another band saw ?

[Joe Jansen]

I want to purchase a bandsaw. I am your basic hobby woodworker. I was going to get the grizzly go555. However I can get the Craftsman professional 14 inch at sears for $380 with all the discounts. I have a $500 budget. Thr craftsman seems to get good reviews - anyone who has one can you give me some feed back. Thanks

[Graham Skinner]

Joe

I would say if you can get the 14" craftsman for $380 GO FOR IT.
There has been a lot of debates on this forum about this modle and all the people who own one seem to be very happy with them.
Also if you find that in the future you need a bigger saw, you should have no problem selling it on for a good price.

Hope this was helpfull...Graham...

[Dan Muller]

I just purchased the Craftsman 22401 14" bandsaw a few weeks ago. This is my first bandsaw; I also picked up Duginske's book and have just started getting to know the saw.

Keeping my lack of experience with this particular type of machinery in mind, here are the things I find to criticize on it. Some of this has been mentioned by other people, too. I'm still pleased with my purchase so far, given the price, but some of these are silly problems that needn't have existed.

Possible design problems:
Adjustment of the guides is annoying. They're nice bearing guides all around, but the micro-adjust knobs have a lot of lash in them, and the adjustments are held in place by socket cap screws through the center of each bearing. The bearings move -- a lot -- when you tighten the screw. I suppose this will get easier with practice.
There's a fair amount of play in the rack-and-gear mechanism that moves the upper guides vertically.
Even with all the tension off, the band is tight. This makes it more difficult to change bands than it ought to be, I think.
The fence is not impressive. It uses three knobbed screws to adjust both vertical and horizontal alignment. This would be tolerable, except they're laid out in a really flat triangle -- almost a line -- which makes it hard to get the vertical adjustment right. I might try drilling and tapping a new hole for the middle knob to fix this.
The work light is mounted on the wrong side of the work. Someone else described how to remount it to the other side of the pillar. I intend to get around to doing that.
The base looks real solid, but the bottom sub-base has some flex in it, so the saw can rock slightly. Don't know if this is a problem yet. I think this could be addressed by putting some wood of just the right thickness underneath.
The manual is a joke. You have to make some guesses and intuitive leaps during assembly.
Angling the table is a little difficult because the trunnion that supports it is pretty far off center -- you have to support the table well when you loosen the trunnion bolt.
The method of zeroing the fence's ruler lacks adequate range, especially once you've adjusted the fence for drift. (Can probably fix this by taping a new ruler over the one it comes with? Haven't investigated yet.)Features that you won't get with this saw (some of the above could go in this category, like a better fence):
Quick tension release
A way to use Cool Blocks or some other solid guides. (Don't yet know if any after-market stuff will fit. Not sure whether I should care, actually.)
No way to extend the saw beyond its 8" resaw capacity.Things to like:
The 8" resaw capacity -- somewhat more than most 14" bandsaws. The throat depth capacity ain't bad, either, at over 13".
The window where you can see how the blade is tracking.
Pretty good-size table, I think. (20-3/8" by 15-3/4" -- that's a bit bigger than usual, I think?)
Cast iron wheels. People say it runs real smooth, but I don't have prior experience to compare to.
Storage in base cabinet.
Fence is adjustable for drift.Other information you won't find in the description on Sears' site or in the manual:
The band that comes with the saw is a 1/4" 7tpi skip-tooth blade. Spring steel, I think, but I'm not sure.
There are dozens of bolts used to put the heavy sheet-metal base together. The manual doesn't make it clear what order to put the flat washers and internally-toothed lock washers in. Probably ought to put the flat washers on the outside to protect the enamel, but I'm not sure if the toothed washer gets a good grip that way, given the slightly oversized holes in the sheet metal. Might be a good idea to buy more flat washers and use those both in and out.
Everything's metric. Bring your own 10 mm and 12 mm wrenches for some of the guide adjustments. A set of three hex keys are included, though, along with a nifty place stow them on the back of the pillar.The cuts I'm getting seem a bit rough, but it could be that I need to do a bit more tuning, or that this is normal for a bandsaw. I'm a hobby woodworker, and most of my cutting has been done with a Festool plunge saw for the last few years. I don't own a TS; I figured that between the Festool and the bandsaw I'd be able to do most anything I would want to do, and have some more flexibility.

(edited to correct/clarify some terminology, esp. re hex cap screws/hex keys aka Allen wrenches)

[Bruce Page]

Dan, very nice post with a lot of good info.
Thanks

[lowell holmes]

If the Craftsman doesn't work out, the Rigid at Home Depot sure looks a lot like a Jet. It is in your price range. I have a friend that owns one and he is happy with it.
Consider putting an after market tension spring on any saw you buy. The Iturra spring from Highland Hardware solved a lot of problems for me. The 3 tpi stagger tooth blade from BC Saw is what Michael Fortune recommends. I use them and will stay with them.

[Graham Skinner]

I looked at getting the Rigid saw a few months ago, but was not very impressed with the display model at all, for a start the steel frame stand looks very unstable, the joint were the riser block would fit looks like it could do with being beefed up a little, and the bottom wheel cover door will not open all the way because the motor is in the way, also you will have to buy a rip fence as they are not included with this modle.

Next I was going to buy the 14" craftsman based on all the good reviews I kept seeing, but but my local sears did not have a display model or one in stock to look at, and I also wondered about finding stock blades for it(because they seem to be an odd size).

So I ended up buying the 14" steel city which was a lot more expensive that the two mentioned bandsaws but it makes the Rigid look puny, I guess I am happy with my purchase, but like Joe I only realy wanted to spend about $500 on this tool and I had to buy a rip fence as well as a riser block, so the whole lot came out about double what I had intended to spend.

Thats why I still think that at $380 the craftsman is about the best saw you will find for the money I.M.O.

Best Of Luck....Graham

[Joe Jansen]

Dan
That was quite an amazing post. I will print it out for reference
Thanks

Joe

[Dan Muller]

Dan
That was quite an amazing post. I will print it out for reference
Thanks

Joe

You're welcome! I'd already been thinking that I should post this information, since there isn't a lot about it on the Web yet, and your question triggered the avalanche.

This is the first new WW tool I'd bought in a while, so I've been giving it a lot of attention. Duginske's book is great, btw. I wish I had read it *before* buying the bandsaw -- but I likely would still have bought it. It really seems to be a good value for the money, and I was simultaneously buying a jointer and a thickness planer. That's a lot of stuff all at once, so price was an important consideration. I bought all three items new, but all on sale. The thickness planer is also a Craftsman, 12-1/2". The jointer is the Grizzly G0452 -- which has been damaged twice in shipment, so three weeks after ordering, I *still* don't actually have it.

[Dan Muller]

Dan, very nice post with a lot of good info.
Thanks

You're welcome, and thanks for the kind words, Bruce!

[lowell holmes]

From what I hear, you will be happy with the Steel City machine. It's probably a good choice.

[Chris Barnett]

Yes, my thanks also for the dissertation on the Craftsman. I too have saved it and plan to print to take along on my shopping excursion for a bandsaw. Reading that the Rikon is the same as the Craftsman, I should study a possible purchase with your comments in hand. The CC sale is Sunday so I need to get right with the devil if I plan on buying then.....price is about right for budget.

[Art Mann]

I have owned that bandsaw for about a year. If you want to know my opinion, just read Dan Muller's comments. He has it just about right. I have gotten good results resawing hardwood with it using the Timberwolf 3/4" by 0.025" resaw blade and a home made tall fence. I have also gotten good results cutting curves for a curio cabinet frame. It has its flaws, but at the $325 I paid for it, I am very pleased.

[Mark Duginske]

Dan,

I'm glad that you are enjoying the band saw book. I'm certainly open to any sugggestions. That is quite and extensive review of the saw and is much more thorough than most magazine reviews.

You touch on a lot of points and it reminds me that each saw has a "learning curve". Band saws are like people. It takes a while to get to know them and experimentation is good. Being too goal oriented can be very frustrating.

It is improtant to get to know what the saw wants to do before doing real high qulity task.