Woodtek Band Saw Review





The Shopping



The goal was to find something bigger than the basic 14" saw, but I didn't
want to spend $2K. I was hoping to spend about a grand, give or take. I
think I would have gone to $1600 if the right model presented itself.



It also had to be 400 lbs as my shop is upstairs and I would have to
muscle it up. I figured that table and motor should come off easily and the
balance would be in the neighborhood of 200lbs which is manageable by 2
guys.



My other requirement is that I wanted the saw in the next month or two.
Since I live in a pretty rural area, this ruled out finding a deal on the
used market. On-line searches did not even yield that much nation-wide.



The contenders we



Griz G0513 17" http://tinyurl.com/298rg

Bridgewood 17" http://tinyurl.com/23q9m

WoodTek 18" http://tinyurl.com/3ezk7

Laguna LT16,14,14SE http://www.lagunatools.com/bandsaws.asp

Minimax S16, S45 http://www.minimax-usa.com





Show deals: The closest show to me was Hartford CT, about a 5-hour drive. I
really considered it for a while but MiniMax is was to only vendor to
attend, AND they require that you pre-buy before the show. It would be nice
if you could "go shopping" kick the tires on a few Lagunas and a few
Minimaxes, pick the best one and drive away. It's not like that, and Minimax
**only** had the S16 available for sale at the show. If I had looked at
their 16" and said "Ooh Ahh. I don't care if it's $2K I want it.." The
answer would have been" Sorry you have to order it and pay $240 shipping. I'
m not clear as to whether show promotional pricing would have been in
effect.



This give's me a segue into the shipping issues. Cost of shipping can be
substantial. Laguna provided be with an "quote" (and I quote "quote"
intentionally) of $240," because they all weigh about 500 lbs gross..."
Whatever.. That's a lot of scratch to me!



Minmax. - $200

Griz - $75 + 20 for liftgate, but they could not tell me if liftgate was
available until I placed the order. I'm sure they could, if I pushed the
issue, but it just seemed like the wrong answer.

Bridgewood -$78, liftgate included

Woodtek/Woodworkers warehouse - $65 liftgate included



How I picked:



In short, by elimination. The Laguna 16HD and Minimax 16 were conceivable at
$2k, but at $2200+ delivered, that was just too much.



The lower end Lagunas were eliminated for the following reasons: High
shipping made them a poor value, and the on-line testimonials suggest that
they just do not live up to Laguna's reputation which was built on the 16HD
(and up) models. There was one story of a guy who bought an LT16 with big
vibration issues. Laguna's solution was to convince him to come up with
another $500 and upgrade to a 16HD.. That is seems really bogus to me. Also,
Benny at Laguna was relatively unresponsive (slow and sloppy email replies)
and when I spoke to him his attitude was cavalier. It turned me off.



MiniMax S16 - Presales support was excellent. But since it's a new model and
consequently there were no independent 1st hand testimonials available.
Upper edge of my price range + so-so feature set + unproven = no sale.

I was tempted though..



Woodworker's supply/Woodtek: Presales support was excellent as well. Their
tech guy was able to fill in all of the blanks immediately. He sent a manual
to me, which absolutely sucked. I emailed one of their of their showroom
managers and asked if they could take/send me some digital photos (specific
close-ups) of the machine. A day later I got 6 excellent quality photos
rendered to PDF. They even removed to table for a better shot of the lower
blade guides. I felt that this was above and beyond the call. The machine
has serious heft. The cast table was larger than the Griz/BW machines, Cast
Iron wheels, Euro guides with nice big knurled knobs for adjusting big
knurled locking rings. It even had a cast Iron fence, something seen only on
the $2k machines. Cast Iron trunion.. Oh yeah, micro-switched footbreak too.



I must admit, I was smitten by the heft. On the downside, the resaw capacity
was 10" rather than 12, and I could find no testimonials good or bad.
Despite these it got the nod for Heft/features/price ($999).



Griz - Nice looking machine, great price, good on-line testimonials. Good
feature set: the quick release blade tensioner is relatively unique.
Aluminum wheels are a bit of a turn-off and the fence looks a bit weak.
Overall, it appears to be a good value. I doubt I would have been unhappy
had I chosen this saw.



Bridgewood - It *is* the same saw as the Griz 17 , manufactured by OAV. Did
I get the letters in the right order? With CI wheels, different guides and
perhaps a couple of other minor changes) No testimonials, but I figure that
the Griz ones apply. This was my runner-up choice.



Delivery



St Patty's day. Did I mention that this saw is shamrock green?



Minor gloat here. I noticed that WWsupply was selling the DW735 planer for
the same price as Amazon, but with "free shipping and freight on your entire
order". I didn't need the planer but my dad was going to buy one on the next
month or two and this model was on his (very) short list. so I bought it for
him. or at least I'll give him all of the shipping savings. That brings the
cost of the planer below $400.



The unit arrived in on a pallet in a 3/8" OSB box with some minimal interior
framing. It *barely* slid in my 7' garage door with the pallet jack set as
low as possible.



The crate was labeled 190KG net 240KG gross. There' no way there was 80bs of
packaging there. Also, the machine specs said 309lbs net. As I would later
estimate, I think the net was much more than the spec'd 309lbs. Uncrating
was a breeze. Since I had to get this beast up a flight if stairs, I started
breaking it down .



The table came off with one massive bolt, and the motor was removed with
four bolts. Without an extra back on hand, I continued with the doors (just
hinge pins) and a few bolts for the blade blade guides (surprisingly
massive) and the pinion rack.



Estimated weights:



Motor 75

Table 50

Doors 10

Fence/rail 12

Other 10



So I figure that I took shed at least 150lbs



The next night I had a buddy over and the dead-lifted the carcass one step
at a time. Based on the level of grunting of 2 able-bodied, yet not
especially beefy thirty-something year-old men I guess that it weighed an
even 200lbs. Therefore I don't believe the 309lb number. After 20 minutes of
pointing and planning it took all of ten minutes to move the thing.



Everything was back together within an hour and after a quickie alignment a
test-cut was made. So far so. Just for grins I got out the nickel. I
restarted the saw and the nickel stood on edge. until I jumped up and down
with a glee for a high five and a "yes!" causing just enough bounce in the
floor structure to topple the nickel. Perhaps a bad omen. Beers had been
cracked to it seemed like a good place to stop and declare victory.



The problem



The next day I set out to figure out how to adjust properly blade tension. I
was having trouble with the tracking. I had to max out the tracking
adjustment to get the blade to not slide off the near side of the to wheel.
Further investigation showed that in the "zero" tracking position, the upper
wheel was canted -2.3 degrees from vertical.



The saw was usable but clearly not "right" I 'm not sure that I could put
full tension on the blade with decent tracking.



It appeared that either the axel was bent, or the slide block into which it
inserted had "given". I placed a couple calls to woodworkers supply on this.
The other thing that I noticed was that there was an unusual gap at the top
of the axel where it entered the slide block. They graciously offered to
send me another saw, but I figured that that was not good for anyone as that
would be very costly for them, and a big pain in the ass for me. They agreed
to send me a new axel and slide block but it would take 4-6 weeks as the
parts were not on hand. I agreed with that approach for the time being.



Armed with the knowledge that I would have to disassemble the upper wheel
assembly anyway, I invested $2.49 in some snap-ring pliers and proceeded
with disassembly. What I found was that the axel is formed with a ½" recess
which should be centered in the 1" thick slide block. The set screw in the
slide block should make contact with the recessed portion of the axel,
leaving about ¼" of baring surface on either side of the recess. I found
that the axel was only inserted ¾" into the slide block and consequently the
axel was only supported by the inbound ¼" baring surface. Insert axel fully;
problem solved. Cool.



It would have been nice if WWS could have diagnosed that one for me, but I
knew going in that Taiwanese machinery often needs a little TLC.



Blow by blow features assessment:



Fence: A-. Cast iron, both faces perpendicular to the table. The set screws
on the front of the fence not, as they appear, adjust for parallel to the
blade. This is done by adjusting the whole fence rail: two bolts on the
underside of the table. easy enough. The fence slides well on an HDPE glide
in front, and a roller bearing (nice) on the back. It locks securely with
huge knurled knob on the front. I took points off for the silly scale etched
in the steel tube guide rail. Once you adjust for tracking it's nearly
useless (there is no cursor) and metric is on top with English markings at a
less-readable angle. I don't consider this a serious limitation as adjusting
the fence for parallel to the blade will render any scale inaccurate.



Miter Gauge. A- No slop in the guide bar. Curiously better than my Jet
cabinet saw. It did, however have to file down a high spot on the bar at the
pivot point to get the fence part to come in contact with the table and be a
closer the perpendicular. I have found that stock miter gauges are always
underwhelming afterthoughts. This one is actually on par with the rest of
the tool.



Table: A. 18"x20"x2" flat to within .01" between all corners and
diagonals. Nicely machined. The insert is fairly large, but has 3 set screws
for leveling



Motor: 9.6 Amp/220V 2HP. (contrary to the 12amp on the spec sheet) The
toughest test to date was 5-1/4" resaw of maple. Feed rate was limited by
the configuration of the 1" 2tpi blade, not the motor as there was not
audible decrease in RPM. As the votes have not been fully tallied here, I
will rate it as "good". The motor pulley is also balanced.



Guides: B+ . Really heavy Cast iron-housed euro-guides. Micro-adjustable
with large knurled knobs and locked with a knurled outer ring. The thrust
baring is 1-1/2" in diameter and they are the type where the blade rides in
the flat side of the baring. Points off for not micro-adjust for the thrust
bearing, the lower guide could be closer to the table, and the upper guide
casting is so big that it precludes setting the fence with 2 inches of the
blade if the bade guides are set with 4 inches of the table. An auxiliary
fence would be required in that case.



Wheels. A- The top wheel is a 6-spoke cast iron affair. While the lower
Wheel is a more or less solid (holes) with an integrated pulley. Both are
balanced as evidenced by the hole drilled on the back side.I assume that
this configuration is designed to keep the center of gravity low. I would
estimate that the cumulative mass of both wheels to be 80 to 100 lbs. I'm
glad I have a foot break because it takes a *long* time for them to spin
down.



Foot Break B. It *has* a microswitch (unlike the MM S16) which kills the
motor. It feels a little coarse, but it works.



Body B. There is some significant flex in the steel in the direction of
stock feeding. This concerned me until I realized that closing the upper
door eliminates most of this flex. The door actually provides a fair bit of
structure in that axis. I have not noticed any flex in any other direction.
The paint is job rather poor. There were a few rust spots that they just
painted over. Frankly, I'm not that wild about the green.



Rack and Pinion: C+. Hang onto that knob because them guides are heavy! The
pinion knob is chromed steel (CI?) but it really should be bigger. The
locking knob has a plastic handle which works fine, bit it's just much
cheesier than the rest of the saw.



Tracking C+: It works fine, but the used a that cheesy plastic knob again. A
lager knob would be appreciated here as well. It requires a strong grip to
turn the wheel upward when the blade is under tension.



Tensioning A-: Nice beefy chromed hand wheel! The tensioning gauge only
reads the elevation of the slide block rather than the compression of the
spring.



Stock blade: C-: 1" 2TPI monster, but the quality of cust was nasty.



Proof is in the pudding:



I picked up some Timber wolf blades and a Woodslicer from highland hardware.
I have only tried the Woodslicer so far. Frankly, it rocks. Tiny kerf, clean
cut, I was able to slice off 1/32" sheets of 4.5" hard maple. I cant ask
for much better than that.



Conclusion. I'm happy, anyone who is looking for a little more than your
basic 14" saw should put this one on your short list.

Cool, now take the money you saved and invest in some typing lessons and
instructions on how to use spell checker! Ok just picking on ya there! I
value reviews like this one since its not a paid endorsement nor is it
biased. A real world opinion by an actual user to me is always more useful
than any done by magazines or whatever. Mostly because you just don't know
who has their hands in who's pockets ya know? Thanks for the review on the
saw, this one goes in the saved file for future reference.

Jim


"C & S" wrote in message
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Woodtek Band Saw Review