I’m in the middle of engraving 100 spell panels this week – and teaching a chairmaking class. So there isn’t much interesting progress to report on “The American Peasant.” But that doesn’t mean I can’t write something about band saws and use some fun swear words.
Sheet-metal band saws are dong swillers.
I’ve owned three of them. I’ve used dozens of them that were tuned to a high level in shops all over the world. (Yes, even the Agazzani.) I have liked exactly none of them.
These welded sheet-metal saws are supposed to be stiffer than cast iron saws. If they are, I sure as hell can’t tell. I find them fussy and vibrating masses of needy-needy. These saws always have “advanced” blade guides, which are always worse than two stationary blocks of steel found on basic band saws.
The welded-steel saws are lightweight, which seems to be a problem when you mate a mass of welded tin foil to a 5hp motor. And they are generally huge machines. And that is also part of the problem. As a band saw gets bigger, it becomes more difficult to tune in my experience. And when it’s a welded-steel band saw, it’s even harder to tune.
Give me a simple 14” band saw with almost no upgrades. No riser block. No fancy tension spring. No quick-release blade-tension mechanism. Stock guides. A good fractional-horsepower motor. Metal (instead of plastic) controls. A sealed switch. A Power Twist V-belt. Cast iron wheels. And a cheap aftermarket fence.
A machine such as this will be your best friend. Yes, it will only resaw 6” stock (at most). But for 99 percent of cuts, that is no big deal. Lots of woodworkers succumb to the “resaw trap.” You think you want to resaw lumber – someday! – so you buy a band saw that has 18” or 20” wheels. Tuning it is a bitch, even to make basic cuts. So you hate (or are constantly frustrated by) your band saw.
And you resaw maybe once every presidential election.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The American Peasant to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.