John Mark Lane
07-21-2010, 5:20 PM
This may not excite everyone, but I'm kind of tickled.
I have developed a sort of a morning ritual of checking the Sears website for tool deals. The prices on the Craftsman stationary tools change almost daily, and now and then you see a good deal. I picked up a petite little 7 1/4 inch SCMS for $99 the other day. I like it. I'm not a huge fan of Craftsman, but they seem to be getting better in some areas and some of the tools seem quite decent.
So they have these steel bandsaws that appear to be basically Rikons with different paint. There are some other different features, but the consensus seems to be that they rolll off the same assembly line.
They have a 14 inch that is a reasonable approximation of a 10-325. The listed resaw height is less at 8 inche, but that's plenty for me (I was considering the Rikon 12, which is 7 1/2). It shows a 1 hp motor instead of a 1.5. A couple of other things look like they might be differently, like the door knobs. But it's a cast iron table, steel saw, with what looks like a half-decent fence (I checked one out of the floor of Sears a month or so ago).
So I check this morning, and that saw is marked down to $384. Yes, that's right, $384 for a brand new 14 inch steel bandsaw. It must be purchased online, but can be picked up at Sears for no shipping charge. Deal is only good today and tomorrow. I grabbed one immediately. I figure it should probably work fine out of the box (or else it's going back), and if it could benefit from improvements down the line, I'll enjoy the process. If I decide I want a bigger saw, I imagine I will be able to get my money (or close) out of it.
So it may not be a giant gloat, but I feel like gloating a bit anyway.
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss61/jmarklane/untitled.jpg
I have developed a sort of a morning ritual of checking the Sears website for tool deals. The prices on the Craftsman stationary tools change almost daily, and now and then you see a good deal. I picked up a petite little 7 1/4 inch SCMS for $99 the other day. I like it. I'm not a huge fan of Craftsman, but they seem to be getting better in some areas and some of the tools seem quite decent.
So they have these steel bandsaws that appear to be basically Rikons with different paint. There are some other different features, but the consensus seems to be that they rolll off the same assembly line.
They have a 14 inch that is a reasonable approximation of a 10-325. The listed resaw height is less at 8 inche, but that's plenty for me (I was considering the Rikon 12, which is 7 1/2). It shows a 1 hp motor instead of a 1.5. A couple of other things look like they might be differently, like the door knobs. But it's a cast iron table, steel saw, with what looks like a half-decent fence (I checked one out of the floor of Sears a month or so ago).
So I check this morning, and that saw is marked down to $384. Yes, that's right, $384 for a brand new 14 inch steel bandsaw. It must be purchased online, but can be picked up at Sears for no shipping charge. Deal is only good today and tomorrow. I grabbed one immediately. I figure it should probably work fine out of the box (or else it's going back), and if it could benefit from improvements down the line, I'll enjoy the process. If I decide I want a bigger saw, I imagine I will be able to get my money (or close) out of it.
So it may not be a giant gloat, but I feel like gloating a bit anyway.
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss61/jmarklane/untitled.jpg