band saw size requirement

**Jonathan Ward** · Jan-28-2018, 7:39pm

Originally Posted by Rob Roy

To return to the OP's hesitance to jump to the 14 inch size- I have a 10" Delta I bought many years ago. I keep it loaded with a small, fine-toothed blade and it's the one I go to 80% of the time. When I bought a 14" saw I wanted to avoid the noise and vibration of the traditional Delta style with the riser block, so I bought a 14" Rikon on sale- high resaw capacity, huge table, and resaws nicely with a wood slicer blade. BUT… the guides are a total PITA and changing blades takes a long time. If I had it to do over, I would save up a few hundred $ more and buy the Laguna. They have a model of Asian origin that's price competitive once you figure in the cost of adding the riser block, better tires, and upgrading the guides on a traditional saw. The Laguna blade guide system is brilliantly simple and I find the bigger table size a real advantage. Just my $0.02

Check out the guide upgrades from Carter Products: http://www.carterproducts.com/band-s...on-14-standard

$180 gets you some super-precision guides. Someday all my saws will be fitted with a set of those things. Beats buying a new saw.

**Dfyngravity** · Feb-11-2018, 6:15pm

If you have room, having two bandsaws is really nice. A small 10-14" bandsaw with an 1/8" or 1/4" blade and a 17" or larger with a 3/3 or larger resaw blade is a really nice setip. I have a 10" tabletop craftsman bandsaw that I started out with and I also have a 19" Grizzly that is just awesome.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/19-E...ce=grizzly.com

The rack and pinion for table tilting is amazing...which is why I choose it over a 17" plus the foot brake. Price wise is wasnt much more than the 17" I was looking at. I keep a 3/4" resaw blade on it from Infinity Cutting Tools. It's only .022" thick and has 3-4 varible TPI....super clean cutting resaw blade that waste very little wood.

**Duct Tape** · Feb-16-2018, 9:09am

That’s my new set up. I have an old Delta 14” carrying an 1/8” blade and a new Laguna 18 Italian with a big resaw blade. So far very happy, but if I ever visit James’ shop in NC I’ll make it a point to not lay eyes on his Yates...

**j. condino** · Feb-16-2018, 11:11pm

If you build guitars and mandolins, you don't need a big saw. 90% of my bandsaw use is on my 16" Walker Turner saw with a fresh small blade. The Yates is for those %$#@!^& giant upright basses; the same reason why this week I'm trying to buy an Oliver 30" disc sander....

When I was working at the factory back in the day, myself and a couple of others came within a few seconds of a full blown fistfight trying to get a nice hardwood board resawn. The guy in charge insisted on using the GIANT Stenner resaw with the 3" wide blade set WAYYYYYYYYY to fast with a NASCAR feed rate on a big board of African Blackwood.( Back then you could get a 1/4 log from Gilmer in Portland for about $50!) He clearly didn't know what he was doing and almost broke the machine and narrowly averted a serious accident near miss throwing that giant blade off. After a huge amount of tension, cussing, namecalling, and chest bouncing, I made a $100 bet. I walked over to the 14" General bandsaw, mounted up a fresh $35 blade, and very patient and gently resawed two complete guitar sets like I was cutting cedar. They stormed off and refused to pay up; I went home and built a couple of new guitars and that African Blackwood series of mandolins from about 15 years ago- before I developed a serious allergic reaction to it.

Bandsaws are like fast cars or motorcycles. Start off with a reliable size that you can handle. When your skills progress, move up a little, and when the need arises and your other saws are paying for themselves, upgrade if you need it.

j.

https://www.facebook.com/Condino-Str...?ref=bookmarks

**Dfyngravity** · Feb-17-2018, 5:53pm

Originally Posted by grandcanyonminstrel

If you build guitars and mandolins, you don't need a big saw. 90% of my bandsaw use is on my 16" Walker Turner saw with a fresh small blade. The Yates is for those %$#@!^& giant upright basses; the same reason why this week I'm trying to buy an Oliver 30" disc sander....

When I was working at the factory back in the day, myself and a couple of others came within a few seconds of a full blown fistfight trying to get a nice hardwood board resawn. The guy in charge insisted on using the GIANT Stenner resaw with the 3" wide blade set WAYYYYYYYYY to fast with a NASCAR feed rate on a big board of African Blackwood.( Back then you could get a 1/4 log from Gilmer in Portland for about $50!) He clearly didn't know what he was doing and almost broke the machine and narrowly averted a serious accident near miss throwing that giant blade off. After a huge amount of tension, cussing, namecalling, and chest bouncing, I made a $100 bet. I walked over to the 14" General bandsaw, mounted up a fresh $35 blade, and very patient and gently resawed two complete guitar sets like I was cutting cedar. They stormed off and refused to pay up; I went home and built a couple of new guitars and that African Blackwood series of mandolins from about 15 years ago- before I developed a serious allergic reaction to it.

Bandsaws are like fast cars or motorcycles. Start off with a reliable size that you can handle. When your skills progress, move up a little, and when the need arises and your other saws are paying for themselves, upgrade if you need it.

j.

https://www.facebook.com/Condino-Str...?ref=bookmarks

Could'nt agree with you more. The only real reason I got the 19" is because I also build furniture and I resaw a fair bit of lumber. The last dining table I built, I resawed a bunch of 12/4 sugar maple that was 7-11" wide and 12 feet long. One of the pieces was incredibly curly....that piece did not end up in table