As you know, I just scored, well not my dream saw, that would be an MM20 or an Agazani, but a very nice 21" Grizzly G0531B.
I have never in the past done ANYTHING but resaw on my Delta 14", but my projects were few, and limited. I'm hoping to finally get more heavily into w-working. The point being, I don't know what the heck I'm even asking about. But I'll be wanting to cut some curves for sure: Parts of an Adirondak chair design, and definitely table legs.
Even though my Grizzly makes it extremely easy to change blades (tension release lever, etc) I am considering using a small band saw JUST for 1/8" or 1/4" blades. I have a cool little 12" Craftsman form the 1940's with cast iron wheels, a cast iron trunnion, and a nice table angle adjustment system. It has a busted upper guide anyway, so I thought to put a Carter Stabilizer on there.
- But I'm not sure if this is a good or bad idea, and need opinions.
The factors that I can think of:
1: Space, of course, but let's not go there. The 12" currently reside in my bedroom, and there it shall stay.
2: Guides. There's no such thing as "1 guide to rule them all." No Hobbits running around my shop. (That I know of.)
When you use a Carter Stabilizer on any saw, you have to back both guides out of the picture. Then you have to move them forward again for resawing and such. This sounds horrible to me. I love the idea of just leaving one blade on the big machine (Changing only for green or highly resinous wood) and having just a 1/8" blade and Carter stabilizer on the little guy.
I know that it's theoretically possible to resaw with no guides at all, but I don't know if I'm that brave. Also, if ripping with no guides, couldn't there be a little stress letting go in your stock, pushing the stock into the blade? Seems to me guides are like insurance, even for ripping and resawing.
3: Blade speed: It's not critical, but I'd like the option of cutting non-ferrous metals on a band saw. That's out of the question on my 4600 SFPM Grizzly. However, the stock speed of the 12" is around 2100 SFPM. If I were to mount a 3-phase motor with a VFD, I could get it down to around 1,000 SFPM, which is totally acceptable even for copper & brass.
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So far it all sounds good, but then I realized one possibly serious negative:
Throat capacity. Ugh. I figure I could still do table legs, wit a little hand tooling on the feet, but I have no concept of what else I might come up against.
You folks that cut a LOT of curves on your band saws, would this limit much of what your do?
Any other good reasons to nix this idea?