Basato 3

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RoyS

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12 Mar 2003
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Location
Saxmundham, Suffolk
Hi - I am looking to buy my first bandsaw and would appreciate some advice.

As I am short of space, it will have to double up as a rip saw as well as doing the usual band-saw things. (I already have a De Walt crosscut.)

I had more or less decided on an EB BAS316 when the Basato 3 appeared.
Does anyone have views on the Basato? Is it a genuine 'little brother' of the Basato 5 and built to that standard, which I understand is very good (except I have seen that they are sometimes dropped on delivery!)?

The usual price for the Basato 3 plus mitre fence is about £50 more than the BAS316- is the Basato worth the extra?

Many thanks in anticipation - RoyS
 
Hi Roy

Don't you trust the guys on <cough> UKWW <cough> then :wink: ?

Incidentally, I wonder if EB's marketing department has thought of trying to persuade Posh Spice to call a future child "Elektra"? Probably not :) .

Yours

Gill
 
RoyS,

I've got the EB 315. Bought it new about 3 years ago.

For the price (£350 odd) I think its quite good value for money. cast iron table which is nice. There may be an ongoing prob. with the blade guide casting. I've heard others have broken and it did so on mine shortly after buying it.

The locking mech for the tilt table is a bit useless. The thread strips if you overtightened it.

Everything else on the saw is fine. Wheels alignment good ,blade changing
easy. Don't know about using a fence on it though for ripping. I dont think any cheap bandsaw does this ok.

All in all for £350, good value, but others are much better if you pay that bit more I would think.

BTW I use it every day in pro workshop situation.
 
In my opinion bandsaws in this price range are not suitable for ripping with a straight fence. The best way to rip with a bandsaw like this is to draw a straight line on the wood and to try to follow it by eye. You will probably get closer that you would with a straight fence where sooner or later the blade will veer off the required line.

John
 
Hi John

I think it is possible to get a very straight line with a bandsaw if you set it up correctly, paying particular attention to the guide blocks and the blade. (The blade that is supplied with the saw should always be replaced.)

That said, you'll never get as straight a cut as you could with a tablesaw.

If you want to guide the timber through a bandsaw by eye, it's worth considering using a point fence. I've never used one myself (my Kity 613 cuts straight enough for my purposes) but some people find they get good results.

Yours

Gill
 
Hi folks

I forgot to mention - the Kity I use is outside the £350 price range quoted. I certainly agree with everyone else that it's worth paying the bit extra to get a machine that has greater accuracy and muscle. I've never used a machine in the £350 range other than at woodworking shows and they all seemed to struggle with larger pieces of timber.

As an aside, the bandsaw gets much more use in our shop than the table saw.

Yours

Gill
 
Roy

I had the same dilemma just recently. I had decided that I wanted the BAS316 and then along came the Basato 3 and I wasn't so sure.

I did a lot of research and posted a lot of questions. In the end I heard so many reports of problems with the Basato 3, even the Basato suppliers were finding it harder to promote the saw even though I understand they were getting a good kickback from Basato. One or two of the reports on the Rutland site customer feed back were also negative.

To summarize I heard very little negative about the EB so I settled on buying it.

Let me just say hear that with any buy you have some problems and I would like to thank Electra Bekum B in Southampton the staff there were a great help getting set up.

First things first, don't depend on those blades that they send with the EB the blade that was fitted was no good. I don’t mean absolutely but I wanted to resize some timber against the fence and you could have lent an elephant against the timber it still ran away.

Now many people say get rid of your manufacturer supplied blade and EB also confirmed that their blade were not that good so I ordered a new blade and you should have seen the silly grin on my face when the saw cut the first piece of 9x2 effortlessly and straight as a die. I have since fitted one of the free blades that came extra with the EB and I found them to be good, so it was only the factory fitted one that has been dumped.

I haven’t had the guide problem that some of the 315 owners have mentioned and I wonder if this has been improved upon. I am very happy with the 316 and it was my opinion that if you really want the Basato then best wait for the Basato 3.5

But then again Roy I might work for EB :twisted:
 
I have owned an EB 315 for many years, it's one of the original German ones, and has a cast alloy table. I used to use it extensively to cut out electric guitar body and neck blanks, and with a decent blade could get to within a milliletre of the desired line. I chose it originally because of the bearing guides fitted (seemed a much better idea than rubbing blocks) and have never had any trouble with them.
For resawing up to about 6 inch widths I use a point fence which I made from MDF, accurate right angle to the tabe and clamped the required distance from the blade. This works well as I get the required dimension but even with a good blade it is still necessary to steer the stock maybe 20 degrees either way to stay on the line drawn on the top edge

I have an EB PKF255 table saw so ripping on the bandsaw isn't necessary. If it was then I would buy a cheap circular saw and use the machined edge of a manmade board as a fence. Ripping on a bandsaw is like sweeping the workshop floor with a hairbrush, possible, but surely there's a better way?

John
 
Well I dunno, I can't say I've every had any trouble with ripping on my bandsaw. Maybe if your EB is giving you so much trouble, John, it's not the saw for Roy? This is on an Elu 3401 which is well within the budget, btw. The only real drawback to ripping using the supplied fence is the fact that the fence is lousy! No, it doesn't compare to a biggun, but I've had sterling use from it for years.

If I was in the market for that spec of bandsaw, and despite my troubles with the Basato 5-2, I'd certainly go with the Basato 3. My only reservation would be that it might be worth holding off a while, if you can, until the teething troubles are sorted out. But worth the wait, and the extra cash, I reckon.

On the whole thing of getting something bigger, well that always makes me chuckle. No matter what machine you ask about, someone always says to get a bigger one. You've got to start somewhere, and sometimes bigger isn't necessarily better for some people. Anyway, as Roy says he's short of space, he's probably out of options for anything larger.

Cheers, Jester

P.S. The 3 is much lighter than the 5-2, so less risk of it being dropped I'd have thought. :wink:
 
Jester":3a4tb9vq said:
Well I dunno, I can't say I've every had any trouble with ripping on my bandsaw. Maybe if your EB is giving you so much trouble, John, it's not the saw for Roy?

I don't remember saying my bandsaw was giving me any trouble. Maybe if I was trying to do ripping on it it would. IMO bandsaws should be used for what they do best, which is on smaller units cutting curves, and on larger ones (bigger than we are talking about here) resawing.
As I said in my previous post, if you need to do ripping then why not buy a cheap portable circular saw (Axminster do a suitable unit for £50) and make as long a fence as you require from a piece of plywood etc. That will give a straighter cut than any bandasaw in this price range

John
 
John,

Sorry, no you didn't say your bandsaw was giving you trouble. I just assumed it must be if
Ripping on a bandsaw is like sweeping the workshop floor with a hairbrush
as personally I rip stuff on mine all the time without ever considering it to be a trial.

As it happens I use a circular saw/straight edge combination in preference to using a table saw. Not sure I'd recommend too cheap a saw for the task though, as therein lies madness. DAMHIKT! :wink: Most of the time, though, it's a lot quicker and easier to use the bandsaw in my experience. But then everybody's workshop setup and working habits are different, which is what makes these fora so interesting. :D

Cheers, Jester
 
Well, you know what they say about assumption. Anyway, we could argue this one for ages so I won't bother, beyond saying that the Axminster saw I mentioned is not too cheap, and that if the original questioner is really strapped for cash and needs to do ripping then I would recommend it

John
 
GillD - thanks for the 'hint' - I have now looked at the Other Site and clearly there have been many relevant postings since my last visit.

Everyone - many thanks for all the messages and advice.

It seems the BAS316 is a satisfactory machine but with some bits that break too easily and that the Basato 3 is more robust but much more difficult to set up.

As I am not in a desperate hurry, I have decided to wait for the modified Basato 3 described on the Other Site and have a good look at it then.

Best wishes
 

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