Cygnus A Posted July 31, 2017 Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 I called Sam last Monday to order my MM16 bandsaw. It was delivered to my driveway by Friday. I've never had a piece of large equipment delivered that quickly. Speaking with the delivery driver, SCM tried to load the crate onto his truck without a palette (crated only). This would make a forklift necessary to get the crate off the truck. Since this was not in the plans for a residential delivery, the driver fought with them to get a palette so he could use a palette jack. I found this odd, and I guess Minimax typically ships to industrial locations, but this isn't really a good excuse. This was one hell of a crate to break into: Anyways, getting it off the truck and into the garage was easy. Setting it up alone was more tricky. My brother was out of town for the week and my patience go the best of me, so I engineered a way to lift the 600 pound machine up by myself. See pictures below. Success! After this I mounted the mobility kit and rolled it off the crate. The saw is built like a tank, however there are a few small gripes I have with the saw that seem like they should not exist in a $3,000 piece of machinery. I will lay these out first since a lot of people only show the great things about their new purchases. First, the fence is cast iron. That is great, but there is no way to adjust it's squareness to the table. Mine seems to be out by approximately 1/2 degree measured using my digital angle gauge. I am going to get a better square to check before I go back to Minimax on this. I don't even know how much this matters on a bandsaw. Just something to note. My second complaint also involves the fence. It is cast iron and rests firmly on the cast iron top. This is a solid connection, but moving the fence scrapes the table surface. Probably no big deal, but hurts my OCD brain. I am going to add some plastic shims or wax paper to the bottom of the fence. See pics for what I am talking about: Another complaint is the user manual. It is terrible. I had to watch some youtube videos on setup, and found some Minimax owners actually wrote a better user manual that can be found here: www.woodwrecker.com/woodworking/manuals/MiniMax16M.pdf Last complaint is that the saw didn't come with a blade. Maybe it said somewhere in the literature, but I was annoyed I had to make a 2 hour trip to Woodcraft to pick one up (~1hr each way). Had I known before hand, I would have ordered a blade and had it ready to install. That is all the complaints I have (so far). The saw is solid and seems built to last. I will add more to this thread as I get some time to play with the saw. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted July 31, 2017 Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 Good work! I've had great luck with blades ordered from bandsawbladesdirect. They come really fast, and the welds are perfect. If that saw will tension a 1" blade, which I think is supposed to, get a Woodmaster CT 1.3 tpi, and you will never want anything else for resawing. I order blades in the low to middle range for length of what specs say the saw will take, after I bought a saw cheap because the guy couldn't keep blades on it-which I found out when I got it home that he was going for the maximum length that it was supposed to take. Is that part of a Rogue rack, or a squat stand? The Fat/Skinny bars on top of each other have me a little confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan G Posted July 31, 2017 Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 This is on my short list for a bandsaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wdwerker Posted July 31, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 A piece of UMHW slick tape would be perfect for the bottom of your fence. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted July 31, 2017 Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 You're going to have one hell of a shop when you're all set up!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus A Posted July 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 23 minutes ago, wdwerker said: A piece of UMHW slick tape would be perfect for the bottom of your fence. Good idea. I will pick some up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown craftsman Posted July 31, 2017 Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 The fence is adjustable give it time you'll figure it out. +1 on bandsaw blades direct they just listed a new carbon steel Resaw blade that has a very reasonable price.Tom mentions a Woodmaster Ct I wonder if you can run one on 16 inch wheel it's a pretty thick band. Italian bandsaw are great. Aj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus A Posted July 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 2 hours ago, Tom King said: Good work! I've had great luck with blades ordered from bandsawbladesdirect. They come really fast, and the welds are perfect. If that saw will tension a 1" blade, which I think is supposed to, get a Woodmaster CT 1.3 tpi, and you will never want anything else for resawing. I order blades in the low to middle range for length of what specs say the saw will take, after I bought a saw cheap because the guy couldn't keep blades on it-which I found out when I got it home that he was going for the maximum length that it was supposed to take. Is that part of a Rogue rack, or a squat stand? The Fat/Skinny bars on top of each other have me a little confused. Monsters Lite Squat Rack https://www.roguefitness.com/sml-2-rogue-90-monster-lite-squat-stand I may sell it for their foldaway rack to save space. 28 minutes ago, Aj3 said: The fence is adjustable give it time you'll figure it out. +1 on bandsaw blades direct they just listed a new carbon steel Resaw blade that has a very reasonable price.Tom mentions a Woodmaster Ct I wonder if you can run one on 16 inch wheel it's a pretty thick band. Italian bandsaw are great. Aj Drift is adjustable. Vertical angle is not unless you grind the fence feet. Unless I am missing something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted July 31, 2017 Report Share Posted July 31, 2017 Congrats looks like a great saw!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown craftsman Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 @Cygnus A thats it. A very small adjustment to the foot. Try shiming one side with some thin cigarette paper.Or a few swipes with a file would work too. I doubt you'll need to grind it Most of us fine tune our machines new and old to suit our needs or expectations.Sometimes it's just to improve our attitude and then our work improves. Aj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 nice, good work on getting it upright by yourself. I maybe could have lifted my laguna upright by myself, but im glad i had my dad present in case it fell on me. Convenient that the motor etc is so low. Agreed, i have a similar stubby cast iron fence and it leave a lot to be desired. I need to go back and check, but i believe it is square to the table. It is also square to the blade. My biggest complaint is the size of it. It is only like 12-14" long, that isnt much of a reference surface for long rips or resaws. Long story short, save up for the driftmaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 Nice looking saw. Looks like a good choice. You have a lot more faith in the green webbing straps then I would have. I am not saying you shouldn't have used it, I just would have been nervous. Glad it all worked out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat60 Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 36 minutes ago, Chet said: Nice looking saw. Looks like a good choice. You have a lot more faith in the green webbing straps then I would have. I am not saying you shouldn't have used it, I just would have been nervous. Glad it all worked out. Reminds me. I had some of them webbing straps holding a large load of lumber on a trailer and they broke. Almost lost all my stuff. Never again. Nice saw by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 22 hours ago, Cygnus A said: My second complaint also involves the fence. It is cast iron and rests firmly on the cast iron top. This is a solid connection, but moving the fence scrapes the table surface. Probably no big deal, but hurts my OCD brain. I am going to add some plastic shims or wax paper to the bottom of the fence. I had a similar complaint on my Grizzly jointer. Although this is just the way the machines are designed I counteracted my inability to "let it go" with some UHMW tape. This "foot" on the fence was just supposed to ride across the outfeed table surface. I wasn't sure how long the piece of UHMW tape would last. I just happened to have some. I sanded the bottom of the foot smooth, wiped it with some naphtha to clean thing up and applied the UMHW tape. Put it on in 2009. I move my fence a lot and its still there. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus A Posted September 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 Just an update. The saw is great. I need to buy more blades now. I also added the UHMW tape to the bottom of the fence, which worked great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted September 21, 2017 Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 Nice saw dude. I'm jelly. Have you done any resawing with it yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus A Posted September 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2017 8 hours ago, Eric. said: Nice saw dude. I'm jelly. Have you done any resawing with it yet? I've not had a need to resaw yet. Right now I have a lot of cabinet projects so I may work in some resawing into the drawer fronts I am making. I've mainly used it for general cutting of smaller items. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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