Hi Everyone,
In what I'm sure has been discussed before, I'm interested in the current point of view of the SMC membership. I have a Felder FB510 20" inch bandsaw with ceramic guides that has usually been fitted with a 1" Woodmaster CT for ripping and resawing. I generally tension the blade to near maximum and get reasonable performance. I like the large table and ability to add Aigner extension tables easily. I recently sold my Laguna LTSEC which was a Meber-built Italian 16" saw because I thought I needed the extra room in my shop. I'm getting tired of changing the blades on the Felder and am thinking of going back to a 2-bandsaw shop. My question is whether to add a larger dedicated resaw (like a 20" SMC-Minimax) that will better tension the 1" Woodmaster CT (or Trimaster, etc) and use the Felder for smaller blades or continue to use the Felder for resaw and purchase a smaller steel-spined saw that will easily take blades down to 1/8". I want to avoid a much smaller table than the Felder and think that for smaller blades crowned wheels and a higher table to floor height would be nice, perhaps a Grizzly G0514X2: large table, 37" to the floor and 3 hp motor with crowned wheels.
Any thoughts/advice/suggestions/experience?
Thanks.
Ed