Bandsaw

Bryant Hollinger

Bryant Hollinger

Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
58
I am thinking about getting a bandsaw soon. Originally I was thinking about a 14 inch wood saw from Grizzly. I will use it mainly for cutting out handles and ripping blocks for handle slabs, ect

Now I think maybe a metal cutting H/V saw would be better all around because I could profile blades and still shape handles but probably could not rip wood as well with it.

If you could have only one what would your get? Also what brand is good quality for the money? I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time and money on mods. to get the thing to do what I want to do with it.
 
Harbor Freight 4x6 HV. It works fine out of the box, if you replace the table or back it with micarta you will be happier and glad you spent 10 minutes doing it, but it will work out of the box.
 
I can't comment on the pluses of getting the metal cutting saw, but I've got a Grizzly 14 inch saw. I've had it for about 10 years now and it's still doing a fantastic job with basically zero maintenance.
 
If you're looking for the cheapest way to get the HF 4x6, sign up for HF's mailing list, and they will send 20% off coupons every couple of weeks. Sometimes, this lines up with the bandsaw is on sale for $200 at HF, so your total cost is $160. That's what I did.
 
I've had my 14" Grizzly for about 6 Mo. and love it. With a good blade it will slice veneer. Great for ripping Handle slabs.
 
I just wall hung a portable bandsaw and it sure beats the heck out of a hacksaw. My shoulder thinks it is my best purchase yet!
 
Bryant,

I am a beginner at knifemaking BUT...

I DO have Grizzly's Ultamate 14" Bandsaw (G0555) for my wood work. I've had it for about 3-years and made lots of cuts in big chunks of hardwood. It is a good saw. Like Trentu (and several other on the forums), I have also {recently} mounted a portaband (DeWalt) vertically to my wall for metal cutting. It works great. For knife-making, I would choose my wall-mount DeWalt over the Grizz any day. You can cut small slabs of wood with a metal saw, but you'll have a real tough time cutting metal with a wood saw.

Just my $.02

Erin
 
Hi,

Things to ponder about wood band saws vs. metal.

Wood type: They run fast enough to cut wood well. But mostly too fast for metal. You end up ruining the blades if you run too fast. Can use a wide variety of blade styles and widths. This is important for resawing and sawing arcs. They are less costly.

Metal type: They run the proper speeds for sawing metal. They are often too slow to saw wood satisfactorily. While different tooth profiles can be used, blade widths are very restricted. This can cause problems if you want to saw arcs of any kind. They tend to cost more. I don't much care for the combo horizontal/vertical metal saws I've tried. The conversion to vertical has always felt flimsy to me, but YMMV from mine.

There are saws that will do both. But they are very expensive, generally costing $1000's for a good used one. Think of roll-in types.

Right now all I have at home is a small, old Skil variable speed benchtop. It works, but not very well.

dalee
 
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