Band Saw Advice

[Jay Knoll]

Hi all

First of all, pardon my poor manners for not thanking everyone for their "welcome" and advice on splitters.

On to new endeavors, I'm thinking of adding a bandsaw to my shop, probably in the 14-18" range. Would like to know pros and cons of the Jet level to the Mini Max level saws.

Thanks

Jay

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Hi Jay,

My minimax is a heavy-duty industrial type machine--it has a motor, frame, guide system and table made to take advantage of its 13" resaw capacity. The Jet and Delta saws usually have a horse or horse and a half motor while the mm16 has a 3.6 horse power motor. That means you can resaw a whole lot faster on the minimax. The steel frame is strong enough to tension a 1 and 1/4" blade while the 14" Delta and Jets can only tension a 1/2 or 3/4" blade.

I've resawn 12" oak on my mm16 with a one-inch, 1 1/2 tpi, blade. That blade has very large gullets which remove a lot of sawdust at once. A 1 hp motor just doesn't have the torque to push it through wood at a high feed rate. The lower guide assembly on the mm16 can be adjusted right up to the bottom of the table which is an advantage over most other brands, American, Asian or Italian.

All the major blade adjustments are toolless on the mm16 except for fore and aft adjustment for the upper guides. That requires a 10mm wrench. I'm not sure why it wasn't replaced with a thumb screw too. I looked at the 18" Jet and if I'm not mistaken, it requires three different tools to adjust the guides.

I think the smallest blade the mm16 can take is 1/4" which is a disadvantage when cutting intricate patterns. I say "think" because I don't have a blade smaller than 1/2 inch. I use Katherine's scroll saw for detail work. There was some type of plan afoot to allow you to change the roller guides with cool blocks so you can use a smaller blade. I haven't paid attention to its status.

I think Laguna, Aganzzi, Bridgewood and Grizzly all make Italian style saws similar to the mm16, but as far as I know, they come with much smaller motors than their minimax counterpart.


Good luck,

[Lynn Sonier]

Bought the Jet 12 about a year ago and really like it. It does everything I ask of it and does it well. I now have two Jet tools and like them a lot.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Jay, check out this link.

Moderator removed direct link (see SMC Rules of Service concerning direct links to other forums).

[Steven Wilson]

I'll chime in and suggest a gander at the Minmax MM20. For a few more bucks you get a 4.8hp motor, a 20" throat, and a 16" resaw capacity. Plus, it can actually run 1" wide carbide bands without breaking them. I have had a couple of teething problems with my Minimax but they've been taken care of and I'm very happy with the saw. It's big, it's powerful, and it's accurate. I use it a lot now for initial stock prep as it's quicker and safer to use than a tablesaw, as well as preparing green wood for turning (4.8hp really shines in this application) and more normal bandsaw tasks like resawing and cutting curves.

[scott spencer]

Hi Jay - I got to see both the Jet 18" and the MM16 at the Syracuse WWing Show last Saturday. Just about every aspect of the Minimax was more ruggedly built than the Jet. I'm no BS expert (some would argue that...ha, ha!), but it's not hard to notice how well constructed the MM is. The Jet is "nice", the MM is massive and overbuilt, with thicker sheet metal, heavier frame, more cast iron (huge CI wheels), thicker welds, etc., and of course it sports a 3.6HP motor. Tom Pritchard, who frequents this forum, researched BS's over the past several months and picked the MM16. There's a really informative review on Woodcentral from Ron Weaver.

Moderator removed direct link (see SMC Rules of Service concerning direct links to other forums).

[Jay Knoll]

Scott et al

Thanks for all the information. Yes, I had read that review, but I was trying to expand my sources beyond "one man's opinion". I've been looking at the Minimax and the Laguna videos, and trying to sort stuff out. I'm going to get one of the bandsaw books from Amazon and do somemore reading before I wander into the quagmire of company advertising. Appreciate all the suggestions, I'll keep thinking!