I'm Alex Snodgrass and I've been working with bandsaws for over 30 year. My videos provide information and guidance on various subjects related to bandsaws including: blades, guides and bandsaw tuning. It also covers the creation of 3D cutting boards, bandsaw boxes and the soon to be famous reindeer. I'll also cover product evaluations from major manufacturers like Jet, Powermatic and Carter products.
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I struggled with "drift" issues for years and based on RU-vid videos by self-proclaimed "bandsaw gurus" fell for the "drift is inevitable and you have to compensate by adjusing your fence" myth. I discovered your bandsaw setup video and haven't looked back. I now routinely perform wafer-thin, uniform thickness resaws with ease. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and curing my bandsaw frustration.
Thanks for doing this video. I just bought the Carter Blade Stabilizer for my Rikon 10" bandsaw and after reading the enclosed instructions I hoped there was a video to reassure me about what to do with the lower guides. Your video was just what I needed. You have a new subscriber!🙂
Would this work with logs that are different dimensions on either end? If not do you have recommendations on how to cut smaller logs that are different thicknesses each end but small enough where an average size bandsaw would cut it? Or any tips on cutting in on a table saw(don’t have a bandsaw) but would love to buy one. I have several smaller cedar logs I want to build something with. 2 things I need to know first though: how to cut them fairly safely and gotta figure out what I want to build with them before cutting them down.
I have a jet 15 in. 3 hp and it has been amazing over the 3 years I have had it. Jet customer service is outstanding . Mine was perfect out of the box . Timberwolf blade.
Thanks for all your valuable content! I have the Harvey Alpha 615P, but not for long. Should I surmise from this video that you can't use an 1/8' blade on this saw without this stabilizer? This is very different from your other setup videos where you say not to push the blade with the guide.
A little bit of conflicting information here. Laguna has made setup videos where they instruct you to make the ceramic guides touch the blade. Is there any reason Laguna would suggest to make the ceramic guides touch the blade, but you suggest to not touch the blade? I understand the reasoning behind not touching the blade, just trying to figure out why Laguna would tell you to set up the guides to make contact with the blade.
Because Laguna makes their own blades, a carbide blade, which has no set in the teeth, so friction isn’t going to take the set out. They also made a bmetal blade which has different metal for the teeth and those guides won’t take the set out so that’s why Laguna says you can actually touch the blade if you’re using their blade. I might also add their specialty blades have a special price.
Need help. I have a sears 12" tilt head bandsaw trying to replace blade with 80" x 1/2" blade although I adjusted tension knob all the way down blade is to tight to install. Is there another adjustment I am unaware of ?
@@taykelkas no but I feel like there may be something not allowing the wheel to drop so that you can install the blade follow the tension rod and see how the wheel has to move up and down
After viewing a couple other tire replacement videos, I just wanted to say that the straightforward strategy you show here worked for me. No heating of the tire necessary. Check. No removal of the wheel. Check. Getting a Carter tire which does not need to be trimmed. Check. Have the same bandsaw (Powermatic). Check. Wait, that last part didn't matter. :) thx
Alex I have the RIKON 14" Deluxe Bandsaw - 1-3/4 HP Model 10-326. I just watched you set up. I’m getting a sticky sound by the black idler pulley that the belt rides on. Any ideas. Thanks Marty Pyeatt
Hey Alex! I bought this saw new in 2019 and I am having trouble adjusting the saw like you described! When I track the blade on the upper wheel like you advised, the blade on the lower wheel is tracking on the back edge of the lower wheel and when I try to adjust the upper and lower guides, I can’t get the bearings to the back edge of the gullets of the blades! They barely will go back past the front of the teeth! There’s a bolt on the cabinet that the lower carriage hits when I try to adjust it farther back! Do I need to adjust the lower wheel! Didn’t want to mess with that because I thought it was set at the factory!
Thank your for the information. I’m buying a new band saw manly for resaw for kitchen cabinets Either the laguna 14/12 or jet Jbs 14. In your option which is the better buy. Thank you for your content.
Your video is very helpful. That being said, when I adjust the top wheel, the blade wants to come off the bottom wheel and I'm not yet to the center of the top wheel. Any suggestions?
Update: Since buying a Laguna 14/12 bandsaw several years ago I have used the ¾” carbide-tipped Resaw King blade most of the time. Its only downside was the need to change blades in order to cut smaller-radius curves. I recently was persuaded by Alex Snodgrass on RU-vid to try a 3/8” Carter blade, which he advocates as a single blade that will “do it all.” I did not have a good experience with the Carter blade. Accustomed to the Resaw King leaving a resawn surface that requires little more than sanding, I was disappointed at the rough, woolly surface left in hardwoods by the Carter blade, which required planing - wasting a lot of wood and extra labor. With only occasional use the blade gradually became noisier until it broke (not at the weld). Perhaps I just got a defective blade but, as they say, “once bitten, twice shy.” I will not be trying another Carter blade.
@@howardskillington4445 i’m sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but the blade is warranted and may be a possible bad weld for giving me a rough cut. They will send you a free blade.
This may have been covered somewhere else, but why urethane or why rubber? I just bought a secondhand bandsaw and the tire snapped about 10 minutes in although my other secondhand band saw at home is just fine and it’s been running for the last 2 years
I'm going to look at a used saw exactly like this one in a couple of days to purchase. Can you tell me how much the saw weighs? I may have to load it by myself. I've watched all of your videos on this saw and they have been very helpful.
@@norcaldigger348 I’m gonna saw 100 to 150 ish. Aluminum table and steel base. A bit awkward to handle but lay it on the spine and it will travel fine. Not a bad saw for curves and scrolling
@@bandsawlife2660 Thank you for the information. I'm going to use it mainly for re-sawing redwood. It's selling for $100. I figured I can't go wrong for that price.
I am trying to make some wooden sinusoidal strips to be used to support corrugated PVC roof panels. The existing/old panels have centre to centre dimension of approx. 2 3/4" which yield 10 peaks rather than 9 peaks which seems to be the current standard for corrugated panels which have 3" centre to centre. My bandsaw has 1/4" wide blade. The chart which I found in parts manual indicates that a 3/16" wide blade would be better for cutting the strips. Will the 3/16" wide blade work with the model 113.243300 bandsaw? And is the blade 80" long.
I love that they used cast iron for the wheels and the saw is a really nice looking design. BUT, I’ve been reading reviews on this model and there are a lot of people who are having problems with parts breaking while they snug up a certain area. There are multiple complaints about the fence locking mechanism breaking. There are more than a few complaints about the cast iron table being dipped, so people have to pick up the wood to go across the split in the table. Some complaints about the quick tension mechanism going bad. But the number one complaint (and it’s about 99% of those who contact Jet) is customer service and/or technical assistance. Literally dozens and dozens of people complain that there is little to no help from Jet. Of the people who have a properly functioning saw, they say it cuts effortlessly and they couldn’t be happier. This tells me it’s a problem at the manufacturing level. Jet, pay attention! This could bring you back to the top of the home workshop and even small business owners level or if these issues continue it will make you another laughing stock company that looks like you are just pretending to build good reliable products.
@@davidt8438 David while I can understand your criticism I also know this is their number one selling saw which means there are thousands upon thousands of them and yes there will always be problems. Jet had an issue with customer support during Covid and they have stepped it up. If you personally have a customer service issue please feel free to call on me and I’ll do my best to get you to the right person
@@bandsawlife2660 Thank you Alex, I appreciate your response. I’m glad to hear Covid was the culprit and not just another company just out for a buck and then no support. While I don’t have the aforementioned bandsaw I do have their old floor oscillating sander (JOVS 10) Unfortunately parts for that are no longer available and I’ve looked. I wonder if you know if the newer floor model (JOSS-S parts are interchangeable? Specifically the spindle and related parts. I understand you’re the bandsaw guy so if not that is expected. I do wish they would stock more parts for old machines that were sold as recent as 10 years ago. Thank you
Hey Alex, I bought every accessory for my old Jet bandsaw that you offer. I'm getting ready to step up to a Laguna 14/BX bandsaw, and whenever I click on a link to get to the Carter Product website, I get nothing more than this......."An error has happened during application run. See exception log for details. Could not write error message to log. Please use developer mode to see the message." I hope your website is just down for maintenance because, I was blown away by the performance upgrade your guides your guides offer, and, I really want to upgrade my Laguna to your roller guides before I even fire it up for the first time.
Just got this saw. Still in the box. Can you suggest a good blade for green wood? I hope to get plenty of wood from people having trees cut down and save it from the landfill and firepits. Lot of people seem to like the timber wolf blades.
Using it before and after the stabilizer would’ve been helpful. It’s a small saw- so shouldn’t a 1/8 blade take those tight turns anyway? I am very curious to see a comparison.
The stabilizer is for quarter inch or smaller blades and doesn’t bite the body of the blade, allowing it to turn tighter cleaner sharper and make your blade last longer. Regular guides are for straight cuts, or maybe some wide sweeping turns.
Alex, thank you for this. I replaced my original rubber tires the first time with rubber. I know you said there are no PERFORMANCE advantages between rubber or urethane, but after watching you install urethane on a saw identical to mine I have decided than not dealing with glue is an advantage all its own, though, strictly speaking, not a performance advantage. Clear, concise, and to the point. Well done!
Outstanding, thanks a bunch. Very educational, no fluff. You will never know how many "accidents" your video has saved by matching the blade to the work. Thank you, Subscribed!
Thanks so much for the advice. Bought my saw for my brother who bought it at a ranch auction. He has passed away now of course the saw isn’t going anywhere. Your video was so helpful. I don’t have a owner manual so I was kinda lost until you came along. Thanks again. Can you send me some links for tools to go with my saw. Its really basic no fence no inset.
I need to drill and tap holes in my bandsaw for the lower guide holder. I need the metric thread pitch size and diameter for those allen head bolts so I can order the appropriate tap. Thanks.
@@bandsawlife2660 I figured it out. I assumed the screws were metric, but turns out they are standard 1/4 X 20 and I have that tap on hand. So good to go. I still have a problem to solve on the upper guide install. I have the Laguna LT14SE and the guide mount was drilled at 19mm. The Carter upgrade 20mm adaptor stud won't fit. I either need to get a 19mm adaptor stud, or have a local machine shop enlarge the 19mm hole on the existing guide mount to 20mm. Not sure how difficult that would be so will check with a local shop after the holiday.
I'm about to buy a bandsaw for alot of use resawing hardwoods, my budget is about 1500, I just saw a rikon 324 on sale for 1K, is this worth the difference?
@@bandsawlife2660 yeah it looks like a better deal, and since it's going to be a focal point of the shop id rather get something good. Seems like a lot of people are saying this is a great deal, and the features are better. Thanks
Do you recommend any kind of lubricant for the tensioner? I released my tensioner bar today and nothing happened, then I unscrewed the manual tensioner until the rod pulled out and still nothing happened. I then took a ball peen hammer and tapped lightly on the tensioner and it popped down and released the blade. The saw is a Delta 28-276
I just picked up a 12" tilthead for nearly nothing..the guy didn't know you could tighten the tilthead lock so whenever he used it the head would drift into a tilt...Anyway I fixed it and it works great. I chan😢ged the blade to a new 3/8 6t blade and new Urethane tires. The issue I have are trying to find replacement guide blocks, I can't find replacements anywhere. My last resort are cutting and drilling some rectangular cool blocks to fit. Any idea where I can find the correct blocks without having to manufacturer them myself? Thank you.
