Thread: A Bandsaw
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Jake
 
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I have the Jet 14" closed base saw with a riser block. As I recall the
open base Jet has a slightly smaller HP motor. If you plan to do heavy
duty resawing you may not be able to do it with the smaller motor.
Mine can handle up to 12" of oak but it struggles at times. The saw
has to be set up perfectly with a sharp blade to handle it. If
resawing thick pieces is not a concern, the saws you are looking at
will do a good job.

I'm not a real expert because the Jet is the only band saw I've ever
used. I wish it had the mechanism for relieving the tension on the
blade with a lever rather than the tension setting knob, but this
feature (it can be added on--$150 at Woodcraft) is expensive. Look at
the ease of adjusting the upper and lower guides first. I spend most
of my time fiddling with those adjustments. Also look at the method
for tensioning the blade. On the Jet, probably the Delta too, the knob
is at the top of the saw and not terribly handy but I can live with it.
The size of the table is important, the bigger the better. The fence
is also important. I bought the Fasttrack and love it.

BTW, trash the guide blocks that come with the saw and get Cool Blocks
or something similar. They're cheap and much better for the blades and
operation of the saw. Good luck.