Way over my head!

[Becky Seng]

I am new to this wood business and just bought myself a jig saw for making small craft projects. I have a little trouble controlling it. Somebody mentioned a band saw would be better because it's mounted and I would have more control. What is a band saw and could I use it instead of a jigsaw?
becky

[David Weaver]

What kind of wood are you sawing, how thick is it, what's the longest and widest piece you'll cut, and what's your budget?

[Brian Tymchak]

I am new to this wood business and just bought myself a jig saw for making small craft projects. I have a little trouble controlling it. Somebody mentioned a band saw would be better because it's mounted and I would have more control. What is a band saw and could I use it instead of a jigsaw?
becky

Hi Becky, welcome to the Creek!

A bandsaw is quite a step up from a power hand tool like a jigsaw. A bandsaw is a tool where a long band of metal with sharp teeth revolves around a pair of wheels. You push the wood into the blade and it will cut, from top to bottom. You can make straight and curved cuts with it. Here's a link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandsaw)to Wikipedia that describes it. There are lots of different sizes of bandsaws from benchtop models to some really, really big ones that might not even fit into a home workshop. There are different widths and tooth combinations of blades to do different cutting tasks. If you are at the point of starting to learn to use power hand tools, I suggest you find someone with experience with these larger tools to guide your learning and exposure.

A jig saw might be difficult to get good results with for small projects. The blades can wander and tear at the wood. I would only use it for roughing out parts. There might be some fine toothed blades that will cut slower and allow you to control the tool better.

"small crafts" can be a lot of things. You may want to provide more detail what you are wanting to build. From what you have written, I wonder if a scroll saw may be a better fit for the work you want to do, if you are cutting thin woods and intricate patterns. You can use very fine toothed blades with it to do very intricate cuts. I did a quick Google to see what instruction might be available. The Web is a wonderful place to get your first introductions about new things. Here's a site that I just googled (http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/) up that might be good to learn a bit about scroll saws.

If you haven't tried it yet, you may want to use a coping saw. It's a hand tool, but you can get very fine toothed blades for it as well to make very intricate cuts. True, it will be a lot slower cutting, but it will be a tool that you always have a use for. I have one and use it every once in a while.

[Lee Schierer]

You don't indicate what type of crafts you are trying to make, but you indicate they are small. You might want to consider a scroll saw 276350 which will let you have control of small work pieces and make precise cuts. It will be considerably less costly than a band saw.

[Sal Kurban]

Hi Becky,
If you live in a big city where there are Woodcraft or Rockler stores nearby (or their likes) they have demos or better yet, they have weekend classes for beginners. You also can check continuing education Woodworking classes at the local community college. They are evening classes (3 hours per week) for about 9 weeks. Safety is very important in woodworking and one of the best things I have ever done was to enroll in a Woodworking class at the local community college and that is how I started my woodworking and cabinetmaking.

Another route would be to join a local woodworking club like the Woodworkers' Guild and they meet once a month. There you can have a mentor and a lot of eager people to help.
Good luck,
Sal.

[Loren Woirhaye]

A decent band saw is one of the most useful machines in woodworking. Low end benchtop band saws tend to be frustrating to use and the blades break more often due to the smaller wheel diameters. If you have the space, a used 14" band saw sold by somebody who has set it up for proper woodworking and is upgrading is a good thing to look for. If you join a local woodworking club and ask about acquiring a used band saw that will do accurate work, somebody will probably help you get one pretty quick.

[John TenEyck]

Exactly what Sal said.

John