New Jet Band saw to cut Tabs Off

I have been considering buying a small bandsaw for sometime. Woodcraft sends me a mailer and they had Jet 10 inch on sale for $299.99 regular $469.00. I have a 16 inch SCM with a 1 inch carbide resaw blade. I wanted some thing I could walk up to and cut. The Jet has a quick blade tension release. I had read reviews that were half 5 star and half 1 star. Most of the reviews were several years old. I have had several Jet machines in the past and although Jet is not usually the top tool in thier category they are usually in the top third. I got free shipping and that sealed the deal. The free shipping was freight on a pallet. I cannot accommodate an 18 wheeler so I drove about an hour to pick it up at the freight terminal. Got home and assembled it and ran it about 30 minutes. Ran good and blade tracked well. Will tune the saw tomorrow.

There are several saws that were in range of $150-200.00 but all have aluminum tables. The Wen on Amazon had good reviews but had bad ones as well. So now I can cut off material with tabs. I have used table saw but each part you cut off the part gets more unstable making me nervous. Will report back on progress. I also have about 40 pen blanks to make into 8 sided instead 4 with a jig I got from PSI. I use a lathe duplicator with some pens and making 8 sided speeds up production

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A band saw is the one other stationary power tool which I really want, and which I think really makes sense for my situation, esp. if you have access to thicker stock which can be re-sawn — one was the only power tool which a family friend (my great aunt’s Bridge partner’s husband) who was a notable cabinet and furniture maker had in his shop.

What blade are you using?

Will you be doing any re-sawing?

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That is a sweet deal! I have always liked Jet. I just purchased a Laguna 1412 from Woodcraft myself! I wanted a bit bigger (to replace my old Craftsman) for my guitar building. Should be here in a week. Got a nice set of Timberwolf blades. You will love this thing.

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The Jet came with 3/8 6 tpi blade. That is a general purpose blade. I will order a 1/4 and a 1/2 inch blades high tooth count for fine cuts.

This saw has a small cutting height so I won’t do any resawing. I will do some regular curving work and cutting off tabs or more precisely the waste around the tabs. I have a Ridgid Osc sander I sand off the left over tabs off. As I said I want something to just walk up to and cut, wipe off the table and contuine with the project.

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I would like to have a medium guy for a quick fine tune…I’m currently out of space for new equipment…so I have my scroll saw setup for the fine tuning/tab removal. Then my big bandsaw setup for resawing with a 1 in Timberwolf 3 4 setup.

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That was my problem. My SCM 16 is 4.8 hp with a lenox 1 inch carbide blade. The SCM has two fixed wheels and a handled wheel for the front. It is very hard d to maneuver and I have to move it close to the 220 30 amp plug. It was too much trouble to move it for a 1 minute cut and then cleanup.

I ordered some 24 inch wide magnetic cover for the Jet. I like the mag covers on bandsaw. The mag cover keeps out the moisture and air. My big bs has one and all my cast iron in the shop is pristine, even pieces 15 years old. On top of the mag cover I use TopSaver on all my cast iron. And other steel tools like Starret rulers.

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That’s a great choice (nice fence, T-miter slot, and it’s hard to beat those ceramic blade guides). Not enough torque for re-sawing cocobolo with Resaw King blade though (need more TPI?).

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Another way to cut both interior and exterior tabs in anything.

When I bought the SCM I looked at all bandsaws. The Laguna bandsaws are nice but I wanted horse power. The SCM was expensive but worth it. The Jet 14SFX looks like like a great general purpose bandsaw. However my SCM cuts through 15 inches of red oak like a hot knife through butter. I had a Ridgid 14 with a grizzly 6 inch riser that danced around the shop when cutting oak. I don’t miss that beast. I sold it on Craigslist in about a week. I have sold a lot of shop equipment on Craigslist. Sold my Shark cnc a couple of weeks ago in a week to a man that drove 4 hours to get here.

I got my mobile base. All equip on shop must be on wheels in shop. I also got magnetic table cover.

Also added mdf shelf. If I have enough mdf will put shelf on bottom.

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