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In this video, I want to give you some thoughts that will help you to choose a bandsaw optimally
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Now when I talk about bandsaws, I guess I got to start by making it clear
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We're talking about woodworking bandsaws here because there are different kinds. Every butcher uses a bandsaw to cut meat
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There's metal cutting bandsaws, so the stationary ones as well as handheld ones
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And then there's also bandsaws that are used for sawmills for actually cutting full-length logs into boards
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So the world of bandsaws is pretty varied. We're talking about woodworking bandsaws here though, and there's essentially sort of three categories within that family
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The most common I think would be what I would call the the medium-sized
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bandsaw. This machine here would fit into that category. It's on the beefier end of the
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medium-sized category, but if you look down here you see 14-inch. In the world of woodworking bandsaws, that figure refers to the distance between
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the blade and then this arm that's holding the arrangement up. It's actually a little less than 14 in this case, but it's a 14-inch bandsaw
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Those are kind of standard sort of bandsaws for home shop use or you know medium-duty commercial use. At the small end of the spectrum
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oh, I should say that a 14-inch bandsaw like this you're looking at anywhere from I don't know maybe
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$1,200-$1,300 to $2,500 something like this. And a little higher too. But that's generally the range
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Now if you're not going to be doing heavy-duty work like resawing or anything like that, then you might want to look at a
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benchtop bandsaw. Those are smaller. You can get them for as little as $350 plus tax. They're mostly for cutting curves
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You're not going to be able to do the heavy-duty cutting that some of the larger saws can do, but
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they also don't take up much space. Benchtop bandsaws can be moved around quite easily. They can be moved to
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different events too. A number of years ago, I took a I had a bunch of benchtop bandsaws on loan, took them to a church basement
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We had a sort of a kids day, kids craft day, making cub cars and things like that
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So benchtop is ideal for that sort of thing. Far better than any stationary floor model
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And then at the at the other end of the spectrum, you've got really big bandsaws and these would be professional duty things
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Bigger than 14-inch. The biggest one I've ever seen is 24-inch. So huge amount of space between the blade and the support arm
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That baby was more than $21,000 though. So it's a very serious sort of tool
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Probably not what you're looking for, but you should know about it anyway
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So when you're deciding on the kind of saw that might make sense for you, first of all look at price. What's your budget like? That's going to determine
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the area that you look at, at least in part. What kind of work are you going to do? If you're going to, if you're very interested in
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resawing lumber and a lot of heavy-duty stuff like that, well, don't think about a light-duty machine. Even if you don't have the money for a proper machine yet
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save it up. Save your money and get the kind of machine that you want because there's no point in
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getting something that's not going to do the job for you. How often are you going to use your bandsaw? That's another thing
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If you're going to be using it all the time, then by all means invest in it. But if it's going to be a once-in-a-while thing
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sort of a less expensive, more economy model will work well. And then finally, how much space do you have
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If you've got a great big shop, then you have room for a great big saw and you don't have to worry about moving it around or anything
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But if you work in your basement or your garage or you have a really tiny outbuilding
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then maybe a benchtop model would be the thing. Or at least a floor model on wheels
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so that you can move it around. So just a few things to think about as you're considering your bandsaw purchase
