Making the Most of a Cheap Bandsaw

For a long time, I owned a scroll saw. I bought it shortly before building my first violin, thinking that for two hundred bucks I could get a precise, well built piece of equipment that would suit my purposes. And it wasn't bad. It had an amazing ability to cut intricate shapes (being able literally to turn around in its own kerf), was easy to maintain, and was quiet and pleasant to use. However, as time went on and I patiently fed numerous pieces of two inch thick maple through the thing, I was forced to come to the conclusion that I needed a bandsaw.

The prospect of buying such a machine was somewhat daunting. As I strolled through the isles of my local Home Depot, I saw a number of towering, freestanding saws, each of which would occupy a substantial amount of real estate in my basement, and each of which cost at least four hundred dollars. The saws all took blades that cost at least twenty bucks a pop (and remembering how quickly my scroll saw had gone through blades this was cause for alarm), but the salesman told me that to get a really strait cut I would do well to buy a "nicer" blade. It all looked expensive, but I needed a more powerful saw. There was no turning back.

I ended up buying a little 9" benchtop Delta saw for less than I had paid for my scroll saw. The man in the store told me that it wasn't very powerful and couldn't cut strait, but at least it was something. Upon getting it home, I found out that he had been quite right on the score of cutting strait. When I turned the wood, the blade would turn with me, to continue cutting in the same direction. I'd turn the wood more, and then the blade would suddenly realize what I meant and veer sharply toward my line. On the matter of power, though, I was favorable impressed. Even though it had only a third of a horsepower, it could still chug through two inches of maple with no trouble. It was really more like using a table saw than a scroll saw.

I was understandably annoyed about my saw's inability to follow a line. In order to end up with the shape I had intended, I found I had to stay a quarter inch outside my line, and proceed to spend the next half hour at the bench sander. Nonetheless, it was better than the scroll saw could do in such thick wood. After doing some online research and talking to the guy at the woodworking shop down the street, I found that it was possible to cut straight, even with a cheap saw.

The first order of business was to get a better blade. The salesman at Home Depot had been right-a cheap blade really wasn't much good for anything. I shelled out fifty bucks for a nicer blade, and noticed immediate improvement. (For the record, I have been using that blade ever since.) I was now almost able to cut strait, but I still had a way to go. The next thing to do, the website told me, was replace my crummy brass blocks with state-of-the-art Coolblocks. Finding none small enough to fit my saw, I ordered a too-big set online and ground them down with a belt sander. I'm not quite sure why having my blade guided by some new high-tech compound should have resulted in a straighter cut than had it been guided by brass, but it did. My saw could finally follow a line. Almost, at least.

P.S. Since then, I have had the opportunity to use a high end bandsaw belonging to one of my friends. In addition to being even more powerful than mine, it had an amazing ability to go exactly where I wanted it to go. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford a saw like that (and fit it in your basement), then by all means go for it.