Charlie Self wrote:

Bob Davis writes:

Fine Woodworking did a bandsaw review in the June issue. It was
interesting and made some good points. However, it seemed a bit
unbalanced to me. First, the Minimax was unavailable for the their
review. How could one of the best bandsaws not be available?

Would you beliee deadlines do have an effect? And the question, really,
should be aimed at the distributor of the tool, not the magazine.

econdly, they imply they are comparing equal bandsaws, yet they
tested the high end 5 hp model from Laguna at $2995. Its in a whole
different class with its 17" resaw capacity. I don't understand why
they didn't select the more equal 3 hp model at $2195 which is more
the equivalent (spec/horsepower) to the other models tested.

Company didn't want to supply it?

They also mention things like difficulty in changing blades and
adjusting guides, but didn't seem to give much weight to these factors
in the overall rating. They seemed to be weighted toward such silly
things as how fast the saw cuts. What good is a saw that cuts fast,
if you have to spend lots of time changing blades and its difficult to
adjust?

I've changed blades on a number of the machines they rated: it is a bit of
a nuisance at first with fiddly guides, but you get the hang of it fast,
too. We're not exactly talking brain surgery here. If speed of cut is
silly, WTF is everyone interested in bandsaws with more than 1 HP?

Why would you have to spend lots of time changing blades, anyway? Get a
good quality blade, and it lasts a decent time with some exceptions--teak
ruins blades quickly. I don't recall them talking of the blades being all
that difficult to adjust, but in most cases the guides were a bit of a
trial. As I said, you get used to whatever it is you're using, or you buy
a set of Carter guides.

I'd have tried to do it differently, but I might not have succeeded. I
tested some big bandsaws for WWJ a few years ago, and it was a trial and a
half just gathering the machines. Some of the distributors don't seem to
import more than a dozen of any one model in any one year, so you often
can't get what you want to test, but you don't want to leave that maker
out, if it is at all possible. So you test what they choose to send, which
is, more often than not, a higher end model.

FWIW, I like the way PC Magazine handles the situation--they test and report
on the hardware that meets their criteria, but if a manufacturer sends them
something interesting that misses the criteria or is pre-release a they'll
write a sidebar on it.

Charlie Self
"Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first
outbreak being often but an explosion of anger." Thucydides

--
--John
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