I am thinking of investing in such an expensive machine, it has to last, and it has to be a positive user experience!

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

tom

 

[nev]

Hi Tom
are you sure its a bandsaw you need? Cant see it being much use in the construction of kitchen cabinets, surely a table saw would be more appropriate? or am I completely off the mark?

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Yep - bandsaw is of very limited use for your intended projects, you need a table saw, or possibly a track saw used in conjunction with your mitre saw.

Regards Mick

 

[tom_wales]

Hi Nev and Spindle

Thank you for your replies, I forgot to mention, I have three huge tree's worth of Sycamore, it has been properly dried, but it's in large boards that are at least 2" thick and 8' plus in length, I thought I would need a band saw to get them into useable sizes?
Plus a band saw doesn't take up as much room in my garage as a table saw would. I am no expert though, that's for sure!

Can I ask, why couldn't I make cabinets using a band saw with a fine blade?

Obviously, I have a lot to learn...

Cheers

tom

 

[Spindle]

Hi Tom

The largest restriction in using a band saw is the limited width you can cut, (dictated by the throat of the saw and in the saws you quote is around 14"). If you're cutting from sheet I assume you would require a larger width capability - hence the track saw or table saw.

The table saw would also handle the Sycamore boards - do you have a planer / thicknesser?

Regards Mick

 

[nev]

Usually the cabinets are made from sheet material and wider than the distance between the bandsaw blade and body - hence the table saw/ track saw suggestion.
However - if you are making the cabinets from planks then a bandsaw will be required to rip them to approx thickness (width limited to height of bandsaw) but the finished edges and faces will then need to be planed and joined to make boards. So you'll need a decent planer/thicknesser, (unless you are planing on doing it with hand tools, which may take a while) and a biscuit jointer or dare I say it, Domino, to join the planks seamlessly, along with a thousand clamps and loads of room to lay them out whilst gluing.
You may wish to consider using sheet material (veneered ply?) for the cabinets and use your real timber for the fronts (doors)? but you'll still have similar requirements depending on door style.
Not trying to put you off, but theres a lot of work and tools required to get from plank to board.

 

[tom_wales]

Hi Spindle

No, I don't own a planer/thicknesser. The Sycamore boards I have are around the 12-16" wide mark, some are around 8", but not many.
I do have a Makita 235mm circular saw, I was thinking of taking it out of it's case and making a table saw with it, not sure how do'able that is with a band saw? Sorry, just thinking aloud.

Cheers

tom

 

[morfa]

For making the kitchen cabinets, you'd can use a track/plunge saw. I made mine with this:

http://www.angliatoolcentre.co.uk/schep ... 40065.html

A Scheppach PL55. Works really well, just make sure you can do the cuts with the 1.4m rail. You can get an extra 1.4m rail and connector kit as well. Really easy to make the straight cuts on the sheet goods.

 

[tom_wales]

Hi morfa

I have the Makita 235mm circular saw I could use, although I can't see how I could cut the boards in half whith it.

Cheers

tom

 

[morfa]

I have the Makita 235mm circular saw I could use, although I can't see how I could cut the boards in half whith it.

Tom, if you have a guide that's 2.4m long, you can use that to strip the sheet goods into 600mm wide strips. You just put the guide along the line you want to cut and run the circular saw along the guide. Why do you think you couldn't use your circular saw to cut the board in half? Sheet goods aren't that big.

You could make a guide yourself: http://www.wwgoa.com/shop-made-circular ... y-awesome/ to use with the Makita.

But normally I just get the guys at my local yard to cut the plywood/MDF in half. Makes life much easier. They don't charge me for it either.

Also when it comes to making the cabinets, I'd use decent quality Birch ply and pocket hole joints. MDF is a bad idea. Horrible stuff.

 

[flounder]

When Tom talks about cutting the boards in half I think he might mean ripping the 2" boards in to 2 x 1" boards?

 

[tom_wales]

Hi morfa and flounder

Flounder is right, it's all in large planks, so I would like to cut some of them in half. I don't have any sheet material at all at the moment.
I would like to keep them as wide as possible, which is why I thought the band saw would be a good option?
Plus I am thinking of using my circular saw to make a home made table saw.

Cheers for the replies, still unsure of what to do at the moment though.

tom

 

[Spindle]

Hi

The correct term for what you describe as cutting the boards in half is re-sawing and the band saw is the correct tool for this job, but if you're going to be using sheet materials you will need either a track saw or table saw. Running a circular saw against a batten is also an option but a little less accurate. Could you find someone locally to re-saw the boards?

Once re-sawn they will still require finishing either in a planer / thicknesser or by hand.

In your position I'd be looking for a table saw, a planer / thicknesser and a mate to re-saw the planks.

Regards Mick

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Just to clear up some nomenclature. There is some terminology confusion going on between ripping and re-sawing. Your thick boards at say 2" you may want to split into 2 lots of 1" thickness right? That's called re-sawing and a bandsaw is the right tool for that job. Ripping would have narrowed the width (not the thickness) of your boards. So say you have a 16" board that's 2". Ripping might give you 2 8" boards of the same thickness. Both table saw AND bandsaw could turn your 16" x 2" thickness into 4 8" x 1" boards. But you couldn't do that without needing a lot of planing and thicknessing. You COULD get away with bandsawing only but it would take time and you would definitely need a planar/thicknesser or do it by hand to bring the edges and faces smooth as a bandsaw even with fabulous quality high tpi blade leaves a terrible finish. Doing many boards by hand this way would take a looooong time.

Edit...crossed with Spindles in the ether

 

[tom_wales]

Hi Mick

I don't know anyone that could re-saw the boards for me, they were cut and kiln dried, then gifted to me, they arrived out of the blue, all four trailer loads. I knew nothing about it until they arrived.
I will only be using these boards for my projects, including the kitchen. To cut sheet materials in the past I have used my circular saw with a straight edge clamped down.

Have you any experience or knowledge of Xcalibur machines? It's almost impossible to find anything out about them, but their table saws look like quality to me so I thought their band saws would be good too.

This whole thing of looking for machines is daunting and exciting, in equal measure, I just don't want to end up with something I don't use and can't sell on if needed.

I really appreciate the replies, thanks to everyone so far.

Cheers

tom

 

[tom_wales]

Hi Bob

Right ok, hmmm! My biggest problem is getting these boards to the right thickness. The way iIam looking at this is, a kitchen bought and fitted around here is 3/4 grand, I think I have this wood and I could do a better job!

Could I get a 300mm table saw and cut the planks in half with that, 4" one way, then turned over and the other 4" cut to give me 8" boards?

Looks like I need a planer thicknesser in the equation for starters.

Many thanks

tom

 

[Spindle]

Hi

When I finally find space for a table saw an Xcalibur one will be at the top of my list, but I've no direct experience of their products at the moment.

If I were in the market for a large band saw I'd be looking at the Record Power 352E:

http://www.recordpower.co.uk/product/14 ... 8QFwhsg_4Y

Or possibly the BS400:

http://www.recordpower.co.uk/product/pr ... 8QGGxsg_4Y

You're still going to need a planer / thicknesser or a lot of elbow grease though :wink:

Regards Mick

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Why don't you pay to have whole lot resawn and planed, select what you need to suit your cutting list, keep some and sell some on if not required? Then you could think about any gear you're lacking from there on in. Just a thought. :idea:

 

[Spindle]

Could I get a 300mm table saw and cut the planks in half with that, 4" one way, then turned over and the other 4" cut to give me 8" boards?

You could but a better course of action would be to rip them into 8" boards with your circular saw, (assuming it will cut that depth, and then to re-saw on a band saw - and then finish in a planer / thicknesser

It's not an easy choice and will depend on you future requirements whether to go for a band or table saw

Regards Mick

 

[tom_wales]

Why don't you pay to have whole lot resawn and planed, select what you need to suit your cutting list, keep some and sell some on if not required? Then you could think about any gear you're lacking from there on in. Just a thought. :idea:

A good thought at that mate, my problem is, there is a lot of material, three huge Sycamore trees worth, getting that to and from somewhere that could cut it would be a logistical problem that I would have a problem with, and may cost a fair bit? Your idea of selling on what I don't need has occurred to me and is a good idea, there is no way I will be able to use it all.

Cheers


tom