Tim Byars
06-05-2008, 11:07 PM
Well, after an attempt to purchase a Craftsman 14" bandsaw that was nothing but hassle and ultimately unsuccessful (thank you Sears :rolleyes: ), I went back to where my heart was in the first place...helped along by some extra money that came with an award at work.
I'm the proud owner of the Steel City 50100.
In the car ready to be unloaded:
90159
Wheel assembly nicely packed:
90160
The whole thing assembled and ready to go:
90161
Assembly mostly consisted of getting the wheels mounted to the base, which was easy, and bolting the saw to the base, which was not. The four holes that received the bolts were ever-so-slightly misaligned. All four simply would not line up with the holes in the feet of the saw. With the belt and pulleys squared up I could get three in, and just had to use a different bolt (a slightly thinner bolt with a nut instead of using the threads in that last hole). Not exactly the worst catastrophe in the world, but a little irritating. And it worried me a bit about the overall quality, but it turned out to be my only frustration in the process.
Getting everything tuned up and ready to go turned out to be pretty straightforward...it worked just like Duginske's been telling me from his book for the last few months. I'm no bandsaw expert, but I really love using it. It seems very stable and free of vibration (nickel test was no problem). Mostly I've just been playing with scrap, made a couple of ZCIs for the tablesaw, and tried some limited resawing just for fun, all with just the stock blade it came with. My height extension kit has arrived, but I'm still waiting on some longer blades.
On the whole I'm extremely happy with my purchase.
I'm the proud owner of the Steel City 50100.
In the car ready to be unloaded:
90159
Wheel assembly nicely packed:
90160
The whole thing assembled and ready to go:
90161
Assembly mostly consisted of getting the wheels mounted to the base, which was easy, and bolting the saw to the base, which was not. The four holes that received the bolts were ever-so-slightly misaligned. All four simply would not line up with the holes in the feet of the saw. With the belt and pulleys squared up I could get three in, and just had to use a different bolt (a slightly thinner bolt with a nut instead of using the threads in that last hole). Not exactly the worst catastrophe in the world, but a little irritating. And it worried me a bit about the overall quality, but it turned out to be my only frustration in the process.
Getting everything tuned up and ready to go turned out to be pretty straightforward...it worked just like Duginske's been telling me from his book for the last few months. I'm no bandsaw expert, but I really love using it. It seems very stable and free of vibration (nickel test was no problem). Mostly I've just been playing with scrap, made a couple of ZCIs for the tablesaw, and tried some limited resawing just for fun, all with just the stock blade it came with. My height extension kit has arrived, but I'm still waiting on some longer blades.
On the whole I'm extremely happy with my purchase.