After much deliberation and changing of my mind I finally bit the bullet
and bought a new Jet 16" band saw. Rockler had a decent sale price
of $750 plus tax and they threw in the $100 Jet fence, which really sealed
the deal. Setup was relatively simple and without any surprises.
I made a few sample cuts on various pieces of scrap maple, cherry, and oak,
but I was not impressed with either the speed nor the smoothness
of the resulting cut of the included blade. My old 12" craftsman tilt-head
actually cut as smooth, if not as fast! That's not saying much at all!
So, last week Tuesday I ordered a Woodslicer resaw blade from Highland
Hardware because of the good reviews from members of this group. The blade
arrived today and I installed it this evening. I must admit that I am very
impressed by this blade! After adjusting for the different blade size (1/2"
vs 3/4" factory blade) I was able take a
1/16" slice off a piece of maple using the just the resaw post on the fence
and my eyeball calibration. The cut surface was more than smooth enough for
gluing as a veneer piece, and noise level during the cut seemed to be less
then half of the factory blade's, and it seemed that I could feed the stock
at much faster rate. That's pretty much a subjective observation because I
didn't actually time the cuts.
Over all, I'm happy with the bandsaw, but the Woodslicer blade made a
world of difference in the speed and quality of the cut.

Thank You Highland Hardware!

Bowhunter