Official Luthiers Forum!

I recently bought a 16" Craftex bandsaw. Came from Busy Bee in Canada.
Well it's going back tomorrow. Weak setup for the guide blocks(in fact
the upper has broken upon setup) and I don't want to have to be fixing
them in the future.

I'm looking for some of the pros and cons of your saws in the 16" range
with light resaw capabilities and an 8 - 12" throat. 220v motor. Anyone
own a 17" King? I know the 14" isn't overly impressive.

Some of the Craftex equipment is good value. I have a drill press and
jointer that I am happy with but I wouldn't recommend that bandsaw. I
don't know about other models.

Cheers,
Danny

My shop neighbour (the guy in the workshop next to me) has a Busy Bee 20" or somesuch which he's quite happy with, but things are hit and miss with their tools (same deal with Grizzly, as I believe they're all made in the same plant in Taiwan). I think the quality thing comes down to models so find someone with an affordable saw they like and buy the exact same one rather than a different model from the same company.

Most of my tools are 'generic' stuff but on the bandsaw, given the cost of wood, I couldn't risk it and cried once on buying a Laguna 16HD rather than many times later on another saw. It's exceeded my expectations, but at that price it should.

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Danny -
I hate it when new toys don't work!
Is that the CT082 model?
I bought one a few months ago.
It needed quite a bit of 'tweaking' to get it working properly. The upper thrust roller is poorly designed, and I had to do some work with the tension/blade angle adjuster as well. (BTW, BusyBee sent me a new roller as soon as I phoned them.)
Not a good choice for anybody who didn't have a lot of patience and experience with bandsaw setup, for sure. The price was right (6-700 Cdn?) as I recall.
Of course, it needed a new blade right off the bat as well.
It's working fine now and I've resawed a bunch of sides/backs from maple/arbutus/walnut/mahogany with it.
I think the 082 model I bought is discontinued- perhaps the replacement model (which looks more like one of the Grizzly models) is better??
As a group, bandsaws need more 'adjusting' than most other tools, and any design problems just make the situation a lot more difficult.
Keep us posted on your experience!
John

Dont bu a RIDGID thats for sure!!
Im having hard time with mine so far, as did Serge with his {same model} - mind you Im an absolute novice with bandsaws, but Im no box of hammers, and Ive read a pile on proper bandsaw tuning so far, and the adjustments Ive made are making it barely suitable for my needs.
Cheers
Charliewood

I bought the Rikon 18" bandsaw last year after it got some very good reviews. I've been very happy with it. But last fall they brought out a new 14" saw with 12" resaw capability. I'd probably have gotten this one if they had it when I was buying. It's around $500 in the states, about half the price of the 18". I recommend them highly, from my experience.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Filippo,

You're right, I gave the price for the regular 14" Rikon. I was looking in one of my woodworking magazines, and saw the one I referenced is the "14" Deluxe Bandsaw", and it's going for $750 to $800 on the net. Sorry for the error.

As far as getting the 18" vs the 14", I haven't done any work on the 18" that the deluxe 14" couldn't do. The 18" is 220v only (2 hp motor), and 14" is 110/220v (1 1/2hp motor), so that could push someone towards the 14" if you don't have a 220v outlet nearby. The 1 1/2hp motor might make resawing go a little slower, but probably not too much. I haven't seen the 14" in person, but if they have improved the adjustments for the blade guides, I'd go for the 14". The picture on their website seems to show adjustment screws for the guide bearings on the deluxe 14". The adjustments on the 18" are not difficult, but they are not convenient either. No accurate threaded adjustment mechanism on the side or rear guides, just loosen a screw and slide the bearing into the blade. Sounds easy, but as you tighten the screw again, the bearing tends to move out of position. It's especially cumbersome on the lower guides, where the bearings are hidden behind dust shields underneath the table. At least the lower rear guide has a threaded mechanism, but it's the only one.

_________________
Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

[QUOTE=ToddStock] I heard the 14" Deluxe are supposed to be in mid-Feb, so if you can wait, not a bad idea. The Chantilly Wood show is in March, so if the Rikon does not do it, there's the option to go shopping at the show.
[/QUOTE]

Todd, I'm in the market. Please jog my memory before the Chantilly Wood show.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

[QUOTE=fmorelli]
...Six of one, half dozen of the other?

Filippo
[/QUOTE]
Not at all! The Rikon has DOUBLE the resaw capability of the Powermatic, has a better base, a very nice tension guage window, and all sorts of other goodies. If you don't mind buying chinese, it really is a superior bandsaw.
-j.j.Brown39110.9758449074

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

True, it will do 12 with a 6" riser, but then you have 2 joints to worry about with the bolt on riser. Thats not to say that a riser is inherently worse or inferior, but the Rikon is a one piece, extremely solid unit. Plus with a riser, the upper bearings won't reach down for steady support if you're doing detail work. The Rikon is already made for the upper bearing to do the full travel of your cut. I'd say thats a significant difference for not paying any more money.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on it, its just a much better deal.
-j.
j.Brown39111.769849537

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

speaking of which I'm selling my Minimax MM16 bandsaw. It's a beast and
with a sharp blade can cut through any wood you throw at it. I'm selling it
for less than half of what I paid if anyone is interested. You'd have to pick it
up locally or arrange to have it shipped. Check it out if your interested

http://mayesguitars.com/osc/catalog/product_info.php?product s_id=75

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I found this article from American Woodworker very helpful. It's a PDF file, so you can right-click and save a local copy.

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D..

I bought a Canwood brand 18" at House of Tools here in Calgary. It's also made in Taiwan at likely the same factory that does General International, Grizzly and others. It was $1100 if I recall about 4 years ago. I'm definitely happy with it but haven't tried an upper end saw like a real General or Laguna to compare it to. It resaws to 12" and I've used most of that capacity more than once. It has a 2 HP motor that runs on 110 or 220.

Charlie is right, forget about the RIDGID, the bolts will break if you sneeze too hard.

Craftex no good? what a surprise when i read that, i thought they were similar to the Grizzlys?

I bought myself a 14" Craftsman from Sears recently and i just love it's performance do far, had it on sale at $599 Can.

[QUOTE=j.Brown] True, it will do 12 with a 6" riser, but then you have 2 joints to worry about with the bolt on riser. Thats not to say that a riser is inherently worse or inferior, but the Rikon is a one piece, extremely solid unit. Plus with a riser, the upper bearings won't reach down for steady support if you're doing detail work. The Rikon is already made for the upper bearing to do the full travel of your cut. I'd say thats a significant difference for not paying any more money.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on it, its just a much better deal.
-j.
[/QUOTE] What do you mean? I have the Powermatic with riser. The bolt on riser is very robust. There's no play in it. Second, the bearings are positionable anywhere along the blade. When you get the riser, you don't just get the riser itself, but a longer blade guard and guide post. The Powermatic also has a chip removal blower and Carter Urethane wheels. I would also argue the fence on the Powermatic is better. OTOH, it looks like changing the blade on the Rikon will be easier.

I think anyone buying either saw would be happy with the saw; they are close competitors. But please don't spread misinformation about the saw :)

Thanks for all your help. We are pretty limited here in Canada eh. General,
Delta, Craftsman. But they don't always stock them all and I wasn't about to
buy it sight unseen. I just found out Jet has pulled there woodworking line
out of Canada. Being a glutton for punishment I let the good guys at Busy
Bee up sell me. Looks like it should work ok, at least the floor model did.
Hopefully the one in the box in my truck is the same.busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?
&NETID=0209180130071325373&NTITEM=CT103">here

I have the 18" Rikon and am very satisfied. The blade is an easy change, just one bolt has to be removed from the front of the table. I do wish the lower guides were closer to the bottom of the cut, but that's really my only gripe.

[QUOTE=fmorelli] Roger,
    Since you have a PWBS-14CS can you comment on the riser system in more detail? From what I've read on forums, the saw is generally well loved, but the riser setup has been the bane of criticism. Amazon has a good roll-up of the issues with guide pins and alignment, when adding the riser.[/QUOTE] Yes, I had seen that before I bought and was concerned about it, too.

I bought the bandsaw and the riser block at the same time, the end of december 2006. So, I put the riser block in while I was installing the machine. I just followed the instructions, and plopped the riser in. It's an easy installation, so long as you have the correct wrenches. There are pins in the riser block to help align it with the two half of the saw.

Once it was together I put a straightedge on the wheels and they were indeed coplaner. I didn't have to make a single adjustment to the saw to get it to run smoothly. That's pretty nice, especially when you consider that I hadn't setup and run the saw in it's stock configuration - the wheels were coplaner after installing the riser in their original factory positions.

Now, the comments on the risers indicates that it is a recent problem - older risers did not have an alignment issue. So, I don't know if the store (Woodcraft) supplied me with a old riser (doubtful, but possible), or if Powermatic has gone back to the original design and is shipping a properly configured riser.

I'm the guy that recommended the Rigid to Serge. You can imagine the embarrasment that I felt when he had all of his problems. Mine is an earlier model than what they sell now, but it's still barely adequate. I had to replace one of the thrust bearings, and installed cool block blade guides. It gets me by, but a better one is definately on the wish list.

Al