New Member, needs advice on Band saw cutting depths

[jase158]

Hi All,
Thank you for letting me on here,

I am new to woodwork, just doing a basic woodworking course. I have done some woodwork before but nothing major.

My wife has bought me a lathe and a few chisels for xmas! cant wait!!

I noticed that I need a Band saw for cutting the wood, cutting ends off my pieces and for shaping items.

I am thinking that it would be better to go larger cutting depth, rather then smaller but cant find one for a reasonable price.

I have done a search on here and see that many people buy cheaper units (metabo, axminster etc)

Why do you wise people buy the smaller cutting depth machines? What am i missing?

The thing is, that I enjoy making things from logs, solid pieces of wood etc and can't see the benefit of buying one less then 150mm cutting depth.

But the cheapest one I can find is the Dewalt DW876, £642 (Can't post link yet)

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You can cut small pieces with a large saw, but not large pieces with a small one. Don't just look at the cutting depth however, look at the size of the motor as well - some at the cheaper end will supposedly cut however many mil but do not have a large enough motor for it. For the type of work some people do, however, space and financial constraints make a smaller one a better choice - of course, if you belong to club you may well have access to a large one there.

 

[Claymore]

Maybe a chainsaw would be more useful if your cutting logs? many saws claim to cut thick stuff but in reality they can't, When I bought mine I thought great i can cut 8" thick logs.....wrong apart from the fact the machine isn't rigid enough to tension a wide blade the motors can also struggle with thick wood.
What about using a hand saw to saw the logs and then use a smaller bandsaw for doing more detailed cuts?
What sort of stuff are you wanting to make? furniture? bowls? might help if we knew and make it easier to point you in the right direction for kit.
Cheers and welcome to the forum

Brian
ps Axminster also sell expensive saws and even their cheaper ones are usually good quality kit which is why many of us on here shop there. Whatever bandsaw you decide to buy make sure you stick a Tuffsaws blade on it..... transformed mine

 

[sunnybob]

I have the axminster 350N. its quite big with a very large table, but thats because I want to cut boards down into planks (as well as bandsaw boxes). I have just cut a rosewood board 19 cm x 2.5 cm in half to give me 2 x 10mm x 190 mm planks.

I had a small bandsaw and threw it away after a year of trying to do things with it that it just couldnt do.

 

[AJB Temple]

As others have indicated. In order to cut large dimension timber the saw has to have sufficient throat depth, and really needs to use a wide blade, that will provide sufficient accuracy and efficiency. A wide blade takes a lot of tensioning and for this a bigger, more rigid and heavier saw is the way to go. If this is beyond your means, it is better to wait, buy pre-dimensioned wood, and save up for a better machine. Good saws often come up on eBay. There are many excellent trade saws that crop up to, for example the Startrite saws (which will require a van to collect them). These will massively outperform cheap, small band saws and last a long time. Cheap saws often make a lot of compromises: rigidity, table quality and flatness, fence quality, control wheels (often plastic), lightweight saw wheels, basic blade bearings and guides being some things to watch out for. Bandsaws are really rather simple tools but like many things you get what you pay for.

 

[undergroundhunter]

I looked at 14" models when I was in the market earlier this year but in the end went for a 16" Record Power and I haven't been disappointed with my choice. According to the specs you can get 12" under the guides but I'd never push it that far. As has been said you can cut small things on a big saw but not the other way round.

Matt

 

[Jonzjob]

I'll go 2s up with the Startrite saw. I have had the baby of the line, 301S, for about 20 years now and it's as good now as when I got it. It will cut up to 8" thick and had a 12" throat and that's plenty good enough for what I do.

I only ever use a 1/4" 6 skip blade in mine and as I said, that will cut 8" no problem, just let it cut and don't force it! As has been said a couple of times now, you can cut small on a big jobbie and one of the jobs I was given was a recon on a very old dolls house and I cut the glazing strips on it with no problems. 8" to match sticks, no problem.

I nearly forgot Jase, welcome to the forum and the slipery slope of turning. Once you start spinning wood you may not finish :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[jase158]

Hi Guys,

Thank you everyone, loads of info there, glad I asked on here and think I will save up for a good one.
I currently have a 4" block of wood that i want to cut into a pyramid (my son is doing egyptians at school)
I would also like to try things like doll houses, boats etc.

I have also seen a few bowls that have a strip of different wood in the middle and really love this effect so need to cut the blanks in half before I add a different piece of wood into the middle, glue back together and then turn the wood.

Now I have some idea of what i need I think i will ebay hunt!! thank you

 

[sunnybob]

Might be heresy to some (g) but once you start making bandsaw boxes you might not want a lathe.

 

[Jonzjob]

That is a lovely box, but why not do both?





I have made loads of the money boxes and the goblet, aluminium stem included, turned on my Record CL1 with a 3/8" spindle gouge.

You can also make this



Look like this



:mrgreen: :mrgreen: 8)