Thread: Information for a Newb

Yes 14'' diameter wheels or close too. Will allow you to cut a 14'' wide strip between blade and frame of saw. Most 14'' machines will stand about 2 meters tall.
I have never used a Hammer or Minimax machine so cant comment on how good they are.
Regards
John

For beginners, 14" band saw with 12" resaw capacity is a "good to go" machine! Smaller band saws work better with
narrower blades on compared to bigger saws. On the other hand, bigger band saws take wider blades which
is an advantage for resawing!

1. yes its the wheel size.

2. I have a Minimax S400P, its 1 month old, the height of the machine is 1830mm, however, there is a trunnion that moves up and down as you change the height of the stock you want to cut, when you are cutting a large stock, the trunnion will extrude otuside the frame and the height will be 2m+, will give further info later when I measure it.

3. Well, if you buy new, most of the time a Holytek/Harvey/Basato/Hafco is good enough for most of us, yes you can step up to buy a Minimax/Laguna/Hammer/Felder/Griggio or even a Altendorf, the price of the European machines are probably double of the Asian brands, I know ACM makes the bandsaw for Felder, Centauro makes the bandsaw for Minimax, higher end Griggio and Laguna is possibly made by ACM, I did consder between Hammer N4400 and Minimax S45N. at the end I went with Minimax S400P, dont be shy when ask for discounts, I've got my S400P cheaper than N4400, normally S400P is $4500+GST, N4400 is $2900+GST (both NZD). I think at the end of the day its personal choice between Minimax or Felder, they are both very good machine. I have bought cheaper machine before and had to sell it to upgrade. You can save this process by going to a European bandsaw, some say that band saw is one of the most important machine in a woodworking shop.

Gents,
Thanks for your input.
Albert thanks especially for your comprehensive reply. Fortuitously I stumbled accross issue 172 of the Australian Woodworker that contained a 2013 bandsaw survey, with detailed specs, country of manufacture and so on, so my understanding of what's what has improved greatly. This will be my first powered machine purchase. Its main task will be rough dimensioning of stock for projects (carpentry scale work) which I will bring down to accurate dimensions with hand planes afterwards. I have plans for a combo machine jointer/thicknesser in the future that will takeover some of the hand tool work down the track. Depending on the quality of the fence and blade tracking, the end result could be very close to the desired dimension, I would love advice regarding what is achievable. I had initially planned to purchase the jointer thicknesser first but rethinking this helped me realise that the bandsaw will save the most time because I will be able to hog material off quickly (whilst the combo machine would give a more accurate finish but at a much slower rate with possibly more wastage). The second purpose of the bandsaw would be rough dimensioning of carving projects - so cutting curves. At this stage I don't plan large scale resaw work for veneers and so on.

I have decided to go the best quality I can. This will give me a sharp and lingering pain in the hip pocket but I have been stung too many times attempting to save money and paying more in the end. Whilst China will probably be making the best of everything in ten years time, for the moment I feel the quality is still a bit hit and miss. From my reading, some of the Taiwanese stuff is good but again, still a bit hit and miss? I think I have decided to go with either the Hammer or Minimax brands and for my scale of work it probably comes down to the Hammer N4400 or the Minimax S45N. Whilst there are numerous posts on the forum regarding the Hammer, there is very little regarding the S45N, why is this so I wonder? Comparing the two, the Hammer has a bit more power, though the S45N definitely seems adequate. In my circumstances the S45N may be more convenient because I wouldn't need to upgrade my electrical circuit. Wheel diameter is nearly the same. max vertical cut height is nearly identical with the Hammer edging out the S45N slightly. The maximum cutting width goes to the minimax, and I feel that this may be more useful to me. I have no idea about guides; which is better or indeed even what I should be looking for. The S45N actually weighs 30Kgs more at 200Kgs and given that they have similar specs I wonder is this translates to a more solid machine?

Pricewise the S45N wins out by about $400, which is significant to me. My only hesitation is that the S45N doesn't seem to have many (any?) purchasers on this site. Is there anyone on the site that can tell me about their experience with this machine?
The NSW supplier plans to have one on the show room floor in several weeks and I intend to go and see it in the flesh. Haven't found out If I can look at the Hammer up close anywhere in NSW.

I'd appreciate your thoughts
Regards

Derek

Originally Posted by Yxoc

Gents,
Thanks for your input.
Albert thanks especially for your comprehensive reply. Fortuitously I stumbled accross issue 172 of the Australian Woodworker that contained a 2013 bandsaw survey, with detailed specs, country of manufacture and so on, so my understanding of what's what has improved greatly. This will be my first powered machine purchase. Its main task will be rough dimensioning of stock for projects (carpentry scale work) which I will bring down to accurate dimensions with hand planes afterwards. I have plans for a combo machine jointer/thicknesser in the future that will takeover some of the hand tool work down the track. Depending on the quality of the fence and blade tracking, the end result could be very close to the desired dimension, I would love advice regarding what is achievable. I had initially planned to purchase the jointer thicknesser first but rethinking this helped me realise that the bandsaw will save the most time because I will be able to hog material off quickly (whilst the combo machine would give a more accurate finish but at a much slower rate with possibly more wastage). The second purpose of the bandsaw would be rough dimensioning of carving projects - so cutting curves. At this stage I don't plan large scale resaw work for veneers and so on.

I have decided to go the best quality I can. This will give me a sharp and lingering pain in the hip pocket but I have been stung too many times attempting to save money and paying more in the end. Whilst China will probably be making the best of everything in ten years time, for the moment I feel the quality is still a bit hit and miss. From my reading, some of the Taiwanese stuff is good but again, still a bit hit and miss? I think I have decided to go with either the Hammer or Minimax brands and for my scale of work it probably comes down to the Hammer N4400 or the Minimax S45N. Whilst there are numerous posts on the forum regarding the Hammer, there is very little regarding the S45N, why is this so I wonder? Comparing the two, the Hammer has a bit more power, though the S45N definitely seems adequate. In my circumstances the S45N may be more convenient because I wouldn't need to upgrade my electrical circuit. Wheel diameter is nearly the same. max vertical cut height is nearly identical with the Hammer edging out the S45N slightly. The maximum cutting width goes to the minimax, and I feel that this may be more useful to me. I have no idea about guides; which is better or indeed even what I should be looking for. The S45N actually weighs 30Kgs more at 200Kgs and given that they have similar specs I wonder is this translates to a more solid machine?

Pricewise the S45N wins out by about $400, which is significant to me. My only hesitation is that the S45N doesn't seem to have many (any?) purchasers on this site. Is there anyone on the site that can tell me about their experience with this machine?
The NSW supplier plans to have one on the show room floor in several weeks and I intend to go and see it in the flesh. Haven't found out If I can look at the Hammer up close anywhere in NSW.

I'd appreciate your thoughts
Regards

Derek

Derek

I have inspected both N4400 and S45N in person, there is also a s45n review on Google with loads of pictures, I decided to go ahead with S45N because personally I think the build quality of s45n is slightly better than n4400 and the fence is slightly better, Dust wil stand out in N4400's greyish paint, not so muh on s45n.

G'Day Albert,
Thanks for your comments. So you have the S45N and the S400P? Is the S400P significantly more robust than the S45N? Reading the specs it actually has a smaller motor and weighs the same. With the much greater maximum cut height I guess it is really designed for resawing and veneer cutting. So I am surprised about the motor.

Cheers

Derek

Dont forget to factor in some form of dust collection in with your power draw.

BobL has copious wisdom on the dust threads, but really a decent 2HP dusty is pretty much mandatory with a big saw like that....otherwise you'll be coughing like a 3 pack a day smoker by the afternoon.

Originally Posted by Yxoc

G'Day Albert,
Thanks for your comments. So you have the S45N and the S400P? Is the S400P significantly more robust than the S45N? Reading the specs it actually has a smaller motor and weighs the same. With the much greater maximum cut height I guess it is really designed for resawing and veneer cutting. So I am surprised about the motor.

Cheers

Derek

Hi Derek

I originally intended to buy the S45N but was given an option to buy the S400P with similar money so I went ahead with the S400P, the S400P used to be MM16, a lot of review on the net if you do a search under MM16. The s400p is well put together.