My Great CL Bandsaw adventure.

[eric eaton]

So I have been in the market for a new Bandsaw for awhile. When a person I was buying wood from said they were getting rid of a Ridgid BS14002 with cool blocks, a Timber wolf 1/2" blade and a mobility base for 175$ I thought ... "What the heck ... this will last me til I get my Grizz next year".

So I look at the saw, seems to be in really good shape and the seller had already taken it apart so it will fit in my ubiquitous socal suv. So I take my new toy home.

I get it to the garage and immediately decide to reinforce the base with plywood and extra bolts, that takes a few hours but now it is all put back together and everything is tight as a drum.

I take my time setting it up and dialing in the blocks and tracking via the fine advice here at SMC by rotating the wheels by hand.

And then the moment of truth ... I fire it up and she is quiet and steady, even my 4 year old shop assistant just looked at it curiously instead of yelling "DADDY NO NOISE".

Staring at my gorgeous pile of wide 10/4 Mahogany I start drooling about potential resawn bookends and get cracking on some pine 2'4's to see how it cuts ... wheee she is doing great.



So I decide to up the ante ... tried slicing off 1/2" from a 4" x 4" when I hear a "BANG" screechhhh and my shop help ran for the hills.

Shut the saw off open the doors and I see some fresh shiny grooves in the covers and the oem tires all stretched out and shredded. I look closer and see they are completely dryrotted from the inside while appearing to be in great shape from the outside ... sigh.

Off to Woodcraft the next day for some shiny new Urethane tires ... awesome, 75$ for glorified rubber bands grumble grumble.

Put em on using hot water and some grunting now I am back in business and off to resawing some 6" Mahogany freehand to see how my skills are (actually I don't have a fence yet ) ... I am mildy surprised and pleased with the outcome.

And now I look at some too pretty Tiger Maple that I wanted to resaw so bad. So I do the smart thing and build a nice fence and adjust it for drift, so very ready now.

Start cutting the 6" Tiger Maple and man ... it is slow and sounds horrible, back out after half an inch and decide to retune the saw.

Went to untension the 1/2" blade that I had set at 1/2" and also checked using the deflection + guitar method and nothing. Can't turn the tensioner ... did I mention metal shavings are bad. Well nothing vice grips can't handle, after laboriously cross threading the tensioner I run crying from the shop and hit the ridgid forums. Sure nuff a batch of saws went out with "bad" tensioners and I won the lucky draw.

I decide that this CL pos won't get the best of me and rig up an aftermarket tensioner using a 6" bolt and a piece of old hard cherry. Pic Included.

So now I am back in business and ready for a new blade. Sorry for the long rant but CL adventures are just too much fun sometimes.

P.S. The ironic thing is that I drove past the local Woodcraft with the Rikon 10-325 on sale and decided to be a "good boy" and settle for a used BS.

[Lance Norris]

Eric... Im going to post this quick before someone says what a POS the Ridgid bandsaws are. I really like mine and use it quite often. Maybe I by-passed the tensioner problem by adding the Carter Quick Tension setup. I had tracking problems with mine, so Urethane tires went on early in its life. I have done the tricks and tweeks that I read about here and at Ridgids' forum. I think its a fine saw, but with the stock 3/4 horse motor, isnt going to resaw oily dense exotics. I have a big Grizzly for that. Good luck with yours, keep it if you have the shop space, even after you buy something larger. I keep a 3/4" blade on my Griz and a 1/8" blade on the Ridgid. Sure is nice not to keep changing blades back and forth all the time.

[Steve Vaughn]

Do you have a Rockler near you?

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...andsaw%20tires

Steve

[eric eaton]

Eric... Im going to post this quick before someone says what a POS the Ridgid bandsaws are. I really like mine and use it quite often. Maybe I by-passed the tensioner problem by adding the Carter Quick Tension setup. I had tracking problems with mine, so Urethane tires went on early in its life. I have done the tricks and tweeks that I read about here and at Ridgids' forum. I think its a fine saw, but with the stock 3/4 horse motor, isnt going to resaw oily dense exotics. I have a big Grizzly for that. Good luck with yours, keep it if you have the shop space, even after you buy something larger. I keep a 3/4" blade on my Griz and a 1/8" blade on the Ridgid. Sure is nice not to keep changing blades back and forth all the time.

Keeping the saw as a future small blade saw is actually my plan Lance, my point was more about luck and the roll of the Craig's dice than Ridgid Products. Even after new tires, some repair parts a new blade I am still way under what an entry level 14" would be. I just find it funny that whenever I try to save money on tools it ends up biting me in the ass. (Like the time I spent an ENTIRE Saturday night trying to flatten the sole of a 30$ Ebay #4 Stanley knockoff. Live and learn.

Eric

[John Shuk]

Great! I am supposed to check out a pop up camper on Craigslist this morning. Hope it is as advertised cause it looks like a reasonably good deal.
Sorry you had trouble with your saw. That can be pretty frustrating.