MM 20 or 24 bandsaw

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Poor Me.
I have to make the tough choice between the old Minimax 24 bandsaw with 16" resaw or the new MM20 with 20" resaw. both are new.
They are about the same price and I can't see needing all that resaw. I'm not cutting any logs.
Any thoughts?

Mike

[Paul B. Cresti]

Mike,
I went with the 24 not because of resaw heigh but for throat capacity and for table size. I cut a lot of long sweeping curves and that extre capacity and surface area really works. When I got rid of my 14" scrollsaw years ago I said to myself, "myself I ain't never want to hit that post again"

[Alan Turner]

It is pretty rare to need resaw above 16", and the larger throat might be useful to you, depending upon what your uses of the BS will be. I am guessing that the 24" has a larger motor, but perhpas not. I would think that the 24" BS would be a bit easier on the blades, at least if you are going to run carbide.
Are there other differences as well? Different guides? Different methods of tilting the table?

[lou sansone]

I would definitly go with the 24" machine .. the table is quite a bit bigger, which is really nice and the machine is about 125 lbs heaver. It will probably be taller and that might present a problem for some basement shops.

As far as motor hp is concerned, since mm does not say what the gear ratio is between the motor and the lower wheel, you really dont know about absolute sawing power. I would think that either machine will do all you ever need to do though.

best wishes
lou

[tod evans]

mike, go with the 24.......02 tod

[Jim Becker]

Yea...poor you! I concur with the others...the extra throat is more valuable than the extra resaw, IMHO. The addition of extra inches for resaw in the current models stems more from competitive issues rather than needed functionality.