If you had to choose: Jet 14" DXPRO or Powermatic 14" PWBS, or ...???

[Tim Pollock]

I know there is a thread from 2012 asking this same question but hopefully there have been some improvements in 14" saws since then and I need to upgrade. I've pretty much narrowed it down to these two saws and I'd love to here your thoughts. One thing of note is I currently own a Jet j8201k and have not been pleased at all with it's build quality or performance so I'm very skeptical about ever buying another Jet tool. I don't do any re-sawing but I do want at least 12" capacity. I mill a lot of green blanks and occasionally the 6" capacity of the one I own now isn't enough.

If you can give me any advice in the 14" deluxe range of saws I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Tim

[Van Huskey]

If you are willing to pay a grand for a new 14" saw get a steel spined one not a cast iron one. The Laguna 14/12 and Rikon 10-326 would be my top picks. There are better 14" saws as you move up the price scale but around $1k the Laguna and Rikon will be the best at resawing and cutting up blanks. Both Jet and Powermatic make steel spined 15" saws (no 14") but especially the Powermatic is a huge price increase.

BTW what don't you like about the Jet bandsaw you have that you hope to fix?

[Curt Harms]

Given that you mill a lot of green turning blanks, I'd look for the most power you can get in your budget and I'd want some sort of blade guides that don't involve bearings. Bearing style guides are likely to accumulate dust & sap on the bearings and blade, block type guides should help to scrape the dust & sap off the blade. Are you using a blade intended for green wood?

[Larry Frank]

Can someone tell me why a steel spine is superior to a cast iron one. My guess is that both are similar in strength. Certainly, in a larger bandsaw, I would want the strongest spine to support higher blade tension.

[Jim Becker]

The steel bends/deflects less than cast iron which is important as you get into larger machines and when using more tension for either wider blades or thicker blades appropriate for green wood. "Back in the day" cast iron saws were a LOT beefier than they are today. As to the flexibility of cast iron, I didn't realize how much it can bend until I was setting up my 1000 lb lathe...it took very careful shimming of the four corners to be level/co-planer to get the centers to line up exactly. It was eye opening!

[Nick Decker]

According to some, the only true recipe for cast iron was lost back around 1950.

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Van on the steel spine saw for taller resaw in a 14" format. You may be hooked on cast iron just based on your current saw which I believe uses some sort of gear box to accommodate metal cutting (?). Some additional comments on the specific performance issues you are having will help with our responses.

Be that as it may, cutting blanks for turning does not require a great degree of accuracy so I would trade off power for things like superior guides or a task light. If you also use your bandsaw for joinery and resawing veneer your requirements start to shift so forgive me if I focus on the green blanks you mention.

[Van Huskey]

Can someone tell me why a steel spine is superior to a cast iron one. My guess is that both are similar in strength. Certainly, in a larger bandsaw, I would want the strongest spine to support higher blade tension.

It isn't the material it is the design. When the discussion is about new 14" saws you only have two basic designs, the cast Delta copies and the steel saws. The Delta cast design is just weaker in the spine than all but the lightest/poorest designed steel 14" saws.

In a new saw 14" is basically the only size an average hobbyist has a choice of cast or steel in a new saw. Once you move past 14" the next available new cast saw in size and price is the Northfield 20" at over $10k.

If the discussion moves to used larger saws the formula gets much more complex and very often cast saws are the better answer.

[Tim Pollock]

If you are willing to pay a grand for a new 14" saw get a steel spined one not a cast iron one. The Laguna 14/12 and Rikon 10-326 would be my top picks. There are better 14" saws as you move up the price scale but around $1k the Laguna and Rikon will be the best at resawing and cutting up blanks. Both Jet and Powermatic make steel spined 15" saws (no 14") but especially the Powermatic is a huge price increase.

BTW what don't you like about the Jet bandsaw you have that you hope to fix?

Thank you all very much for the comments and feedback! Sorry for my late response, I didn't get any notifications and just now remembered to check.
Some of the issues admittedly were created by myself, this being the first bandsaw I had owned and having much to learn. Others were poor build quality that helped lead to some of the mistakes I made. In answer to one of the other comments yes the j8201k uses a gearbox. The saw has never wanted to track right and it breaks blades way too easily. I believe one of the main things that caused the tracking issues was the assembly that holds the top wheel and allows it to pivot for the tracking I eventually discovered was broken on one side where it pivots. Since this area is hidden by the sheetmetal it was a long time before I discovered this, I believe it came broken from the factory. The factory guides are hard to set accurately, you get it set and then when you start to lock it down they move. The other day my tracking went haywire and broke a blade. When I started looking to find out why I notice the tracking adjustment lock nut (wingnut) had broken. I took it off to replace it with a regular nut only to discover that something as vitally important as this nut Jet had used pot metal for, it's no wonder it broke. Long story short after all these issues and me trying to figure out the cause and fix them, now either the bottom wheel is warped or the lower shaft is warped. The wheel probably has a good 1/4" deflection in it when it's rotated and that's without any pressure on it.

I mill green wood but I also work with dry woods and need to be able make accurate cuts. My use pretty much covers all aspects of bandsaw use except re-sawing wide boards for veneer which I don't do. I found a steel frame 14" 3hp Jet (Jet JWBS-14SF-3) used that I may look at but I'm very hesitant about buying another jet tool, especially a used one.

So steel spine is better (more rigid) than the cast spine models?

[andy bessette]

Powermatic over Jet. The cast iron Delta 14" is a great saw.