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The type that 'normal' people own ie. those that have a cut of 6 to 8 inch in height. How good can you resaw with these machines, specifically in terms of how much clean up it needs. I'm thinking in terms of the easier woods such as Maple and Walnut.

I have a Delta 14" with 6" riser block which gives a total of 12" resaw capacity. The Delta design is probably the most copied 14" bandsaw out there.

The saw will do a decent job resawing but you have to take your time. You need a good blade - I typically use a 3tpi skip pattern and no wider than 5/8". Your guides must be precisely set, you have to accurately set the fence to account for drift, & you have to go slow letting the blade do the work. If you feed too fast, the blade will want to twist and it won't cut straight.

Resawing is loud, time consuming and makes a lot of dust. Get some hearing protection and a dust respirator.

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.

I started with a small 9'' Mastercraft bandsaw (a canadian brand name that does not carrie such a good reputation...) that had about 5'' of clearance. I couldn't resaw back and sides, but other than that it did the job. Didn't have any problems sawing the hard stuff such as ebony and honduran rosewood. It wasnt fast but at the time it was a hobby so time was not a big issue.

So all this to say that since I could do it with a crappy small bandsaw, I'm sure the better ones such as Crasftman, Ryobi and Bosh will work just fine.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I ask because my Bandsaw is a cheap far east machine, 6.5" under the guides. I only need 6 " max width - any more and I'll just go to a 3 piece Back. I have sawn at it's maximum and it required around 2.5 mm clean up in total (for both sides). I don't know if that's good, bad or plain average. Bandsaw was well set up with a decent Blade, although not one of the really expensive resaw types.

I have a Ridgid bandsaw from Home Depot and have mixed feelings about how it cuts. Affordable saw but underpowered and vibrates a lot. A machine like a Delta or Rikon would be a better choice.

David Charlesworth is a fan of using meat and fish blades made for cutting frozen beef and the like. These blades are made of stainless steel with less set than wood blades. Apparently they leave a surface that is good enough for glue and leave a smaller kerf so you get more yield from expensive billets. Less cleanup after resawing, but probably slower cutting due to the less set teeth I imagine. Also I'm not sure what sizes they come in. Worth looking into.

-J.

This should probably be called the "Medium Bandsaw thread"... Or is this like when Burger King upsized their drinks and now if you ask for a medium what you get is a large, and you have to ask for small if what you want is what everybody else calls a medium? I guess that makes my little Craftsman 10" a 99-cent value sized band saw.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

The little 10" Craftsman (Rikon) is a nice saw. I have one, as well as a 14" Grizzly and a 19" Jet. I use the 10" more than the others because it handier...small enough to fit in my workroom inside the house, where the other two are in the garage shop. It works great for most uses, such as trimming backs, tops, and sides, roughing out braces, rough cutting nuts or saddles, making kerfed lining, etc.

I would agree with Alan I almost bought the Rikon before I ran into a 12" Hitachi which looks like a small 14" Delta for $150. I keep 1/4" blades on it and Resaw on my 21" Shop Fox. It is really nice to have a small bandsaw for curve work. Blades aren't expensive and you don't have to waste time changing blades.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

Resawing is loud? Really? The only time I find my saw to be loud is when I am using a blade ill matched to the task. Horsepower matters too. My current resaw blades are Laguna Resaw Kings. Variable pitch reduces noise due to resonance. 3 tpi slice through 8" boards with hardly a snag. If you are hearing a lot of noise, then your setup is inefficient. With 14" saws, blade selection might be a bit limited, yet they are a favorite of Iturra. See what he does.

It's not deafening like a router, but I find the noise monotonous & annoying. For me, hearing protection makes the task more enjoyable.

Just my $0.02.

Kevin Looker

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

I have a Craftsman/Rikon 10" saw, and it works fine for everything it can handle, up to abouit 4 1/2" thick. Works fine for necks, with heel stacks down to purflings. The down side is that blades break regularly. Fortunately, my supplier, a local company(Lenox Blades), will re-weld any of their blades for free. I use mostly 1/4 " 6 or 10 tooth wood cutters or 1/4" 10 - 14 tooth or 14 - 18 tooth bi-metal blades. More and more, I'm using the bi-metals for more stuff. They really cut cleanly, and take less clean-up. You have to go a little slower, but anything up to an inch in thickness seems fine. Thicker than that, may get some burning.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I had an old three wheel 10" Craftsman for a couple of years that was a frustrating piece of crap. I now do everything, big or small on a much larger machine. I'm sure there are some decent smaller than 14" saws out there, but I don't intend to find out.

Another 10" Craftsman/Rikon scroller with an 18" Rikon resaw user here. The little Craftsman/Rikon is a great little saw. Got mine used off Craigslist It just needed the bottom wheel adjusted co-planer with the top. Amazing what the owner's manual will tell you if you take the time to read it and not blame Sears on such a POC like it's previous owner. Cost him a bunch of money.

Hello Tarhead,

How did you adjust the bottom wheel? I have the same saw (the 10" Rikon version), and the bottom wheel seems to be off compared to the top wheel. I can obviously adjust the top wheel, using the blade registration knob, but I don't know how to adjust the lower wheel (didn't see anything about this in the very minimal manual).

What happens is that the blade does not run along the center of the bottom wheel, no matter how much I adjust the top wheel. I can adjust it so that the blade runs along the center of the top wheel, but I can't get it to run along the middle of the bottom wheel as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another problem I have with this bandsaw is that the lower blade guide twists out of square when the locking wingnut is tightened, I think it might just be a misshapen washer, but it is very annoying.

Thank you,

Jonas

Jeb,
If you look at the side of the saw above the motor there are 3 adjusting bolts oriented N-E-W on the bottom wheel axle bearing housing. Adjust the top wheel blade tracking adjustment to the middle of its adjustment range (don't turn the wheel, just turn the knob to roughly the middle), then loosen/tighten the appropriate adjustment bolts on the bottom wheel to keep the blade position stable on the top wheel slowly turning by hand. Takes 3 minutes, no straight edge, or high math.

As far as the lower (under the table) blade guides, I use a piece of copy paper between the blade and roller bearings held firmly in my left hand while tightening gently with my right hand. I don't have wingnuts, just hexheads. If your problem is the upper support arm height adjustment, mine has a little front to back slop while it's loose but goes back to position when tightened. Try cleaning the track and tightening any of the guides. You may have deformed the edge of the track the locking nut rides in.

Hope this helps.

According to the manual of my Bandsaw it is not possible to adjust the lower wheel. Strange how it has the 3 adjustable bolts and the locking nuts.

I have that 10" Delta you see in Chris Paulick's videos. Very usefull for detail work, jigs, arc cutting and so on. I also have a 3 wheel craftsman. If I had room, I would buy a 14" saw for sure.

Mike

They also apply to the Craftsman 9, 10 and 12 inch Rikon clones and what I used on my #21400 10".

Note: It's been awhile since I got my saw and squared up the wheels. When I wrote my response early this morning I only remembered 3 bolts. Checking now, there are indeed 4 (N-S-E-W) just like the Rikons.
Apologies if I confused anyone.

Be very careful, when adjusting, not to strip the metal housing that the bolts are threaded into. It is very soft metal, and strips easily. Sears replaced my saw for that reason.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thank you Todd, Tarhead, and Waddy for the advice. Todd, I went to the link to the Rikon site that you provided, and it easily explained how to align the bottom wheel. Wouldn't it have been nice if Rikon had just included this information in the measly manual that came with the bandsaw? Anyway, thanks to you guys, I got my band saw running better, and I learned a lot about setting up a bandsaw, and it's really not as hard as it sounds.

One other question for a rookie bandsaw user, when adjusting the roller bearings, the manual says to set the bearings 1/32nd of inch away from the blade, on each side of the blade, but it seems like this gives a bit too much room for the blade to move around. I hear people mention using a piece of paper or a dollar bill to set the distance from the blade, is this what you bandsaw pros would recommend?

Thank you,

Jonas

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