New Bandsaws

[Steven Wilson]

I received an interesting package from Minimax today that shows a couple of new bandsaws that some of you might be interested. I've seen some pictures of them a couple of months back but they hadn't finallized the specs and it would have been jumping the gun. Anyhow, the new saws are the S14 and S16. The saws haven't made it to the Minimax web site so you'll need to call to find out the price. The following are some of the specs;

S14
1.5hp, 8" resaw, 100" blade, 1" blade capacity, Quick Release tension, 4" dust port, ball bearing guides (like Carter guides), rack and pinion upper guide adjustment. IIRC the price point is similar to the new Powermatic (mid 700's) but it packs in a bunch more features. It's basically a bandsaw with all the good bits added.

S16
2.5hp, 12" resaw, 130" blade, 1" blade capacity, euro guides, mag switch, 2 dust ports (4"), lower wheel brush. It looks a bit like the MM16 but lighter duty, also a whole lot less expensive. I don't remember the price so I don't want to make a WAG.

Anyhow, these both look like great saws and should be worth a check out at the woodworking shows. I'm very happy with my MM20 but I want to see the S14 because it looks like a killer small saw at a decent price point.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for the info, Steven. Erik told me they were working on bringing on a few new models, but at the time things were not finalized. These new machines will help folks have another option over the Jet/PM/Delta/etc machines when they can't budget for the larger, more expensive saws from MiniMax and others.

[Steven Wilson]

I agree, competition is good. The spec's on the 14" saw that are most interesting are the quick release tension, 4" dust port (decent dust collection finally), ball bearing guides, and the rack and pinion upper guide adjustment (just like the big boys). Those four items address most of the issues that the 14" bandsaws have. Hopefully they will have included a strong tension spring.