Just picked up a 14" used bandsaw. Would recommend you look at something that size.
It can only resaw 6.25" material. With a riser block, it will be able to resaw 12" material.
Also, look into a Laguna carbide blade for a super smooth cut.
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I appreciate the advice guys. I guess my concern is that I probably won’t use it that often. Normally I’ll just buy the material thickness that I need, but sometimes I can’t do that. Having the option to resaw would be cool, but I don’t know if I’d get my money’s worth out of a bandsaw over $200 for that feature alone. How often do you find yourselves using the bandsaw versus other saws?
If you have a place for it where it can stay set up you will use it a lot more often than you think.
I’ve had this one for less than a year and I feel it has paid for its self in recovered wood. When you have a decent bandsaw no wood is scrap until it is so small you can no longer think of a use for it.
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For wood I use my chop saw > bandsaw > table saw in that order of frequency. The band saw is far more versatile then the chop saw, but most times I just want to cut something to length.
Once you have a bandsaw you won’t know what you did without it. It handles curves, odd shaped pieces, and as @markevans36301says, it is great for squeezing every last grain out of a piece of wood.
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Yeah… I totally agree. I keep almost buying one.
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I’ve been watching Craig’s list for months for a good quality bandsaw, but so far no luck.
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I agree with some of the others on here saying you should look for something a little larger if you want to do any resawing. You can find some used saws out there for pretty cheap, and the 14" is a pretty common size.
As far as a resawing blade, look into something like this to start: http://amzn.to/2gXgQkV
That’s one that I tried out recently because it is super cheap, but it tracks and cuts well and is a fraction of the cost of the very nice Laguna Resaw King carbide blade.
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Yep, great point about no wood scrap too small. You can safely use a bandsaw with small pieces, unlike with miter saws and table saws. I didn’t have one until about a year and a half ago, and I go to it all the time!
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Resaw Capacity: 4-5/8 - what does this refer to?
Max thickness (heightwise - from metal desk to bottom of blade guides)
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You definitely want quality when it comes to a band saw. Laguna makes AWESOME ones, but they are not cheap…
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Ok thanks, so the 10" of that Rikon refers to throat depth?
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Got mine from Craigslist for $200. Rigid 14" that two of the previous owns had strengthen the base and a little balancing of the wheels.
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They are nice blades, but the surface needs to be sanded/planed for a nice smooth surface.
The carbide tipped blades leave nearly a butter smooth surface and allow you to resaw very close to actual thickness.
Eventually you would be able to figure out how much thicker you would need to resaw to allow sanding/planing removal of material.
On the subject of blades, keep in mind the height of your resaw and hardness of the material.
You will want the widest blade your bandsaw will support (especially when resawing the max height it supports) to prevent “blade drift” from the pressure of the material being pushed through that can deflect thinner blades. Variable Tooth Per Inch (TPI) helps on tall cuts.
Tuning the bandsaw makes a world of difference on max height jobs.
Most 14" bandsaws will support a 3/4" blades.
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You do get a better finish from a carbide tipped blade, but in my experience, it still needs a decent amount of sanding/scraping. I don’t know of many people that take something right off of the bandsaw and have it ready to finish as final product.
It is outside of your price range and I have no idea what type of space restrictions you may have but, during my research and other wood works I respect all recommended getting at least a 2hp saw if I planned to do a lot of re-sawing of boards so I chose to go with the following grizzly and Ridgid board planner also attached to remove any unwanted saw marks.
And I agree with a lot of the others who have posted after purchasing my bandsaw I use it all the time and found it much easier to use than always trying to use my jigsaw for all my odd shaped cuts.
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I’ve got one I almost never use. The one I keep almost buying is a 12" sliding miter saw. If I had more room where I’ve got my current chop saw I’d swap it out in a heartbeat. I love the versatility.
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Yes, that should refer to the throat depth from the blade to the metal housing/arm.
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That’s a nice saw. I have the same anniversary edition, but in the 14".