Time for this newbie too start looking & Band saws

[screaminclyde]

Again I get carried away when looking at all the options ! The Powermatic the PM2415B 24" 5HP,1 phase 230 volt really gets me excited but at 6000.00 dollars this sure cuts into the funds that I have allotted for this shop ! I know I don't want to go under a 14" saw ! So what advice do you all have for me on this pick? what are you all using ? 

[..Kev]

The lowest I would consider is the Grizzly GO555.  It's a good saw with lots of good reviews.  From there, I'd look seriously at the Laguna stuff.

[screaminclyde]

OK, looking at this Grizzly GO555 looks really small ! Can I really get by with a saw this small and not wish later that I bought something bigger ?

[..Kev]

24 minutes ago, screaminclyde said:

OK, looking at this Grizzly GO555 looks really small ! Can I really get by with a saw this small and not wish later that I bought something bigger ?

Depends on what you expect out of the saw.  If you plan on doing any large resawing, then this is too small.  For everything else, it works awesome.  I have two bandsaws in my shop, that one and a 17" one for resawing.  Both combined are still 1/3 the price of the larger PM..

[bleedinblue]

Not much info here.  Do you want to know the best saw under $6000?  What's your budget and what do/will you need the bandsaw for?

[shaneymack]

If you are able to spend that kind of money follow Kev's advice and look at Laguna. I have an italian made laguna amd love it. Look at the Lt18HD or the Lt20HD. Pretty sure the Lt18HD will be plenty of saw for you. Save a few bucks to buy a second smaller bandsaw dedicated to curves. You could fit an Lt18HD and a 1412 for curves for less than 6000$.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

[screaminclyde]

Many years ago I worked in a shop where we cut maple blocks for music wood and Sitka spruce for acoustic guitars ! we had a Grizzly band saw . Not sure what model it was but it was one of the largest saws they offered . That saw was scary ! Just about lost a finger from it when trying to remove a peace of wood next to the running blade ! lucky for me the finger grew back just fine after a year or so . but what I remember most was how the saw blade kept coming off the wheels !

where I'm moving to there is figured wood  (Maple ) and I'm sure I will be wanting to cut some of this on my saw from time to time and as Shaneymack just mentioned , Maybe I should be looking at two different saws . Something to ponder !   

[..Kev]

I've never had any issues with the blades coming off my bandsaws.  There's lots of options out there and they all depend on your budget and your needs.

The money isn't an issue for me and I wouldn't swap my 2 bandsaws for a single one of any value.  The fact that I don't have to change blades to move to the next task is priceless.  

Now, with that said, sometimes space is an issue.  I would love to have the space that my second saw chews up but, it's a fair trade off for my shop.

[bleedinblue]

The blade coming off had to have been a setup issue, maybe a defect with the particular saw.

Regardless, I now realize you were about to buy a 5 HP sawstop as your first table saw....  Since you're playing with such a budget, listen to shaneymack and go Italian.

[Tom King]

What are you wanting to do with the bandsaw, and how many feet will you run through it in any year?   

[screaminclyde]

I have no idea how many feet of wood I will cut a year ! all I know is I want to make furniture and I'm sure through friends up there that cut firewood for a living is that I know some Maple rounds ( figured wood ) will come my way ! The dream is to spend the ten to twenty years making things out of wood ! I have spent many years working in other peoples shops . Now it's time to spend time in my own shop doing something I have always dreamed of ! It's that simple !

[..Kev]

To cut lumber from logs, you really need a saw mill, not a bandsaw. 

[screaminclyde]

Well back in the day ,  We would go out and find people that had figured wood  (maple ) in their yards and offer them money for their trees .  We would cut these trees into around three foot rounds with a chain saw and cut the figured wood out into blocks. we would wax the ends and kiln dry the wood for violins and hard body guitars. the rest we sold for fire wood . So once we had our maple blocks , we would run them through the plainer, wax the ends and they would go to our kiln . we would cut these blocks a Half inch bigger than the minimum . we had plenty of buyers for our wood and I'm sure I can do this on a smaller scale . These blocks of wood were about 4" thick  and about  8 to 9" wide and about 16" long.    

[Tom King]

Look at the MM20.   I think it's about as small a saw as you would want to run a 1" blade on.  I have an old 24" Centauro dedicated to resawing, with a Lenox 1" Woodmaster CT (carbide tipped) 1.3 TPI blade, and it's fabulous for resawing.

I also have an old Delta 14" with riser, and probably every upgrade available for them.  It's a decent saw, but about ten times as slow as the big saw for resawing.

I also have a Craftsman 10" (same as the Rikon 10") that's a surprisingly decent little saw at 65 pounds, and regularly available for less than 200 bucks.

I've had the Delta the longest, but could easily get by without it since I have the larger one, and small one which cover almost anything one would do with a bandsaw.  You can certainly resaw those size blocks with a 14" saw.  I needed the big one to run 10,000 lineal feet of lumber through it as quickly as possible.

[Guest]

19 hours ago, screaminclyde said:

Well back in the day ,  We would go out and find people that had figured wood  (maple ) in their yards and offer them money for their trees .  We would cut these trees into around three foot rounds with a chain saw and cut the figured wood out into blocks. we would wax the ends and kiln dry the wood for violins and hard body guitars. the rest we sold for fire wood . So once we had our maple blocks , we would run them through the plainer, wax the ends and they would go to our kiln . we would cut these blocks a Half inch bigger than the minimum . we had plenty of buyers for our wood and I'm sure I can do this on a smaller scale . These blocks of wood were about 4" thick  and about  8 to 9" wide and about 16" long.    

Can you tell if a tree has figured lumber before you cut it down?  

[screaminclyde]

Yes ! we would look for spots on the tree where we thought it would be and take a hand axe and give it a little slice to the bark and peal the bark back a little and look to see if we seen any figure ! we would cut these blocks of figure out cutting the tree length wise ! These blocks of maple would be rated  ( 1A , 2A ,3A , 4A , and 5A ) depending on how much figure there was in each block ! A lot of this wood would go for Violins and Hard body guitars .