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Double Bass Bandsaw: old domestic or new import?

GretschWretch

GretschWretch

Supporting Member
Dec 27, 2013
12,451
25,121
East Central Alabama
#1
Got a big box gift card for Christmas, which can be used for about the only power tool I do not already have in my workshop: a bandsaw. Both Lowe's and Home Depot have some compact and very affordable bandsaws, but they are imports; and my experience with import hand tools and accessories has not been encouraging enough for me to take a flyer on an import power tool without input from those in the know. The metal on the hand tools just seems too soft to resist much in the way of torque. Because of this I buy most of my hand tools from pawn shops, just because I feel the quality of the metal is superior. I know I can find an old domestic bandsaw at pawn shops as well, but it will be heavier and, being older and used, likely be well out of factory spec.

If you were confronted with this fork in the road, which path would you choose?
 
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#2
I buy a lot of tools and I've always used the same philosophy for all of them: If I'm going to use it a lot, I buy the best I can afford. If not that often, I'll go with a cheaper brand. Ryobi is pretty decent for a cheap brand, btw. I've never had anything break. I'd be a little nervous about buying from a pawnshop just because if it breaks, you're screwed.

Look into craftsman stuff also. It's a little more expensive but Sears is pretty good about backing up their stuff if it breaks
 
#3
I don't care for Ryobi tools at all but I'm an old guy. I do agree about the older English/North American made tools and machinery - BUT - I bought a small Rikon bandsaw from Sears to keep nearby in the shop and its been great. Its the only small saw I could find with full ball bearing blade support above and below the table. Its not strong enough or big enough to re-saw sides but its perfect for making bridges, saddles, nuts and other parts.

I bought one for Long & McQuade, too, and they've both been easy and trouble-free little machines.
 
#4
I have had pretty good luck with Grizzley, and an old craftsman I bought in 1974. There are few if any domestic band saws, I had a ryobi resaw that was good, not so sure about any of the new light weights. I suggest you decide what you want the band saw to do for you and then figure out how to spend your money to get the most for your money.
 
#5
OK - this from years of cabinetmaking, so opinions may not be completely relevant. Don't bother with a small bandsaw - not a lot of capacity and usually not accurate. Think "bandsaw-shaped-objects." In grown-up tools, big old bandsaws can be great if they'll cut true, and there are modern retrofit guide and bearing upgrades available. Much like a vintage bass, expect to invest some time, money, and heartache. The 14" Delta/Rockwell (US, not the import) is tried and true, readily available, and, again, with upgraded guides and some time spent fine-tuning, they can be very decent. If you're looking to resaw anything of significant thickness, think bigger. The Italian saws, 16" and larger (available from Laguna, Felder and a host of others - seem to be the same machine) are the ticket. Asian machinery, like Asian basses, comes in differing quality, some OK, some piss-poor. Like cheap basses, they're hard to unload once you get the hankering for a better one.

Enjoy the search!
 
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#6
misterbadger said:
The 14" Delta/Rockwell (US, not the import) is tried and true,
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I'm totally in the camp of choosing old domestic vs. new Chinese. You may need to do some rebuilding, but the time will be well invested. I once bought a large Grizzly bandsaw for almost no money, but it took me days to get it working properly, and I'm talking about machinist days, not basement hobby hours. The guards were so out of position that I had to seriously grind into the frame to get them properly mounted. In the end, the thing did its job for years, but I would have done better to wait for a used Rockwell to come my way. IMO, a bandsaw in the modern world is a rough tool no matter how much iron or money is in it. I don't even have one anymore. A really good one would cost easily as much as what I paid for my 3 axis CNC router.
 
#7
Do you guys really want to get me started on bandsaws??????

If you are the type person who enjoys the daily frustrations and limitations of cheap Chinese bass shaped objects, then cheap Chinese bandsaw shaped objects will provide you with the same feelings. Here is a little taste of one of my saws, a 1940 Yates Y30 "snowflake" that came out of the old WACO biplane factory; 3000 lbs of old 'arn. I just picked up the sibling 16" jointer to go beside it last month for $200 delivered to my doorstep. Just like with basses, with a little bit of patience you can often find far superior high quality machines for much less that inferior import ones. I've owned about 15 different bandsaws over the years; if the cheap Chinese crap worked, I'd have one, but every single one I used or owned was a major disappointment and waste of time. My only regret with old Us iron was the giant Crescent with 40" (!!!) wheels- that was too much of a good thing!

Hopefully Craig is reading this post and will show off his ancient beauty.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com

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#9
My sincere thanks to all who have replied. This will be a more daunting task than I initially considered. I really did not have a bandsaw the size of an SVT in my plans, never mind the gargantuan Snowflake, the bandsaw of preference for turning out octobasses. Yikes! Still, you folks have given me some strategies and provided names I can research on my own to help make a choice.

At this stage I am more into projects/repair than I am full-blown building. Just a small-time operator, really, trying to learn the craft. I have already drill press, belt sander, and small jigsaw. But the jigsaw is good only for cutting veneers; it cannot even manage shaping double bass bridges or trimming fingerboards. The main reason for moving up to bandsaw would be to rough shape some slab bass body blanks and necks from wood left by my late brother, who built banjos. I will have a better idea on budget once I survey the field a bit more. At this point, basically I wanted input and red flag warnings regarding both domestic and import product, and y'all have offered these things generously.
 
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#11
With bandsaws, like basses, it is nice to have a bit more than you need rather than less. The physics of how they work is also a bit counterintuitive in that they work best cutting half the wheel size- ex. a 14" saw works great at 7" or less, hence my big 30" so I can get 15"+ halves for bass tops and backs. Sure, you can add risers and all sorts of extra things, but my experience is that it is better to under cut with a big saw than push your limits on a small one. Every time I have pushed a small one beyond its limits, sooner or later you will have a scary event and mess up some valuable wood and possibly yourself. Most of the materials I use in my new builds tend to be 50-100 years old, so they are irreplaceable and valuable to me. A few years ago I calculated that I had been outsourcing my major resawing needs for almost 33 years- and not one single time was I 100% satisfied, and on many occasions someone else destroyed my valuable wood, so I stepped up and after a several year search and a lot of effort I found the Y30 snowflake. Getting it home was almost as much work.

If you are only going to have one bandsaw in the shop that will not be used for resawing, I'd suggest a Delta14", specifically one of the earlier models with the cast iron base. Weight and mass are very important to isolating vibrations in a bandsaw. They are great machines and you can break them down into sub parts so they can be transported in a very small vehicle or even with a bicycle trailer. Delta has made more 14" bandsaws than every other bandsaw ever produced, parts are interchangeable over a 50 year period of production, and with a bit of searching and patience, you can find one in the $500 range or much less; if you decide to resell it later, you'll likely even make a couple hundred dollars on it. Spend that $ on a cheap Chinese import and it will be worth 1/3 resale the day you bring it home. I built over 100 instruments using a 14" Delta (no basses). Head over to the Old Woodworking Machines nerdfest forum for endless cool vintage machines. Here is a great example of the 14" Delta with a cast iron base:

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If you can find a 16" Walker Turner or a Crescent Heavy 20, even better.

'Hope that helps,
j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
 
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#12
Damn that's a nice saw! I just don't ever see any classics like that over here that are at all reasonable. You will find a fifty year old 10" lathe that's rusty and missing half it's important parts, and the guy still wants 3K.
james condino said:
With bandsaws, like basses, it is nice to have a bit more than you need rather than less.
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One of the first things said to me by my first real mentor in the making stuff world was this: You can do small stuff on a big machine, but you can't do big stuff on a small one.
 
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#13
I also recommend old American iron. I picked up a nice restored 14" Walker Turner bandsaw, older Delta's are available you can also add riser blocks on those to increase resaw capacity. 14"/16" bandsaws are pretty simple tools easily adjusted/maintained, you can even send the wheels out to be retired/balanced if you don't want to tackle that on your own.
 
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#14
Yup, my "small" bandsaw is a 16" Walker Turner- pound for pound one of the best bandsaws ever made. That one has the same footprint as a 14" Delta but weights 700 lbs and can resaw 12 3/8"; more than the 20" Rockwell it replaced. In the bass world I'd compare it to an nice early American Standard. It is funny- I never realized how important a smaller to midsized bandsaw is until I brought home the big Y30. The big girl is unprecedented when needed, but the Walker Turner is my daily driver.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
 
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#16
David Potts said:
No one has mentioned German machines such as Elektra Beckum (Metabo?)

DP
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I haven't much experience with them, but Metabo does make some cool smaller machines using three wheels which save you space and money while still giving you a wide cut. They also naturally make bigger traditional machines. Another German maker is which has a good range of price/quality is Scheppach. As I said, over here it's harder to find the heayy older stuff second hand.
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