Thread: Help needed in buying a Bandsaw

I have a basic bandsaw and use it most of the time for quick cuts. By that I mean quick or little setup. I find that after the cut I need to clean up the saw marks.

Thanks Christos, as I said, i've never used a bandsaw, I think i've always been a bit scared of the blades snapping, so any bit of information I can get is a big help.

Just FYI: when a blade breaks on a bandsaw, it's usually a non-event.

A loud !BANG! ... and then the blade just slithers off the wheels. You're generally more at risk of soiling your pants from the noise than doing yourself an injury.

I'd imagine there are the rare exceptions, of course. But that's sorta like being scared of driving a car 'cos a meteorite might land on it.


As for whether you need to clean up a cut... well... that depends on a lot of things. How thick your timber is. How good an eye you have. The species of timber. How well the BS is tuned. But even when everything is right, it'll never be as "clean" a cut as, say, a table saw.

So, allowing for cleaning up with a router or sander is usually a good idea.

With a good blade a 1HP should easily handle timbers of around 2" thick. But will probably struggle if you tried ripping down old railway sleepers. (This is not to say it's not do-able with a lot of patience! )

I bought a bandsaw which had a 1hp motor and it was useless at sawing anything over 50mm thick. It would not look at resawing any type of timber so in the end I replaced the existing motor with a 2hp, Australian made, motor and that has fixed the problem. You can cut small timber with a large motor but you cannot cut large timber with a small one. My advice is to get the largest bandsaw you can afford.

Thanks to both Skew & Jim for your comments especially the one on the blade breaking, it's put my mind at rest.
As I said, I will be making chairs so I don't think I will be cutting anything thicker than 2" so hopefully a 14" 1hp motor will do the trick.
Jim I take your point on buying the bigest I can afford, but the ones I have looked at, & that's not many, they are tripple the price of a 1hp & I don't think on the amount of work I will be doing I could warrent that.
I have looked at the Big Wood, & the MKT bandsaws, has anyone heard of these & if so, are they any good? up to now I haven't seen any other brands here in Thailand, but I will keep looking. Thanks again

When checking the bandsaws you are considering buying, it is a pretty good test to wind the upper blade guide to its lowest position, as close as possible to the table, Lock it, and then apply pressure to it from front to back and side to side. A good saw will have minimal movement of the guide, and will be more likely to cut accurately.

Thanks Mspil, I will give it a try.

Originally Posted by Jim Grant

My advice is to get the largest bandsaw you can afford.

Good general advice but not always true. the bigger bandsaws arent always as good as the smaller ones for the finer work with the smaller blades. in fact i doubt i could get a 1/4 inch or smaller blade for my 21 inch bandsaw yet htey work perfectly on my 14 inch saw. Its a good combination having the big saw (3hp) set up with a one inch blade for resawing etc and the small saw (1hp) set up for curves and finer work. it saves a lot of blade changes from if i had only the one saw. If I had to have only one I would probably go for a 17 inch as a compromise.