The Arrival of the Italian

[Lou Ortiz]

It started with the frau forcing me to get rid of the Ducati, I was depressed...199360

But then, she agreed to purchase of some new Italian machinery, thank goodness for Father's day. I'd been saving for a bit for a BS, so just had to make a choice and drive on. I had settled into minimax or Agazzani, as I knew I wanted to get a larger framed high quality BS. I have to say that Sam Blasco at Minimax is a fantastic guy to work with and a great woodworker to boot. I think I would have been perfectly happy with either BS and, based on my experience with Sam on this selection, I'm committed and looking forward to buying a combo machine from them.

But today was about the Agazzani B24...Jesse sent a couple of photos during the crating process to hold me over.
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I'd worked with Eagle to get a liftgate to drop the saw at the house, but couldn't manage to get the company to pin down times beyond "9-5." I just couldn't commit an entire day to this, so went to the terminal bright and early to pick up the saw. Truck rides amazingly good with all that weight in the back, but I was very worried about how I was going to take it out of the bed. John Deere saves the day, again. I love that tractor. Took great care on the lift and worked it out of the bed slowly. I was at max elevation with the bucket and wasn't able to get dead center over the bed, but it all worked well nonetheless.
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Uncrating -- everything was well secured and in order. Another thumbs up for Jesse's packing job and customer service. I had a little bit of a tense moment as I stood up the saw -- this thing is very, very heavy and a challenge to do without an entire crew. More patience and the power of JD, carefully, carefully onto the HTC base and roll it in to the shop. Based on advise in the forum, I already had the 40A circuit wired up and ready to go, put the cord in place and startup, no issues. I just finished a couple of malloof style chairs last week and now I'm dying to get into a rocker project. That or go crazy making bookmatched panels. I stuck the Jet in for size reference, but there's really no comparison...I now have a 14" saw for sale...
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[Gary Herrmann]

Ehh, keep the 14 and put a narrow blade on it for tight curves. Must have been hard to give up the bike, but that's a great bandsaw.

Now, if I can just stop looking at and wondering about vintage muscle cars...

[Peter Quinn]

It started with the frau forcing me to get rid of the Ducati, I was depressed...199360




Whooooooooo, Just what does a Frau do to separate a man from his Duck? Arm twisting? Gunpoint? Well, that BS should soften the blow of parting with the bike. You still have an fine Italian machine with two wheels and a big motor to push them! Enjoy that.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lou Ortiz]

After the shoulder was rebuilt and the two herniated discs, it became a little bit more of a challenge to ride the Duc without crying. I'm glad that someone's able to give it a little bit more of a go. Didn't think of the two wheel connection on the BS, but you're exactly right.

[Jim Becker]

Congrats on your new bandsaw. It's a really nice machine. But I also agree with the suggestion to keep the smaller machine if you can...I didn't and sometimes I regret that. The 14" saws are really handy for scrolling work and there is a bit of setup work on the larger machine when you drop down to the narrow blades for tight curvy cutting.

And yea, Sam Blasco's a great guy. I had the pleasure of visiting his shop a couple months ago while I was in Austin on business. He does amazingly creative work and is a master on improving even the best machines on the planet with this and that. Here's a picture from my visit with him...and yea, he decorates his machinery, too, as you can see from one of his two really big bandsaws next to us.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/sam.jpg

[Lou Ortiz]

I probably will hang on to the Jet for a bit. I've got the scroll saw for scroll saw work, but maybe there's something in between the really big and the really small...

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of cut did you really need a 14" for that you couldn't work out on a different setup?

[Jeff Monson]

Lou, that is a really sweet ride you parted with! Congrats on the new Agazzani that is a sweet ride also.

[Larry Edgerton]

Sorry about the Duc. I know your pain. I recently parted with my 1200GT. Mine was too many cell phone users trying to kill me, and after 35 years of riding I figured the odds of finally getting hit were not in my favor.

I keep a 14" Delta around for small work and metal cutting, and a 20" inch Delta for resawing/ripping. Nice to be able to have one set up for one thing and be able to use the other.

Nice score! Getting a MiniMax combo? Curious of your impression. I have SCM/Minimax seperates now but I am thinking of shrinking my shop for heating reasons as I wind down my business. A combo is a possibility, but I would have to break years and years of work habits.

Have fun, Larry

[Stephen Cherry]

Nice!!
I've got that one also and after a short time the feeling of biggness wears off and it seems like just the right size. If I would change anything it would be to add a three phase motor and vfd.

[Mike Cruz]

Lou, when your wife told me you were getting a band saw, I thought...oh, cool. When she told me it was Italian, I thought...woah...COOL! Now that I know it is a NEW Italian monster....WOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!! That is awsome! Congrats. Hope you have enough room for it. I hear things are a little tight with all your stuff in there. But I have to agree...keep the 14". Not because it is a 14", but rather because it is SO nice to have two blades set up for different functions...without having to change blades with each project. Not sure if you are planning on a bunch of resawing with the monster, but if you are, keep the 1" blade on there and put a 12" blade on the 14" for "normal" use. Or, if you aren't doing a lot of resawing, put a 1/2" blade on the monster, and an 1/8" or 1/4" on the 14". That's how I have it set up...

Anyway, enjoy the new toy. And kudos to your wife for the nod.

[Lou Ortiz]

Thanks, Mike....

The shops actually pretty decent size for one guy (24x24), but all the extra offcuts and extras that I can't bring myself to toss are cluttering it up. I'm trying to chew through some of the woodstash in different projects as well, but everything calls for 2" more than I've got on hand.

[Lou Ortiz]

Stephen,

Curious if you or others might have thoughts on miter gauge. I didn't get the gauge as an accessory, so probably going to order/pickup shortly.

thanks,

Lou

[Stephen Cherry]

Stephen,

Curious if you or others might have thoughts on miter gauge. I didn't get the gauge as an accessory, so probably going to order/pickup shortly.

thanks,

Lou

The miter gauge is not that great, but It works OK. Don't really use the miter gauge very much though/.

[Jim Becker]

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of cut did you really need a 14" for that you couldn't work out on a different setup?

I've worked with as narrow as a 1/8" blade on my MM16, but the narrow blades take a lot of extra setup time in my experience. So I'm just saying that for convenience, I would have liked to have been able to keep my MM16 setup for the 1/2", 3/4" and 1" blades that I use most of the time and have the smaller saw there just for the scrolling work. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was saying that I couldn't work things out with the bigger saw as that was and is not the case. Fortunately, I rarely use narrow blades so it's not really a big issue...just day dreaming :)