Boice Crane Bandsaw

Kevin McGovern

Kevin McGovern

Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
3,118
I've been looking for a 14" or better band saw for a while now. I want one for cutting scales and a lot of other (non- knife related) things. I have a line on a Boice Crane 2300, for $100. It looks to be in good shape and I plan on seeing it in person soon. I have not seen the interior of the saw. My research tells me the wheels are made from "textolite". Most forums on the saw itself describe this material as similar to bakelite. When I did a search on "textolite" it comes bake as a phonolic resin, more like micarta. I am wondering 2 things:

1. are the wheels more bakelite in composition, if so, am i right to think they may be a problem?

2. if they are a laminate phenolic resin, and the saw turns out to be a stinker, should I buy the saw for the wheels and use them for scales? The wheels are 14" diameter and solid. I'm not sure of the thickness.

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At that price I'd buy it, even if just as a shop decoration. Rather cool looking thing.
I've seen bandsaws with a plywood wheel replacing one of the original ones, so I really wouldn't have much worry about getting it functional. Bandsaws are generally fairly hard to kill beyond simple repair
 
Thanks. I was very pleasantly surprised with the 1940s Buffalo Forge drill press I acquired. It looks to be in great, unrestored shape for it's age (1950s?) This band saw looks to be missing the motor, but since i am contemplating using it to cut metal as well, a 1/2 HP or better 3 PH with a vfd was in the cards anyway. if I want to use my existing VFD (KBAC 24D), would i just make a switch box to transfer the VFD out between units? I would go with a 1HP motor if that's the case, since that's what's on my grinder. Certain models of these machines came with a gear box that slowed them down to cut metal. All other parts are the some, so I'm thinking that might be pretty cool to be able to cut larger pieces of steel.
 
Geoff Flato said:
At that price I'd buy it, even if just as a shop decoration. Rather cool looking thing.
I've seen bandsaws with a plywood wheel replacing one of the original ones, so I really wouldn't have much worry about getting it functional. Bandsaws are generally fairly hard to kill beyond simple repair
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You haven't been in my shop. :p It's 10'x13' In fact, you and me being in my shop simultaneously would be pretty much the max capacity.
 
Yes, I say thats a decent 100$ spent !
Good luck getting it set up to cut metals.
Run it slow & Keep its blade guides close to your work.
 
No metals for now. Since it came with a motor, I'm going g to keep it single speed for the time being. I may convert it down the roar, if I need more capacity than my bench top portaband can do.
 
If you don't already have a dedicated wood bandsaw, I'd leave it as is. I like a wide blade on my metal bandsaw, and a fine 1/4" blade on the wood bandsaw for cutting the contours of handles (all my scale splitting and resaw work is done on the table saw)
It's nice not to change blades, like drill presses I'd have half a dozen bandsaws if space wasn't such an issue
 
Geoff Flato said:
If you don't already have a dedicated wood bandsaw, I'd leave it as is. I like a wide blade on my metal bandsaw, and a fine 1/4" blade on the wood bandsaw for cutting the contours of handles (all my scale splitting and resaw work is done on the table saw)
It's nice not to change blades, like drill presses I'd have half a dozen bandsaws if space wasn't such an issue
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I hear you. If I was to use it for both, it would just be to cut up sheets. When my portaband dies I'll go to a larger horizontal/vertical metal saw. I rough cut scale contours on the portaband, since I rarely use wood alone for handles and G-10 is hell on wood blades. My FIL lives next door, so I want him to have access to it in hopes he will stop using his table saw in his basement with no dust collection (where his central HVAC is). I'll also use it for a lot of other wood cutting myself.
 
Don't you dare turn those wheels into scales until that machine is 99% rusted into the ground!! Even then, I bet someone would give you more for the wheels than you would ever get in handle material. Very nice score. I'm not familiar with that brand, but it appears to be built very solid and has nice features.
 
J. Hoffman said:
Don't you dare turn those wheels into scales until that machine is 99% rusted into the ground!! Even then, I bet someone would give you more for the wheels than you would ever get in handle material. Very nice score. I'm not familiar with that brand, but it appears to be built very solid and has nice features.
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Not to worry. This machine (and it's wheels) will outlive me.
 
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