Record Power Sabre 250 bandsaw

[akirk]

I had a Draper bandsaw given to me last year, and it has done quite well, however it struggled to cut deeper hardwoods, so I have upgraded to a Record Power Sabre 250. I had been thinking about the 350 / 450 which seem to be very good bandsaws, but the 250 offers much of the same facilities and careful attention to detail of the bigger models, yet still fits on a workbench.

first impressions: it has zero issue with the wood causing grief for the Draper bandsaw, eats it for breakfast! It seems solidly built, fence seems accurate and the table alone weighs more than my previous bandsaw! Tuff Saw blades are coming…

 

[TRITON]

It has a few additions over the standard 10", but I'd prefer a greater depth of cut like you get on the 350.
The 350 has the 285mm depth of cut and thats a very good aspect of it. Compare that to 127mm, its night and day.
Admittedly the difference in price between the 250 and 350 is pretty big.

But as long as you're happy with it and it does what you want, thats good news.
For the small workshop I think you did very well and made a good choice over the standard 10".
A number of better features for only about a hundred quid more.

 

[akirk]

oh I agree - the 350 was definitely on the list (and in reality probably still is) but I am in the middle of cutting a whole load of planks into pen blanks and the old saw was not coping - so there was an imperative to replace now and while there is money in the bank - it wasn't 'allocated to wood working tools' money so it was much easier to spend a few hundred than £1,200+ I also think that for much of what I do that extra depth is probably not needed. My interest in wood tends to be in smaller things (toys / pens / etc.) I doubt that I will start ripping down logs for turning - happy to buy the blanks, so it is a good compromise... This one also fit in the same space as the previous Draper benchtop bandsaw - and if you were to see the workshop and realise that there space is at a premium, then it makes sense that this was quite important!

It was interesting in doing the research that there is not much posted about the Sabre 250 - lots of people commenting that you should always go as big as you can (and recommending the 350 / 450), but in parallel, a lot of threads about buying small and cheap - c.f. the recent Aldi bandsaw thread... In reality the Sabre 250 isn't huge amounts more than the cheap bandsaws, but it feels like a scaled down professional model, rather than a 'build as cheaply as possible' small bandsaw and for those with occasional use / less space in the workshop then it is I think a very viable and overlooked model

 

[Spectric]

It has a few additions over the standard 10", but I'd prefer a greater depth of cut like you get on the 350.

Also apart from the greater depth of cut you also get a bigger table which can be very handy and more room between the blade and rear case.