Bandsaw Advice

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DeepBlue

Established Member
Joined
4 Dec 2004
Messages
215
Reaction score
0
Location
Wokingham
Hi guys,
can anyone give me some advice with bandsaws? I'm after one of the smaller, bench mounted saws and am trying to decide between the Axminster AWSBS and the Scheppach Basato 1.

Is it worth paying the extra, or would the axminster be adequate? Ill be using it for pretty much everything, except deep resawing. Also, what would be the best choice of dust extractor?

Thanks in advance :D
 
Welcome to the forum, DeepBlue.

It's not in the least helpful as far as your question goes, but I'll say it anyway. Get the biggest capacity of bandsaw your workshop and budget allows. Trust me; you may not have resawing in mind now, but when the full usefulness of a bandsaw is revealed to you, you'll wish you'd gone bigger. In fact, no matter how large the capacity of any bandsaw you own, almost certainly you'll end up wishing you had a bigger one.

As far as the question goes, I have zero experience of either individual model, but going on general experience of Scheppach vs. Axminster I'd go with the Axminster. And Dure-Edge blades, natch.
smile.gif
Dust-ex; don't ask me. I picked a real stinker. Lots of discussion about them in the archives to be going on with though.

Cheers, Alf
 
Thanks for the reply. I would definately like a larger machine, but the space and budget don't really allow for it. Has anyone had any experience with either of these two? Are there any alternatives that i should consider?

Tar....
 
Deepblue, I have I to agree with Alf. I had a small bench mounted bandsaw for a year and found it inadequate for so many things. It got swapped for a reasonable sized one pretty quickly :lol:
 
Thanks for the good advice and the warm welcome. I'll see what i can do about a larger one, but it might be wishful thinking. Do you have a good internet stockist for dure-edge blades?

Thanks
-DeepBlue
 
Hi DeepBlue

Here you are: -

DureEdge
21 Station Road
Woodley
Stockport
SK6 1HN
Tel : 08702-252337
Fax : 0161-430-8008

They don't have a web site.

Cheers
Neil
 
Hi Deep,

I don't have direct experience of the Basato 1, but my Basato 3 is awesome. I studied the competition and decided that the Scheppach had more to offer in features and build quality.

Look at the blade guide system on both machines, bearing guides all round (both sides and at the back) are best. You need a nice sturdy table that stays put when you set an angle of cut. And of course, the bigger the depth & width of cut the better but you're probably getting bored hearing that.

Bandsaws don't make much dust, as the blade is relatively thin, so almost any decent dust collector will work. High pressure, low volume extractors have the advantage of filtering down to sub-micron particle size so may be better if you are cutting up MDF etc. Bandsaws aren't designed for efficient dust collection so don't expect to get all of it. I get about 40% of the dust my B3 makes.

Wulf
 
DeepBlue,

You might try looking at second hand models. Often older but better built. I recently (6 months) acquired a Startrite 352 about 1990 to 1994 vintage for £400. My experience has been that it works better than most modern machines ( once I had learned to use it properly), it has an 11.5 inch depth of cut which I frequently use to rip 10 inch deep material, a bit fidddly but reliable and simple. This would betrue of other models eg. Startrite 351, 301 etc etc.

As others have said a call to Duredge will be essential ...I wondewr if all the free marketing we do for them could result tin a contribution to a competition.......maybe I will ask .

good luck
 
Hi beech,
yeah, excellent idea. The others have now got me hankering after something a smidge larger. Whereabouts did you "aquire" yours? Im actually in bracknell, so if you wouldn't mind sharing your sources....

Also, what are the essentials to look for if im buying second hand?

Tar....
 
DeepBlue":1808u8m1 said:
Hi beech,
yeah, excellent idea. The others have now got me hankering after something a smidge larger. Whereabouts did you "aquire" yours? Im actually in bracknell, so if you wouldn't mind sharing your sources....

Also, what are the essentials to look for if im buying second hand?

Tar....

www.friday-ad.co.uk

Often has stuff for sale. Keep your eyes peeled on Good Woodworking classifieds, and your local newspaper with a classifieds section. Ebay can be worth a look too. If you search for bandsaw on friday-ad, and do an "advanced search" then all areas, their are 4 in at the moment, all under £100. If you watch for a month or two, some really big stuff often comes up - heavy cast iron stuff for cheap. You could hire a van, buy the saw, stop for a pint on the way home and you'd still be quids in!!!

Adam
 
Also, what are the essentials to look for if im buying second hand?

Tar....[/quote]

Others will be much better than I at this but here goes:-
1) capacity-vertical 11 to 12 inches
2) capacity horizontal 14 to 20 inches....biogger if often better as this dimension controls the size of component width you can get under the guides
3) on older machines ignore bearing guides as they offer no real advance over metal blocks
4) ease of adjustment...its always fidlly as you are adjusting in vertical, horizontal and lateral dimensions all the time. Bearings are often easier to adjust but I don't think they provide enough guide support.
5) able to accept mitre square in a 3/4 inch channel + other goodies
6) solid fence...if necessary make one up or have one made..often suppied fence is too cheap and nasty...recent design for one in FWW I think..??
7) motors from 3ph machines can be swapped for single phase but on older devices there may be issues with mounting and the wheel to transmit power to the band

over to all of the really skillled people to add to this..
 
asleitch":1tq4v8cz said:
Ebay can be worth a look too. Adam

Adam mentioned Ebay. Ebay prices can be a bit high but less than second hand dealers. I think it was Scott and Seargant or maybe G&M recently who had a couple of of Startrite 301s for about £600 to 650 and a 352 for 950 . Ebay would probably come in a bit cheaper than this maybe £400 but I have seen some older Startrites go for £550 to £650 on Ebay. There is of course a lot of "cr*p" on Ebay too some you need to ask lots of questions.
 
Ebay can be worth a look too

Yeah, i was quite tempted by:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20791&item=4341444733&rd=1

The capacity is more useful and a review in good woodworking seemed to rate it highly, although the price isn't anything particularly fantastic. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Also, if i were to go for that schepach model, I was originally going to get it from Rutlands, but it appears that quite a few people on the forum are less than happy. What is the consensus?
 
http://www.woodfordwm.co.uk/acatalog/New_Xcalibur.html

You might want to have a look at the above web site. Woodford are a relatively local supplier to me ( on a large scale map of the world) and have been praised here for there table saws. Bandsaws I looked at seem OK and prices are not too astronomical.

SAcheppach has mioxed reviews with some people feeling that quality and performance are poor others feelings its great. It's probably a bought in machines for them as it looks a bit similar to a few other small bandsaws. My issue with it is cutting depth is a bit small and cutting width is really too small for me.
 
Right, i think i might be on to a winner here. I got a flyer through my door advertising this:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=21702&recno=10

Axminster have knocked 65 quid off just in time for christmas, putting it in my price range. The depth of cut is 160mm and the max width is 300, which is much more like it. It is, however, from axmister's perform range, but never having had any experience with perform i'm undecided whether it's a good buy

:?

Anyone care to offer some advice?
 
Hi DeepBlue,

That band saw is a clone of the EB 315 which I bought second hand from Ebay. A very useful saw, wish I had it some years ago, would of been much quick for curve cutting than the scroll saw in 3/4” iroko :shock:

I have not seen the Perform copy up close, but I have the planer/thicknesser and a number of router cutters from the range and I rate them as being very good value for money. I am not sure I would buy them to make a living with but for serious home use their great. :D

And I am not on commission from Axminster. :roll: yet! :wink:
 
DeepBlue,

As Dave has mentioned this seems to be a clone of the EB 315. I have a 315, bought 2nd hand, and it's perfectly adequate and does all I ask of it, especially with a decent blade. Lower guides are a bit of a pain but otherwise no complaints. I think at £189 you canny go far wrong.

Noel
PS DeepBlue = Jean Reno?
 
Back
Top