14" bandsaw, or can I get by with chainsaw for turning

[Scott Horton TN]

I'm new to turning and and gathering up the bits I need to enjoy the hobby some. I teach a high school robotics team and my small "shop" (2 car garage), is quite full of stuff already. Even the new wood lathe with retractable wheels is a burden on my space. I'm retired and can't swing an expensive, big bandsaw for sure. I've got a lot of other bits I need worse to start, and for the foreseeable future. I could pickup a delta clone pretty inexpensively, ($50-$100 around here). Add a riser to it, maybe some better guides, and a proper blade. But I really don't have the space if I can get by w/o it. I had one a few years ago, pre-wood lathe, that I let go as I just wasn't using it. So my only need for it would be for prepping wood for the lathe. My lathe is a 20" PM2020. For turning I'll probably piddle with a little bit of everything, I'm mostly interested in doing segmented stuff right now. But being able to turn a chunk of cut would is appealing. I have an older 10" table saw FWIW.

My question is, can I get by with a chainsaw for making blanks from green wood, or is a bandsaw a must have? I see lots of videos with people turning chunks that have almost a branch sticking out of them, it seems an octogon'ish shape for a bowl blank would be OK. But I don't know. I do have the upside of a reasonably powerful lathe I think.

Other than "suck it up and get a high end bandsaw (Rikon PM, etc)", can anyone offer me some input on the issue? Can I get by with a chainsaw, or will I be a lot better off from there, with a basic, possibly slightly upgraded 14" bandsaw?

[John TenEyck]

IMO there's no reason you can't make due with a chainsaw for cutting out bowl blanks. A bandsaw makes them nice and round, but that's not a major requirement, especially with a big powerful lathe.

John

[Earl McLain]

Even with a band saw I usually just cut roughly octagon-ish. Downside to chain saw is that’s a rip cut on a bowl blank to knock off the corners—but at least it’s not full on rips. In the next year or so I’ll solve the chain saw strings by upgrading saws and learning to use a rip chain.
I started with a Delta clone and added a riser block. Then a few years later I picked up a steel-spines 14” saw that was built with 12” resaw. My opinion—The cast Deltas and clones do okay as 6” resaw, but aren’t built for the riser. If I was doing it again, I’d probably just bite the bullet and buy an 18” throat with 12” (or better 14”) cutting height—headed that direction anyway, should have started there! If you decide to make the space for a band saw—the larger size does not take much more footprint.
You can get by with chainsaw for bowl blanks, but if you add a band saw I’d bet you’ll find a lot of other uses— even in your robotics class. Good luck!!

[Alex Zeller]

I think you'll be disappointed with a cheap clone. I had a Harbor Freight one given to me and no matter what I did it always needed an upgrade. The motor wasn't powerful enough with a riser block so I put a spare 2hp one I had on it. The belt slipped so i replaced them with nice ones. I had to replace the spring with a stiffer one to get enough tension on the blade. After dumping too much money into it I removed the riser, put the original motor back on, and gave it away. I have used a Jet version of the Delta and it was much nicer. But, like people always say, go big or go home, so I bought a 19" BS which is day and night better. Cutting up blanks now is a joy. I would stick with your chainsaw for now.

For turning you don't need anything more than a small shed for the bandsaw. If you do stick with it I would look into maybe something like an 8x12 so you'll have lots of room to store blanks and rough turned bowls.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Scott, is this you from the Ducati club?

[Richard Coers]

If getting by is your goal, you can get by with a hatchet, axe, sledge hammer, and splitting wedges. Remember turning is not a new invention, it started way before electricity and power machinery.

[Scott Horton TN]

Scott, is this you from the Ducati club?
Hi Chris, yes, its me. How are you doing! Good to "see" you.

[Scott Horton TN]

For some reason the forum didn't send me any notices, spam filters probably caught them. Just now thought to check back for replies.

Anyway, thanks Everyone for the input. Appreciate the sanity check and conformation.

[Scott Horton TN]

Even with a band saw I usually just cut roughly octagon-ish. Downside to chain saw is that’s a rip cut on a bowl blank to knock off the corners—but at least it’s not full on rips. In the next year or so I’ll solve the chain saw strings by upgrading saws and learning to use a rip chain.
I started with a Delta clone and added a riser block. Then a few years later I picked up a steel-spines 14” saw that was built with 12” resaw. My opinion—The cast Deltas and clones do okay as 6” resaw, but aren’t built for the riser. If I was doing it again, I’d probably just bite the bullet and buy an 18” throat with 12” (or better 14”) cutting height—headed that direction anyway, should have started there! If you decide to make the space for a band saw—the larger size does not take much more footprint.
You can get by with chainsaw for bowl blanks, but if you add a band saw I’d bet you’ll find a lot of other uses— even in your robotics class. Good luck!!Thanks Earl. My old 14" that I let go of, I used to use with the class. But they are relatively dangerous for younger kids. And everything they work with is small. They can draw something in CAD and cut it out with the CNC machine and I don't have to work about anyone cutting their thumb off LOL. For the occasional bandsaw need, I have a Milwaukee deep throat portaband mounted on an upright stand. It works great and with a slow moving metal blade, is less dangerous IMO. But again, for robotics, with a few exceptions having the draw it and cut it works out better. So I got rid of the (wood) bandsaw.

[Kevin Jenness]

Lyle Jamieson "gets by" with a chainsaw, no doubt you can too. I wouldn't like to be without a bandsaw, for turning blanks and many other tasks, but I "get by" with one, although I understand four is the optimal number.

[roger wiegand]

Although I have a large and pretty powerful band saw I almost never use it on turning blanks, I find it quicker and easier (and perhaps safer) to round them up on the lathe, with the added advantage that you can move the blank around as you go if the grain isn't exactly as you might have anticipated. I knock the corners off with a chainsaw then use a 40/40 grind gouge that can remove a tremendous amount of wood from an uneven blank in a hurry with minimal stress using Stuart Batty's "float the bevel" method.

[Don Frank]

If I had to choose between the two it would certainly be a good chainsaw. I own several gas ones and an electric Makita but I recently purchased a Ryobi 40v battery powered saw and I am incredibly impressed with how that thing cuts. It cuts as fast as a gas saw and is balanced well and works great. Being able to use it indoors is a treat and I often cut sections of wood off when it is centered on my lathe to help balance the piece.

[Scott Horton TN]

Although I have a large and pretty powerful band saw I almost never use it on turning blanks, I find it quicker and easier (and perhaps safer) to round them up on the lathe, with the added advantage that you can move the blank around as you go if the grain isn't exactly as you might have anticipated. I knock the corners off with a chainsaw then use a 40/40 grind gouge that can remove a tremendous amount of wood from an uneven blank in a hurry with minimal stress using Stuart Batty's "float the bevel" method.Thanks Roger. Very helpful. I'll look up those methods. What size gouge do you use for these?

[Scott Horton TN]

If I had to choose between the two it would certainly be a good chainsaw. I own several gas ones and an electric Makita but I recently purchased a Ryobi 40v battery powered saw and I am incredibly impressed with how that thing cuts. It cuts as fast as a gas saw and is balanced well and works great. Being able to use it indoors is a treat and I often cut sections of wood off when it is centered on my lathe to help balance the piece.


Thanks Don. I've been studying just that. Whether to get a battery powered saw or not. I've watched some reasonably impressive videos of some battery powered versions. Trying to pick one now. Narrowed to Ego, Echo. The on-line reviews and my own experience led me to those. The reviews are a little dated though and both brands have new models. Taking a leap of faith they got better. Considered corded, but then I can't go get a chunk of green wood from a down tree, etc. Portability woudl be helpful. I've got sketchy rotator cuffs and I really don't want to be slinging a gas model to start it. Considered an EZ start Stihl, but really don't want to screw with gas and premx.

[Kevin Jenness]

I used my son's Milwaukee cordless chainsaw recently and it worked well but you have to keep the chain sharp and be patient. There's a big difference in power between a high end cordless saw and my 53 cc Husqvarna. For smaller work an electric saw will be fine.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Scott, I have a Laguna 14/12 bandsaw with a 3/4" Resaw King blade. For rough shaping, I prefer to be outside with a chainsaw.

I went all electric with Ego products last summer (with the exception of their ride on mower). The electric chainsaw is a beast, I've cut up trees that my Stihl struggles with.

Come over and give it a try. I've got plenty of logs, out back, to try it on.

I started turning a couple of years ago, but am still very much a rookie. I usually do a bit of turning when I run out of other wood working projects.

I have a couple of segmented jigs for cutting pieces on a tablesaw for wood turning. Most of my stuff has been segmented bowls from kiln dried lumber.

Also I suggest becoming a contributor to this forum, costs $6 a year and gives you a lot more access to other features of this forum.

[Reed Gray]

For production work, you need both, a good chainsaw and a big bandsaw. I seldom turn bowls over about 14 inches because most people don't want or use bowls that size. I can cut log sections to size, rip them down the pith, then put them up on the big bandsaw to slab them up. Then to the small bandsaw to cut circles. Yes, you can get rough outs with just the chainsaw, but it saves a lot of roughing out work if you have the other tools, and time is money. You can get fairly good at cutting slabs. I use plywood strips in various widths to mark out my slabs and the straight lines to follow can get you fairly close to straight and parallel. Just depends on what you want to spend time on.

Do check out Project Farm on You Tube. He does a lot of great tool reviews, including cordless chainsaws. He is not sponsored, and watching the way he tests tools is as interesting as the results.

I do have a bunch of videos on You Tube, mostly about bowl turning.

robo hippy

[Scott Horton TN]

I often cut sections of wood off when it is centered on my lathe to help balance the piece.I hadn’t thought of the advantage of using indoors. Cool.

[Scott Horton TN]

@reed gray: thanks. Definitely not production. Or anything close to that. I did look at his videos already. We’ll done. I think I’ve seen some of yours too but I’ll be sure to look.

[roger wiegand]

Thanks Roger. Very helpful. I'll look up those methods. What size gouge do you use for these?

5/8" bar (1/2" flute), from Doug Thompson. It's possible that a 3/4" tool would be faster, but I haven't felt the need. In green wood I'm taking off chips that are pushing 4-5 mm thick as it is. I used to get really beaten up roughing a big log, but with this method and a light grip on the tool it's remarkably smooth.

[Prashun Patel]

You don't need a bandsaw. But it's a very versatile tool for the space it takes up.

If you turning anything from bowls to spindles, a bandsaw is a great 7 iron to the chainsaw's driver and lathe's putter.

I do a decent amount (for a non professional) of green bowl turning and the initial roughing out of an octagon on the lathe is jarring for me. Standing at the lathe for long periods of time hurts my back - in ways I don't feel until after. The bandsaw cuts down that time by a good deal. It's just more efficient.

I will say, cutting green blanks on a bandsaw has to be done with a lot of research. There's a critical order of operations that needs to be adhered to in order to minimize danger. Green wood also is very demanding on blades and iron parts, so you have to take care - as with a lathe.

All in all, I think a bandsaw is very useful.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Some turners seem to spend an inordinate amount of time turning out near perfectly round bowl blanks. God love em, but I would rather be turning. Cutting a round bowl blank doesn't mean it will be balanced enough to turn. And it also depends on the size of your lathe. If you are going to throw a huge 22 inch round piece of wood up there, it helps to be round, but there are a couple of volumns of other concerns at play, like the work not flying to pieces from centrifugal force, danger from unseen voids or inclusions. How are you going to lift such huge chunks of wood to the band saw, and then the lathe? For a moderate turner with a 12 inch lathe, a band saw is a luxury. Hardly a necessity. That said, I have a band saw and a scroll saw. which come in handy for all manner of things, most of which have nothing to do with turning. Frankly, a table saw is probably just as useful to a turner with a moderate size lathe. and you can cut the corners off a square blank with a table saw. just make a angled jig to push the piece.

[Russell Neyman]

Heck yes, you can get by without a bandsaw, but a used one is usually cheap -- about $150 in my area -- so why wouldn't you use one to knock off the corners of a piece? Truth is, though, a chainsaw or, even, a sawzall will also make life easier.

[roger wiegand]

The issue with a band saw is that it is really not optimized for dealing with round or uneven objects without a fair amount of thinking, planning, and sled construction. As often as not every time I try cutting a log on the band saw I find reason to regret it-- even if I think I've properly wedged it against rotation it finds a way to turn and jam the saw, sometimes pulling an appendage in the direction of the blade. Now that I have a big jointer it's better because I can make a flat reference surface on a big piece of wood, but that's a fair amount of work and doesn't lend itself to reorienting the blank to optimize the patterns in the wood.

Chain saws certainly have their own hazards as well, but they seem easier to control while providing more freedom to shape the blank in three dimensions.

[John K Jordan]

I hadn’t thought of the advantage of using indoors. Cool.

Scott, I have several Sthil chain saws, one electric. Mine is not battery powered but plugs into 120vAC. It’s the saw I usually use just outside the shop to cut up log sections and inside the shop. I love the instant start/stop. However, away from power and when I have larger logs I go with one of the gas saws - a lot of power. One has a 24” bar/chain for big stuff but I prefer the smaller 16” and 18” saws. I have never used a battery powered saw so I can’t compare the power.

As to turning without a bandsaw, I think it depends on what you want to turn. If you will be happy with turning bowls and such from green wood, yes you can get by without a bandsaw.

However, if you want to turn something else such as lidded boxes, spindles, gavels, rolling pins, and a zillion other things, most are best started with dry wood. I use both a chainsaw and a bandsaw with a 12” cut to convert log sections into round, square, and rectangular blanks and dry them for turning. Even if cutting the log for bowls, there is almost always an opportunity to cut some turning blanks to dry. I’ve been drying blanks for over 15 years now and have a huge stock of useful dry blanks to choose from and share. (the second picture shows just a few)

483754 483755

BTW, we live on a farm with lots of woods so there is always plenty of wood. A friend got some big wood last year and turned some cowboy hats and several came in the last few weeks to get wood from a big Ash tree that was dying from the emerald ash borer. I also have a Woodmizer sawmill and log-handling equipment which keeps me and friends in turning blanks - sometimes they bring logs with a truck or trailer and go home with green turning blanks. For me, nothing is quicker to go from log to blank than first sawing a big log into thick slabs or chunks then cutting blanks to size on the shop bandsaw.

483756 483757 483758

A bandsaw is also useful for creating jigs and other things related to turning or general woodworking. I have a enough room in this shop to keep a number of other woodworking machines (tablesaw, etc) but to me the bandsaw is the most useful general-purpose tool. If I did only turning, if any way possible I’d want the lathe, chainsaw, bandsaw, and drill press, and optionally, the drum and belt/disk sanders.

For some years before I built my shop I had everything in a garage - all of the turning things in 1/2 of a 2-car garage. Until I got a bigger saw, I put a 14” Delta with riser block on a mobile base so I could pull it out when needed, a stationary lathe, portable lathe, sharping station, and shelves for tools, supplies, drying roughed-out bowls, and bins of dry and drying turning blanks. It was tight but worked. I kept overflow wood in a portable shed.

JKJ

[Neil Strong]

If you can only have one, go with a chainsaw. You can't take a bandsaw out to cut up a fallen/felled tree.

Immediately ripping freshly fallen/felled logs in half (along pith line) reduces the splitting and increases the useable wood available from the log.

If you have a large lathe you can turn larger diameter pieces that will require longer log rips for which you will need a longer chainsaw blade and more power. There are specialised chains for ripping.


483784

Larger chainsaws can make smaller cuts but are heavier, so smaller and lighter chainsaws are also nice to have for the smaller cuts if and when you can afford one. I won't admit to how many CSs I have.

Electric lead and battery chainsaws don't emit toxic fumes and are more suitable for indoor cutting and and also quieter in domestic surroundings.

For bowl blanks you can get by with just a chainsaw. A chainsaw is essential for larger hollow forms (more than 12") unless you have a large industrial sized bandsaw

Some might like to have (or require for production purposes) a round blank but that is not essential when starting out if the cost of a suitable sized bandsaw is not possible. I also have a bandsaw that can do anything I need to do on it but don't bother myself with round blanks myself anymore, well not for many decades now.

If you buy a bandsaw for processing bowl blanks get one with at least a 12" rise and the power to cut that depth. A bandsaw is also ideal for spindle and preparing other small blanks.

[John K Jordan]

If you can only have one, go with a chainsaw....
If you have a large lathe you can turn larger diameter pieces ...
For bowl blanks you can get by with just a chainsaw....

Speaking of large lathes and large diameter... For those who haven't seen it, this video shows the late Lissi Oland turning a very large bowl. She makes good use of chainsaws. In fact, at about 4:50 in the video she cores the blank with a chainsaw.


https://youtu.be/1PMEJ7rirso

She had WAY too much wood and much of it excellent. During one visit (she lived very near John C Campbell folk school) she filled my vehicle with wood. If I'd brought a larger vehicle I'm sure there would have been more. Seeing and touching the pieces in her gallery was a moving experience. What a fine person she was.

JKJ

[Don Frank]

Scott, If you have shoulder problems I'd go with either a really good corded saw or a really good battery powered. The corded is a Dolmar which is the same as a Makita. German made excellent saws. I didn't think I would be impressed with the 40v Ryobi but I am. It cuts as fast as my smaller gas Stihl and the battery life is impressive. I'm going to sell the Dolmar even though I love it, simply because this cordless one works so good and the Dolmar will just set on the shelf.

[Scott Horton TN]

Thanks Don. I found a a new Ego 1804 on marketplace yesterday for $190 w 5a battery and got it. Hard to beat the price so I figured I’d give it a try. It was the top rated battery chainsaw on consumer reports FWTW. It’s pretty heavy though, giving me a little buyer remorse, as compared to an EZ start Stihl that was top on my gas list. But I haven’t cut anything yet. Will try it out soon.

[Reed Gray]

Look up Project Farm on You Tube. He is unsponsored, and does tool reviews. One is on cordless chainsaws. Any tool you are considering actually...

robo hippy

[Scott Horton TN]

Robo: Thanks, I had watched his videos on the saws when I started this. Good info.