Band Saw Shopping

tkroenlein

tkroenlein

Well-Known Member
My wonderful little early 80's Buffalo Tool horizontal bandsaw died the big death on me this week. The brass gear gave up the ghost. I suppose if it was newer and/or in better shape, I'd fix it.

So it's time for a new one. I see lots of the new 64 1/2" bladed horizontals come with a little table for vertical use. I've done some comparing and most of them seem to be some derivation of the same model.

My question for you good folks here, is there any stand outs that you prefer or anything you particularly don't like with any particular models?
 
I have an old 64 1/2" inch that came with that little table you mentioned for vertical use, I used a 10 x 10 piece of paper micarta, cut a slot and put two holes in it and mounted it. it works great. I don't use the horizontal position with it very often but it's easy to remove to do it.
I've had mine for at least twenty years and the only problems I've had were replacing a couple rollers and the gasket on the gear case.
if it died tomorrow I'd buy a similar model this weekend.
 
Wilton was the model for the knockoffs. Jet was and is an upscale version. Whether they’re actually any better is the question.
 
I use an HF bauer brand. Cost was minimal (around $75 ) replaced the hf blade with some Starrett bi metal. Added a led task light have not met anything I couldn't cut. For an outlay of under a hundred bucks, I'm quite pleased. Course, as you know, I have a very low bar set!!
 
Are you willing to shop around for a used saw?

I wasn't real impressed by the new horizontal saws I saw for sale... and if I was impressed by it, I was even more impressed by the price tag - if you get my drift.
 
I use the horizontal part just enough to make it not cost effective to do a porta band. You got Jets and Grizzlies in the $800-$1000 range, and I just can't see that much upgrade from the $500-$700 options. Then there is the bottom end $350-$450 stuff I don't think I'm interested in, though I know they'd work for a long time. I got a local hardware store that handles ShopFox which looked like a decent unit last time I glanced at it and no shipping. But I wasn't shopping at the time so I'll have to look it over again.
 
CDHumiston said:
I'm looking at vertical band saws in the $3000 range. The metal/wood combo with a speed control.
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Buy a used Do-All bandsaw.

Not only will it do everything you want - you get some pretty solid bragging rights.

The company has been around for 100 years. Still in business. There old saws are freakin' cool. They have a speed chart where you select the material and it gives you the speed. Some of the old ones, no joke, had meteorite as one of the materials. :D

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313362972658?hash=item48f5e37ff2:g:7bAAAOSwvi5f65XG

Here's an example of one.

These ARE multi-wheel bandsaws. So, not just two big wheels. That means that blades MIGHT succumb to metal fatigue before they're dull... Then again, it's OBVIOUSLY not a real issue since Do-All is still in business and their old saws are highly sought-after.
 
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CDHumiston said:
I might large for my space. Even used ones in the area are over $3K
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That's fair. I don't have room for one, either. :D

Check this link out, though. https://www.ebay.com/b/Metalworking-Vertical-Band-Saws/258060/bn_7115878587

There are quite a few saws there that have a reasonable footprint and are within your price range. Of course, cost of freight isn't included, so keep that in mind. Though, you never know. You might get lucky on freight or maybe even find a saw local.
 
If you couldn't tell, I'm partial to the "old iron".

I just feel like you get more for your dollar if you can put in a little "elbow grease" - even if you count your time as money (which I feel you should)
 
tkroenlein said:
I use the horizontal part just enough to make it not cost effective to do a porta band. You got Jets and Grizzlies in the $800-$1000 range, and I just can't see that much upgrade from the $500-$700 options. Then there is the bottom end $350-$450 stuff I don't think I'm interested in, though I know they'd work for a long time. I got a local hardware store that handles ShopFox which looked like a decent unit last time I glanced at it and no shipping. But I wasn't shopping at the time so I'll have to look it over again.
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Tomorrow, I'll ask on the Practical Machinist forum and see what they say.
 
52 Ford said:
That's fair. I don't have room for one, either. :D

Check this link out, though. https://www.ebay.com/b/Metalworking-Vertical-Band-Saws/258060/bn_7115878587

There are quite a few saws there that have a reasonable footprint and are within your price range. Of course, cost of freight isn't included, so keep that in mind. Though, you never know. You might get lucky on freight or maybe even find a saw local.
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There are a couple of real nice ones near me for reasonable prices, but they are HUGE! I'd have to dedicate my entire garage to the beast!
 
You might look at the Rikon 14 inch Deluxe Bandsaw with DVR Motor 1.75HP 110/220, it's at $2500 now. I've got one and been very happy with it, both for wood and metal.
 
tkroenlein said:
My wonderful little early 80's Buffalo Tool horizontal bandsaw died the big death on me this week. The brass gear gave up the ghost. I suppose if it was newer and/or in better shape, I'd fix it.

So it's time for a new one. I see lots of the new 64 1/2" bladed horizontals come with a little table for vertical use. I've done some comparing and most of them seem to be some derivation of the same model.

My question for you good folks here, is there any stand outs that you prefer or anything you particularly don't like with any particular models?
Click to expand...
This morning I searched Craigslist for Bandsaws located in Illinois. Currently there are 67 bandsaws of various kinds for sale in that state and nearly 400 listed across the US.
I'll let you'all in on a little secret on how to shop for anything, anywhere on Craigslist. I use a Craigslist Search Crawler called CubiX an Android application I use on my phone. Here's a weblink for this app: https://cubixsolutions.com/
I currently have over a dozen searches running 24hrs a day for specific items. You can set the search to automatically poll the craigslist setting (location, product name, category, etc) every X minutes or days. It will then automatically look for any new listings and ping your phone. You can customize the search criteria to be very specific. I have found this App so useful that I purchased the full version for a few dollars.
 
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