Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey guys, what is a good first band saw choice 9" ? 10" ?
And whats the difference ?

How much room do you have?

i have a huge barn....you could fit a 30 ft rv in here

I'd think a 14" SB is a good first saw. You can usually pick up a serviceable Delta for around $400. I'd buy one of the older modles made in America if possible..

My vote is a 14 inch!!!!!

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MK5acoustics.com

Read the reviews of 14 and 17 inch bandsaws on Lumberjocks and Fine Woodworking. I'd stay away from any Delta manufactured in the last 10-15 years. I own a 14" Grizzly and am extremely satisfied. Go with 220 if at all possible.

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Ken Bremer
Madison, Wisconsin
http://www.bremerguitar.blogspot.com

Unless you're going to be resawing boards, a 10" will pretty much do everything else you'd need for guitar building. I recently bought the Craftman 10" on sale for $119. I then ordered 5 quality blades for it from http://www.woodcraftbands.com for $50. It works great!

Craftsman 10"



Rikon 10"

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Brad

ditto!
I think 14" is the smartest choice...... most popular size, useful 'till you die & most versatile general ww bandsaw for whatever your doing, not a "toy" which some of the smaller saws can be IMO, can resaw/re-equip down the road if you want, and, with all the deltas & clones out there, good value can be had!

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Dave
Milton, ON

I agree with all the votes for 14". The 10" saws are too small to do heavy duty resawing. Many
of the manufacturers have responded to people who want to do resawing by redesigning the
upper blade guides to go higher, and putting on higher horsepower motors. upping resaw
capacity into the 13" range. Even for larger guitar sets, you don't need any more than 9-10"
capacity. The price is significantly higher than the 10" saws, but you get a lot more
machine for that money IMO.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

If you plan to do a lot of re-sawing I'd go 18" or 19". It sounds like you have the room (barn) and since you have a barn I'm guessing you also have plenty of trees. Anyways, a 14" sill surely re-saw just fine, it just takes a bit more set-up to get good results from what I understand. But the biggest advantage of having a 19" or larger saw is the wheel size allows for something like a Woodmaster CT, which I would highly recommend. I'm not sure if there are any 14" models that can handle that bad boy or not, but even if one could it would surely stress the blade and motor more than any 18"+ of the same brand.

If you have no plans for re-sawing, get a 14" and save yourself some money.

14 inch if you can find it, I used 10 inch because no one sells any decent 14 inch used, and new ones costs a lot. Mind you a 18 inch bandsaw will take up the same (if not only a little more) amount of floor space as a 10" bandsaw. Much easier to get industrial sized machine at a good deal than hobbyist machine due to the amount of factories here.

I will be getting a 18" saw in the shop... really want to give the Woodmaster CT a try because its a lot cheaper than Trimasters.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I have a G0514X2 as well, and if I had it to do over again that would still be a good choice. I recently added a used G0555 so I could dedicate the big guy to resaw/straight line cuts, and the small one for curve cutting.

I don't know what you're budget is, but If I REALLY had it to do all over again, I would probably look for a used Minimax MM16 or 20, and a used G0555. I'm pretty close to being able to dump my table saw entirely, and the reason is having a great bandsaw with a great blade. I would LOVE to get that table saw out of my shop. It's an enormous waste of space and not very useful for the way I build guitars.

Well, you'd need a 40 inch bandsaw if you work with plywood all the time (like a cabinet shop) so a table saw would make more sense, but a radial arm saw or a chop saw would work so much better for cross cutting boards without taking up a huge amount of space.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Minimum 14". Look around Craigslist in your area to see if you can get a good deal on a used saw. My 1983 vintage 400mm wheel saw (so a hair under 16") cost me 700 euros and only required a little bit of tuning on my part to get me a very high quality tool that will tackle more or less anything I care to throw at it, including resawing backs/sides. The downside is you may need to tune/fiddle a little, the upside is that you get to know the tool well.

36"


Seriously, if you have the space, and are able to move a big saw, you can often find 36" saws for around $1000 because they are too big for most people. Assuming you find one in good shape for the right price, you'll probably also have to buy a VFD (variable frequency drive) to convert single phase to 3-phase.

Besides these big saws being able to handle big blades for rewawing, the smaller blades will last longer - more teeth to share the wear.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Yea I saw someone selling a 26" for around 600 dollars. Beside the fact that the person will probably charge another 100 dollars to move it, it won't fit in my shop. Chances are the unit is higher than my ceiling and wider than my door, so it will not fit at all.

If you run a VFD to run a 3 phase on single phase power, most of those motors draw a lot of amp, and I am afraid a normal circuit won't be able to handle it without tripping breakers all the time.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Honestly, I think a good jigsaw is often a better choice than a tiny 9" bandsaw. My Bosch was a big purchase item at the time I bought it, but it's been a very faithful friend.

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David Morris

Motors draw the most current on startup & when heavily loaded. One nice feature of VFD's is that you can soft start a motor so that it ramps up to speed over a set time period, like 10 or 15 seconds. This in combination with using your machine intelligently should prevent throwing a 220V 15 amp breaker assuming you have sufficient wiring from the box to the saw.


Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

If budget is no issue then by all means get a nice 14" band saw to start, but if this is indeed your first saw and the budget is tight then I agree with this post. These 10 inchers will also make a great dedicated small duty saw and you can later move up to a larger re-saw capable saw.

I have a cheap Delta 10" that I thought was just a toy (and it is compared to the bigger saws) but I put a 3/8" 4TPI Timberwolf blade on it ( http://timberwolfblades.com/ ) and set it up properly and it performs really really well for every day luthier tasks. Won't re-saw a 9" board bit will re-saw a 4" piece for a head stock overlay and is great for smaller tasks which describes most of what guitar building is all about.

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Thank You and Best To All

+1 for the rikon or craftsman 10in great for everyday tasks.Also have a ryobi 9in for small odd jobs too. cheap an handy.

For small jobs I would rather use a scroll saw, they have greater throat width and can make inside cuts.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

+1 for a 14" minimum. I just finished my first. I bought a reconditioned Ridgid 14" from an outlet mail shop for $175 (I think). My best buy. I use it all the time. Anything smaller I would not be able to use it for some tasks. As it is, I have to plan some cuts. It is big enough to do light re-sawing if I need to make a headplate or rosette. Bigger would be better.

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EddieLee

Joe (Shmozer),

You have stated how much room you have available, but a few more questions need to be answered.

What do you need to accomplish with the saw? This will determine the capacity needed.
Do you have 220v electrical power available? If not, are you willing to install 220?
As with everything else, what is your budget?

I currently have both a 10" and 14", and am doing the research on 18"+. (For years I used a 24", which really spoiled me.)
By far, the 14" is used considerably more, as it has a better tensioning mechanism and more powerful motor. It has the ability to handle wider blades and make straighter/truer cuts.
The 10" has been reserved for very narrow blades (1/16" and 1/8") when cutting tight curves. I can use the 1/16" blade and quickly knock out some joints or tight radii, but the tires on the 14" do not like the narrow blades due to less pronounced crown. This is one of the reasons a scrollsaw was mentioned above, as a scrollsaw has just as much curve-cutting ability, but can offer more table capacity.

The larger the wheel, the longer the blade life.
Lots of folks associate larger wheels with wider blades for the ability to resaw. But some folks need large wheels not for wider blades, but for increased table capacity for handling wider work.
As a general rule, the larger wheels have tires with less-pronounced crown (so as to have the ability to accomodate the wide blades), which means less ability to accomodate very narrow blades. But the times you need the very narrow blades will likely be few, if any, in which case you may be just as well-served with a scrollsaw for those applications.

Compared to other cutting machinery, bandsaws require surprisingly little power due to the narrow kerf. The exception to this is resawing. For the most part, the larger saws will have more powerful motors in anticipation of resawing. Naturally, the more powerful motors bring up the question concerning 220v power suply.
Besides resawing wider stock, adequate motor power is important when cutting wood with altered feed rates. Sharp blades are always important, but some woods require a feed rate not compatible with low-powered motors.

Also in anticipation of resawing with larger blades, the larger saws usually have better tensioning mechanisms, equating to higher-quality cuts.

My suggestion is to buy as large a saw as you can afford. You may not need it now, but you will eventually come across those boards that beg to be resawed.
Even if you plan to never resaw wider stock, you will be blessed with longer blade life, straighter/truer cuts, and more overall peace-of-mind knowing your saw can handle anything you throw at it.

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Always have plenty of sandpaper; it's rough out there!

U know, it seems that a lot of builders are very happy with a well tuned, well setup, well powered 14" saw. Lou Itura is considered by many the go to guy for bandsaw technology and know how. And he loves the iron 14". Iron bandsaws in larger sizes are either prohibitively priced or just not nearly available as steel bodies. Most ready made 14" saws are not setup to Itura's standards, and you will probably put a bunch of dollars into one to get it there. That said, I would love to have such a 14" bandsaw. But, I can get close with a 18" steel bandsaw. Without lots of upgrades. Plus, you have a larger throat area, and won't need riser blocks for resaw. And the carbide blades are not excluded for your use. I have a delta 10" for little things and would not be without it. My Jet 18" with 3hp is plenty for whatever I do. What I think will happen is if you buy a 10", you will later get a 14". If you get a 14", you will double your investment with bearings and riser blocks. Eventually you will want more throat area and more power and you will end up at 18" or greater. And you will probably keep them all if you have the room. If you do not have room for a 14" and a 18", then I would say go with the 18". But do not buy an 18" with a motor less than 3hp, and the motor should wire at 120 or 220 volts, 220 being preferred for proper power draw at startup.

My old Delta 10" saw is the most used saw in my shop by a long shot.