I have a Ridgid 14" saw. Bought used from CL in great shape. I don't have a
ton of room for it, but bandsaws are pretty compact albeit tall. With one on
wheels like the Ridgid, you can easily pull it out to get to it and then put
it back. Not sure with the smaller benchtop saws if you'd be able to pick up
the variety of blades you might want to use since most are made for the larger
saws.
If you were able to use a Home Depot coupon, some gift cards, etc. you could
pick one up pretty cheaply new I would think.
-PJ
> Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:25:44 -0700
> From: cavanadd@frontier.com
> To: bjshov8@tx.rr.com
> CC: shop-talk@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] small band saw?
>
> Who's ratings? While I have bought my share of stuff from Harbor
> Freight, I would take the "ratings" on their web site with a very large
> grain of salt. There is a lot of stuff on the web from people who have
> posted negative ratings on HF stuff only to never see them posted. I
> haven't seen very many negative ratings there. The ratings I tend to
> trust most are on Amazon.
>
> As for the saws, I'm a full size tool guy; I haven't heard many good
> things about the small band saws. They aren't heavy and strong enough
> to tension a blade properly. I suppose for light hobby use they could
> be OK but the smallest I would personally consider would be a full sized
> 14" saw like the Delta or one of it's clones. They show up on CL around
> here all the time.
>
> BJNoSHOV8 wrote:
> > I used a friend's band saw for a small hobby project recently and I
> > decided that I would like to have one for my own use. I see 10" and
> > larger models for sale, they cost more than what I would want to spend
> > and most of these require mounting on a floor stand. I also see 9"
> > models that sit on a table and are less expensive. Skill and Delta make
> > one model (appears to be the same unit with different names), Ryobi
> > makes one, Sears makes on and Harbor Freight sells one. The Sears unit
> > gets real low ratings, the Skill/Delta not much better, the Ryobi gets
> > medium ratings, and the HF model gets good ratings.
> >
> > Should I get one of the small inexpensive models and take my chances, or
> > should I try to find a deal on a used larger model? I would still need
> > to set it on a bench which might be a problem with some of the larger
> > models.
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