This thread is going to be about my new bandsaw.
I shuffled some stuff around, sold a couple things, and went out and bought a new Ridgid 14″ bandsaw.
I chose Ridgid because is was recommended in the reviews in this magazine; that was just about my only consideration.
Oh, right. The applications.
I am now accepting applications for my killfile. You can apply here, in this thread.
This thread, as I said, is about my new bandsaw. It is not about bandsaws, it is not about Ridgid, it is not about Homeless Despot, it is not about China, India, Pakistan or central Wyoming. It is not about the job you lost, nor is it about the fantasy you had that the job was “yours”. It is not about the fact that the most exclusive club in the world has been forced to admit a black man, nor is it about the Linebacker bombing campaign, Chevys and Fords or sharpening.
It is about one bandsaw: my new bandsaw.
To apply for my killfile, all you have to do is publicly humiliate yourself by making some off topic rant, some cowardly post, whine or snivel about one of those political, religious, economic or social issues, and then explain why your toilet training failure is relevant to my new bandsaw. Ad Hominem attacks will achieve the same end, as well, but they probably won’t be as easy for you to spell.
As soon as I realize that you are applying, rather than discussing my new bandsaw, I will stop reading to save you further embarrassment, approve your application, and killfile you.
I will approve all applications, however, you will not receive any notification, recognition or discussion. This is not an invitation to discuss any of those issues; rather, this is notification that if you do so, you will do it with someone else, and you will all do life with no parole in my killfile. The is no appeal process, there are no second chances. For the rest of our mutual lives, you will be able to read my posts, but I will not be subjected to your babbling. Which is exactly as it should be.
If you end up doing life in my killfile, be well. I wish you a long life.
For those of you who are already in my killfile, there is no need to apply again, I won’t see it. You won’t be able to attract my attention, my squelch is set higher than anything you are capable of generating. But please, do try!
Now that we have that unpleasantness (and those unpleasant people) out of the way, we can move on to my bandsaw, which, while trivial, is far more important than my killfile or the people in it.
I was surprised to see something from Home Depot at the top of the list in a Fine Woodworking review, but a couple of the things about the review were important to me.
I bought it at the Bitterlake Home Depot, here in Seattle, on Aurora. With our (outrageous) tax, the total came to $402.21.
Got it home, and Real Life took over for the rest of the evening, I wasn’t able to start assembly until this morning.
So far, even though assembly is not complete, there are a number of things I like about the saw, and nothing yet that I don’t like.
Things I like:
–The manual is not written in three languages. Rather, there are three manuals. One in English, one is Spanish, and one in some language I am not educated enough to identify. This is the best solution for all hands.
–The base is well engineered. It is all thick sheet metal, and as a rule, I don’t like folded sheet metal, but I like this base. It has camber built into it, and it’s engineered well enough so that even an idiot like me doesn’t end up with a camber that resembles an upside down pyramid.
–The packaging is well designed. There is no four pound bag of unidentified hardware. Rather, perhaps in recognition that amateurs will buy this product, everything is sealed into blisters, and the blisters are fastened to a cardboard back that has clear labels on it.
–The manual is printed in big enough type that I can read it without additional magnification. Be patient. It’s going to happen to you, too.
–I didn’t have to pay for a fence. I am a point fence man, and I didn’t want to pay for an amateur’s vision of precision; and this saw came with no fence. That pleases me.
One point that is neither good nor bad: there are forty carriage bolts that hold the base together. They are metric. Fortunately, my skill level is high enough to use metric sockets and wrenches as well as SAE, but I will pause here for a moment for those of you who will want to apply for my killfile over the word “metric”, and the terror that the metric system generates.
Okay, moving on. I’m off to the basement to continue assembly, I will continue to update this thread as I progress.
Oh, one other point: I’ve just come from a couple hours looking for a thicker blade; while this saw will take a 3/4″ blade, no one I’ve seen in Seattle has one for sale, not even Hardwick’s. (I haven’t been to any of the boutiques, yet, so maybe Rockler or Woodcraft will have one.) I may end up buying one online, I have a slab of crotch Broadleaf Maple (Acer Macrophyllum, for those of you who care) that I want to cut up.
More later.
Replies
"It is not about the fact that the most exclusive club in the world has been forced to admit a black man,"
I guess this, along with several others you made, kind of jumps out at me as a very strange comment to make concerning your new bandsaw. I'm not 100% sure what exclusive club you may be referring too, but the one I would assume you are talking about is the President of the United States of America and the last time I checked he was elected, thus, I'm not sure where you comment comes from. You, nor any other American, was forced to vote for anyone so at a minimum I think you should quantify your statement because it is flawed in its present presentation unless you live in some portion of this world that doesn't give you the freedom of choice. After all, you did get to choose the Ridgid BS that you wanted or did someone force you to get that too?.
Bio
Got mine at HD also & went back and found a riser block for it on sale
ive added a guide for the table from Ridgid
you can get blades from LeeValley
Do you remember what the riser block cost you?
Please add me to your file, you disgust me.
................................................
Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Ditto me in too.
Check out his profile ;-) It's perfect!!
Pitty his poor salesman! I have a customer like this guy and have to go on break, lest I get fired or bite my lip bloody.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
about $25 cdn including all associated parts other than saw blade
i bought it on a whim as i wasent sure of its use at the time but being a tool freak it just jumped into my hands & wouldent let go
Jammy,
Just one question: why the quest for a blade as "thick" as 3/4 inch?
It's not a "quest", I noticed at Home Depot that the 3/4 wasn't available, so I checked Lowe's and Hardwick's, thats all.I like thick blades for re-sawing.
philip,
To make box joints?
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
[Comment pre-deleted for your convenience.] ;-)
Points!
Okay, assembly is moving along. (At a snail's pace.)
The saw and motor are mounted on the stand. The pulleys are aligned.
More things I like:
--The key, keyways & set screws. The keys are nice, healthy slabs on both pulleys. The set screws are actually large enough. I've seen many, many stripped shafts from keys that either didn't exist or were too small. These keys and keyways are substantial, and I believe they are big enough to do their jobs.
--The bolt patterns. Yes, the bolt patterns. In many pieces of equipment that I've assembled, the bolt patterns were too limited or the slots didn't have enough range in them. The bolt patterns in this machine are redundant enough and have enough play to adjust the drive belt alignment and tension in both directions. No more belts that are almost aligned.
--Isolation. The motor is isolated from the base by rubber grommets and from the saw by a v-belt. Machines that are not so isolated vibrate more than machines that are.
And a couple things I don't like have surfaced:
--The footprint. I like all parts of a machine to be inside the footprint. On this machine, on one of the layout choices for the motor, and on the front of the machine, the motor and the front of the saw hang over the edge of the base.
--The bolt holes in the machine. The bearing surface of a bolt head should be flat, unless there is a design requirement for them to be otherwise. In the mounting holes in this machine, the tops of the holes are slightly concave, and the washer, therefore, deforms slightly when the fastener is tightened.
--Three hands are required. This fastening system was never assembled by the team that drew it. There is a "bar", made of folded sheet metal that secures the machine to the base. The bolts go through the bolt holes in the machine, through the holes in the base, then through the bar, and are then secured with washers and nuts. This means that something (a third hand, a clamp or chewing gum, and note that a clamp would have the same issue) must be used to hold the reinforcement "bar" up onto the bottoms of the bolts while two washers and a nut are screwed onto the bolt. There are other solutions that wouldn't require the third hand; the only reason I can think of for using this system is cost. If the man who drew it had assembled it, he would have noticed it.
The reason this last point is important is at the point of the process that these two bolts and nuts are installed, the machine is balancing in a top-heavy fashion on the base. Even if they are the third and fourth bolts installed, rather than the first pair, and even if the first pair are tight, (and the manual specifically says not to tighten them yet) that is only 50% of the number necessary to properly secure the machine.
If two people are present, one hand must hold the bolt heads, one hand must hold the reinforcement bar against gravity, one hand must install the washers and nuts, and one hand must balance the machine. One hand is not sufficient, in my opinion, to balance the machine safely.
--The leveling adjustments. The levelers are levelers, which consist of a foot on a 3/8 threaded post. The post is mated to a nut, then passes through the leg, and another nut. That means that to level the machine, the nut must be loosened, then the leg adjusted, then the nut re-tightened. If more adjustment is required than was provided by loosening, the process must be repeated. It would be better to use a system that could be adjusted from the top, with one tool in one hand. It also means that if the leg is to be extended, some way must be found to secure the post against turning. I have not yet checked to see if this can be done merely by securing the foot; however, that would also be less than optimal. Better for the post to pivot against the foot during leveling than for the foot to pivot against the floor.
Leveling or installing fasteners with one hand is frequently more than mere convenience. In many cases, like the balancing issue above, it's not that it takes two hands to accomplish a given task-- it's what the second hand COULD be doing that matters. Like balancing the machine on the base, or just holding onto the machine to feel the first nearly imperceptible clue that the machine is no longer completely balanced.
All in all, I remain pleased. Some of the trade-offs that were made were made in the name of economy, and the economy of this machine is one of the things that pleases me. None of the things that I don't like (yet) are deal breakers for me.
I will continue to check things I've learned to check, and I will re-check the things on this particular saw that Taunton checked in it's review, although at this point I don't believe I will find anything different than they found.
More later.
I assembled mine alone including riser block i also made a stand of 1 1/2 " angle on wheels for it and all my other equipment so i can move them about in the confined area of my shop .
having to assemble the jointer & install on wheels was more of a challenge
i moved all of my equipment in january last year to my current shop by using the ice over the lawn to slide things
working alone i only worry about my own stupedity help seems to compound things
Assembly is complete. First cuts made.Things I like:--Rubber knobs. There are rubber covers on the main knobs. I like that.--Whatever the goo on the table was, oven cleaner took it off. I don't like impervious shipping goo.Things I don't like:--Vibration. There is a lot more vibration than I like in stationary tools. Didn't have time to investigate fully tonight, but I'll be looking into it tomorrow. It almost feels like the casting is flexing. Blade could be too tight. I'll break out the fine-tooth comb tomorrow.--Some of the labels (two of them, in fact) are wrong. They do not use the same labels that the manual does. If you're going to label stuff (and I approve of labels) label it correctly.--I'm spoiled. Most of my equipment is solid, this bandsaw is the one or two steps down from what I'm used to. So it seems to that I could shove it over, and it seems to me that it vibrates more than it should. I'm actually not certain if it does, or if my expectations of a mid-level machine are too high.I built most of the stands for my machines. Given how tall this machine is, I may have to replace this base with one that has more stability.More later.
The "dust collection" hookup that is standard on this saw is worthless.It is obviously "designed" as an afterthought, and picks up very little dust; it picks up virtually nothing above the table.
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