How much did you pay for your bandsaw? I bet you overpaid...

[Van Huskey]

This Tannewitz GHS 36" bandsaw is on eBay for $1200 buy it now. Admittedly, it is in the heart of old furniture country in NC where these types of deals do pop up but look at it... now think what you paid for your saw(s)...

346697

[Andy Giddings]

Looks about the size of a small car :-) If only I had the room

[peter Joseph]

In my area that'd be about 1200$ to move it as well.

[Van Huskey]

Looks about the size of a small car :-) If only I had the room

About 3,000 pounds and the price on a new one is ~$33,000. Think about it a high quality good with probably 80%+ of its useful life left for less than 4 cents on the dollar.

[Van Huskey]

In my area that'd be about 1200$ to move it as well.

And still be a stupid good bargain!

[mreza Salav]

Why don't you buy it Van?

[Van Huskey]

Not enough room to store it until I get the next shop built. Plus, a 850 mile move would be a pain. It is really only practical if it is on your doorstep.

[Andrew Hughes]

I wonder how many woodworkers have brought home a big fat jointer or bandsaw and found out their electrical service was too soft to start it.
Or ticked off the neighbors as they dimmed their lights.:confused:

[Van Huskey]

I wonder how many woodworkers have brought home a big fat jointer or bandsaw and found out their electrical service was too soft to start it.
Or pissed off the neighbors as they dimmed their lights.:confused:

It has probably happened more than once.

Though they don;t say and I can't read the motor plate in their picture it is probably either 7.5 or 10 hp. Not too bad with an RPC to power it and though the inrush will be high it has steel wheels so it isn't a "huge" startup load. Being that it is a DMD machine you can't switch out the motor easily.

[Andrew Hughes]

Van do you know if a wide blade 1 inch or more adds to start current then let's say a 1/4?

[Van Huskey]

Van do you know if a wide blade 1 inch or more adds to start current then let's say a 1/4?

From a scientific point of view, yes, but so miniscule to be a non-issue in practical terms. You would see a far greater percentage increase on a 3hp table saw with a full dado stack vs a .125" blade.

[David Kumm]

I don't believe the blade size has much to do with start up current. Wheels don't seem to spin much harder by hand with a 1" blade at the 25-30,000 I run. I don't bother with a wider blade as the band thickness increases and the old saws were not engineered to tension a .042 1.5" blade to that level. My old 116 which is the same size has a 700 rpm 5 hp motor with a FLA draw of 19. 5 hp was pretty standard given the torque of the low rpm motor. The machines spec'd for resaw would have larger motors but that is rare. The Tannewitz usually ran a 900 rpm motor which would have a lower FLA draw and a higher blade speed of 8400 fpm. One set up for resaw would likely have had a 700 rpm motor. My 10 hp Kay or 30 amp phase perfect starts the 116. Although the start up for old saws can be slow, I don't believe the spike is as high as a similar sized dust collector with gates open. I think I paid 2800 delivered for the 116 but it had been gone through and was plug and play. Bandsaw prices are dropping some. Fewer people willing to look up from Ipads and learn how to deal with 2000 lb monsters. As the shop classes change and the world goes to CNC, those who appreciate machines will disappear. Dave

[Rick Fisher]

I love that saw.. To me that is the ultimate .. none around up here in Canada..

I don't believe the inrush on 3 phase is nearly as bad as single phase.

[Robin Frierson]

I lived in Hickory North Carolina, right in the middle of the North Carolina furniture factories. About 10 years ago I saw a semi truck driving down the road with a dozen of those old Tannewitz bandsaws strapped down. There was a used machinery dealer there that had several sitting out in the rain because he just didn't have room for them. There were lots of those available.

[peter gagliardi]

That is the rarer type with the full resaw height under the upper wheel- it has a level upper arm. Probably about 9 1/2' tall. I have that same saw in my shop only belt drive. I paid a few hundred more for mine.
As to amp draw, my old boss bought one of those with direct drive 7.5 hp wired for 240v.
Startup draw on that was 136 amps!
Electrician had a bit of a time locating fuses, or a breaker- don't remember which , that had enough load delay to allow startup.
They are not that hard to move. You only gotta be smarter than a lump of cast iron.

[Erik Loza]

There's a huge, forgotten, Yates in the millshop at my new place that is just collecting dust. One of those, "too big to move, so it just sits there" kind of deals. If I had a big enough shop and more time on my hands.

Erik

[Van Huskey]

I lived in Hickory North Carolina, right in the middle of the North Carolina furniture factories. About 10 years ago I saw a semi truck driving down the road with a dozen of those old Tannewitz bandsaws strapped down. There was a used machinery dealer there that had several sitting out in the rain because he just didn't have room for them. There were lots of those available.

The one on eBay is in Granite Falls maybe 6 miles out of "downtown" Hickory up 321 near the epicenter of the "old" US Furniture market, while they still have the "Market" in Highpoint (largest home furnishing trade show in the world) FAR less of the furniture shown now is North Carolina or US built. While the used iron is a sign of the industry moving with CNC taking over even if the industry was thriving the old traditional machines have little place in a furniture factory now. A shame and progress at the same time. There will come a time in the not too distant future when these deals are gone, they will have either rotted in the rain or been scooped up by smaller businesses or hobbyists.

[Mike Cutler]

Leave the band saw in NC, leave the band saw in NC, leave the band saw in NC,,,,,,,,,,,,,
As one band saw junkie to another;
You're killin' me Van.

Hmmm,,,, I could be down and back in a weekend.:eek:

[Van Huskey]

Startup draw on that was 136 amps!
Electrician had a bit of a time locating fuses, or a breaker- don't remember which , that had enough load delay to allow startup.
They are not that hard to move. You only gotta be smarter than a lump of cast iron.

One reason so many of that size were wired 440. I wonder how long the 100+ amp draw would have been, the inrush would have been insane. It is easy enough to sidestep in a smaller shop with a VFD with a long ramp up time.

[Van Huskey]

There's a huge, forgotten, Yates in the millshop at my new place that is just collecting dust. One of those, "too big to move, so it just sits there" kind of deals. If I had a big enough shop and more time on my hands.

Erik

The biggest issue a lot of people have is getting it through their door to the shop. A guy on OWWM (I think) built a half circle cradle to roll one onto its spine then slid it through the garage door and rolled it back up on its base. There are a lot of people that would own those things if it was easy or cheap to get them inside their shops. Not everyone has enough access and a fork lift like Dave.

[Van Huskey]

Leave the band saw in NC, leave the band saw in NC, leave the band saw in NC,,,,,,,,,,,,,
As one band saw junkie to another;
You're killin' me Van.

Hmmm,,,, I could be down and back in a weekend.:eek:

I go around and see these old iron 32-40" bandsaws in people's shops and I drool. Usually on the way home reality hits and it becomes what do I do that my bandsaws are not more than adequate for, then I find it difficult to come up with a real reason the moment passes. I still think they are a great buy for someone with the room and infrastructure to house and run one and has the ability or connections to get it moved without costing a fortune.

[Mel Fulks]

I have a friend who bought an 8 foot Tannewitz ( sorry,I don't know what that translates to) for less than $300! Then he complained about having to spend a couple hundred for guide parts!

[Van Huskey]

I have a friend who bought an 8 foot Tannewitz ( sorry,I don't know what that translates to) for less than $300! Then he complained about having to spend a couple hundred for guide parts!

That is a potential issue with used machines (though complaning over that level of outlay may be a little nuts). The problem is in the case of the GHS I posted it is a $30k+ saw so new parts will be expensive, if you paid $30k for it when it comes part time you aren't going to balk at $400 for a set of tires but if you paid $1200 or $300 it will hit you differently.

[Ronald Mancini]

Any price for this saw is too much if you can't use its capabilities. Remember, beyond purchase price is floor space cost, air conditioning cost, dust collection cost, increased cost of blades, etc.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I wonder how many woodworkers have brought home a big fat jointer or bandsaw and found out their electrical service was too soft to start it.
Or ticked off the neighbors as they dimmed their lights.:confused:


It has probably happened more than once.



I won't mention my wife buying me a new contractor table saw with an attached mobile stand which I proceeded to a take one box at a time and assemble it in my shed (pre-shop days). The first time I wanted to roll it out of the shed onto the carport to use it.....I discovered it wouldn't fit through the 32" door of the attached shed.:eek: Oh well, I wanted a 48" door on that shed anyway!;):D

[Robin Frierson]

Yeah, about 10 years ago lots of auctions were going on and lot of deals were had in NC near Hickory, Granite, Lenoir, Drexel, etc. Some of those old factories also had Italian bandsaws....buddy of mine got a 27 or 28in size for $800. Those Tannewitz ran about 8500fpm if I recall correctly, which is fast. They all had numerous holes in the tables from powerfeeders and were obviously well used. Lot of them sold for less than 1000. I was surprised at the huge number of bandsaws but few jointers. I think near the end they had those enormous machines that joint/plane in one feed.

I was allowed to go in one of those old factories to salvage the maple floors. You could tell it was real old as it had lots of windows, probably before electric. They processed all their own lumber, had kilns and drying sheds. It was a shame to see them go.

[Van Huskey]

I won't mention my wife buying me a new contractor table saw with an attached mobile stand which I proceeded to a take one box at a time and assemble it in my shed (pre-shop days). The first time I wanted to roll it out of the shed onto the carport to use it.....I discovered it wouldn't fit through the 32" door of the attached shed.:eek: Oh well, I wanted a 48" door on that shed anyway!;):D

I had a friend when I live in Viginia who was a big metal working hobbyist, he had this huge vertical mill, he moved into a neghborhood that had a HOA with very tight restrictions on things like the size and type of garage doors and detached buildings so he ended up bringing in the mill setting it on the concrete pad that was to be ostensibly his garage and built the house/garage around the mill. I often wondered what he would do if/when he moved.

[Brian W Smith]

"I bet you overpaid"....

You're gonna lose that bet,just sayin.

[Van Huskey]

"I bet you overpaid"....

You're gonna lose that bet,just sayin.

Considering it is subjective, I can't lose, nor can I win.

[Brian W Smith]

Well then,excuse me...I take "bets" seriously.

[Carroll Courtney]

Well dang that makes my Crescent that I have listed FS look way over price.But if a person ever use one before,they would know then what makes them so so wonderful to use.
Paid to much???Will I did for the first BS that I purchase which made all the others after that seem so cheap(humor;~)----Carroll

[Van Huskey]

Well dang that makes my Crescent that I have listed FS look way over price.But if a person ever use one before,they would know then what makes them so so wonderful to use.
Paid to much???Will I did for the first BS that I purchase which made all the others after that seem so cheap(humor;~)----Carroll

Carroll, your Crescent is worth every dime you are asking, I have seen it, it is turn key, pretty and probably as good as it came from the factory. While I have seen better deals than this GHS it is one of the best I have seen on eBay in quite a while.

PS If you ever wanna sell one of your baby PMs lemme know I am always up for a day trip to Porter, and I would be happy to buy something this time vs sell something like last time. :D

[Ryan Mooney]

Undoubtedly yes for my first, although I also got it delivered and was able to use it immediately instead of searching for years (you east coast people have it easty... err easy) which was a rather huge advantage in practical terms since I actually _have_ a bandsaw instead of a hypothetical bandsaw.

For my last one, mostly no.. although its a tiny little piece of junk (9" cast iron in mediocre shape looked like possibly a cute scrollie) I paid exactly $0.00 for it. Granted it needs at least new tires and blades, but likely also ?? once I get to it and one could plausibly argue that you should be paid to take such a saw.. meh.. it looks like it could be fun anyway :)

[Van Huskey]

For my last one, mostly no.. although its a tiny little piece of junk (9" cast iron in mediocre shape looked like possibly a cute scrollie) I paid exactly $0.00 for it.

I posted a free 14" off brand cast clone that was on the Portland Craig's List on the Deals forum a couple of days ago, but I bet it is gone by now.

[Chris Padilla]

I had a friend when I live in Viginia who was a big metal working hobbyist, he had this huge vertical mill, he moved into a neghborhood that had a HOA with very tight restrictions on things like the size and type of garage doors and detached buildings so he ended up bringing in the mill setting it on the concrete pad that was to be ostensibly his garage and built the house/garage around the mill. I often wondered what he would do if/when he moved.

Classified Ad: Huge Vertical Mill for sale...comes with attached 4BD/2BA house. :)

[Brian W Smith]

My last 5,with one being a very special horizontal metal cutting version....comes to about 600$Put new tyres on a pre war 16" W/T 3 days ago.One of the 5 is another W/T,14",metal and wood with a Baldor motor.Sposed to pick up a freeby 12",old C-man last week,but didn't get a round-tuit.

Will say,our ancient 14" Delta-Milwaukee gets a whole lot of use....just sayin.

Edit to add,just got the fence and rails for the 14" Delta above,which we've had for ever.

[Van Huskey]

My last 5,with one being a very special horizontal metal cutting version....comes to about 600$Put new tyres on a pre war 16" W/T 3 days ago.One of the 5 is another W/T,14",metal and wood with a Baldor motor.Sposed to pick up a freeby 12",old C-man last week,but didn't get a round-tuit.

Will say,our ancient 14" Delta-Milwaukee gets a whole lot of use....just sayin.

You haven't said anything that makes me think the Tanny isn't a better value... just sayin. :D

BTW you do realize this thread is just a light hearted way to talk about my favorite subject don't you?

[Ryan Mooney]

I posted a free 14" off brand cast clone that was on the Portland Craig's List on the Deals forum a couple of days ago, but I bet it is gone by now.

That would be better than a free-fifty-free 9" although I was already in location on the 9 instead of an hour plus drive away :cool:. Nice things DO show up around here occasionally but it would appear that there is some strange conspiracy to align the nicer ones arrival with me being either on-call that week or altogether out of town. There was a really cherry 20" cast iron C frame beauty in Bend a couple years ago and another one in Yakima both at "I'm very willing to pay that" prices - they BOTH were there and gone while I was incapacitated by work.

I'm not sure I'd get in the truck for less than a 20" to complement the existing herd at this point though :rolleyes: unless it was really nice.. or I was driving that way anyway... or... :D

The or... is kind of how I ended up with a weird old ?wet? grinder of as-yet unknown provenance this weekend, I was there, it was there, it appeared to run, it was $5.. it went into the truck. I figured the motor was probably worth around that worst case and hey the grinder is cast iron and dang heavy so there's hope anyway. Not 100% sure its a wet grinder but it has all the hallmarks of one and I didn't have a lot of time to look that closely between other projects. Not nearly as exciting as a free bandsaw granted.

Edit the one in Bend was a Davis & Wells... in really good shape... ah well.

[Van Huskey]

Nice things DO show up around here occasionally

I use searchtempest to search Craig's List for bandsaws 4-5 days a week just because I enjoy looking, I search the full US. I have actually noticed the Pacific NW is actually a pretty good place for hobby sized machines. I don't see as much of the monster stuff like the East coast and rust belt. A lot of Davis and Wells machines pop up in So Cal since thats where they are/were located.

[David Kumm]

Just for my perspective, you can't overpay for the right machine and the wrong one is never a steal. I've been on both sides of those deals. Dave

[Chris Fournier]

By the pound it may be a deal but that's about it. Don't know the specifics of this saw and folks can chime in but do you know if their are blade guides below the table? So you have a 36" saw, what are you going to cut with it? Right, and you are going to feed the stock how exactly? And you will get that stock onto the table and convey it how exactly? Bandsaws are worse than genitals when it comes to the "how big is yours?" contests.

Love the idea of this saw but real world practice places the $1200.00 price on it. But if I had 36"es...

[Art Mann]

I would not even pay the transportation to have it delivered to my place for free if I had to keep it. This monster is too big and is waaaaay beyond what I will ever need. I wouldn't devote that much shop space to it. If I wanted that kind of resaw capabilities, I would buy a bandsaw mill.

[Van Huskey]

By the pound it may be a deal but that's about it. Don't know the specifics of this saw and folks can chime in but do you know if their are blade guides below the table? So you have a 36" saw, what are you going to cut with it? Right, and you are going to feed the stock how exactly? And you will get that stock onto the table and convey it how exactly? Bandsaws are worse than genitals when it comes to the "how big is yours?" contests.

Love the idea of this saw but real world practice places the $1200.00 price on it. But if I had 36"es...

All the GH Tannewitz I have seen have lower guides, that said they came with a number of different guides based on the buyers needs and it would certainly be possible to spec them with no lower guides.

I am lost about the rest of your comments, you use it just like any other bandsaw, the table is relatively large but it isn't like you can do most anything you can do on a small saw and a whole lot more. The only negative is just the logistics of movings one, potential power supply issues and the space they need, they take about the same space as a table saw. Maybe it is a scale thing and they look bigger in pictures than they are, the tables on big saws for example are almost always lower than a Delta 28-350/Powermatic PM81. There is a good number of negatives to a 3000 pound 36" saw in a hobby shop but basic usuability is not one of them.

[Rick Markham]

If I had room in my shop, I would be on my way to NC right now!

It's good to see that your one track mind hasn't derailed Van! :D

[Eric Rimel]

I looked for a couple of years (and I have damn good Google-Fu) for a reasonably priced 20" saw. I had one in the past and it met my needs. I wanted a larger one, but the cost was prohibitive. I fell into a 36" saw at auction for $200. I had a forklift pick it up and put it on a trailer. i had a forklift take it off the trailer and plunk it in the shop. I prybar it onto 3/4" black pipe and move it when I need/want to. Works great. I cannot comprehend not being able to use a larger saw. My table is the same height as any other. I pick up the wood and push it through. (on a saw this large a power feed is an actual possibility.) I can resaw. I can cut 1/4" x 2" dowels in half. It has a large footprint. It takes a VFD. I have the space. If it didn't have a lower guide, I'd buy one from Carter with a slotted mount for $250. Whats the problem? Don't want one, don't buy one.

[David Kumm]

It's hard to explain the pull these old machines can have. It really isn't about size or that the job can't be done with a lesser machine. It is about the feel of having a machine that works so well that you feel the stress in your life going away - for a little while. Doesn't mean that is what everyone should do but there is a difference you can feel when running a well tuned old machine. Dave

[Terry Therneau]

It's hard to explain the pull these old machines can have. It really isn't about size or that the job can't be done with a lesser machine. It is about the feel of having a machine that works so well that you feel the stress in your life going away - for a little while. Doesn't mean that is what everyone should do but there is a difference you can feel when running a well tuned old machine. Dave

I agree. Two years ago there was a machine on Minn craigslist that I vacillated over for 2 months -- it was in International Falls, which isn't close to anywhere so I got away with a delay. The 26" Moak is now in my shop and the only question is 'why did I wait so long'. 1020 lbs, more resaw than I may ever need (12.5), and runs smooth as butter, all for less than $1/lb.

Terry T.

[Larry Edgerton]

I had an working Oliver 36 I paid $250 for. No room at new shop, so sadly it has departed. I did not sell it for $250 though.........