Jet 14” Closed Stand Bandsaw (1999ish)
I put off the purchase of a band saw for quite a while. I was able to do most of my curve-cutting with a scroll saw and sabre saw. What finally made me take the andsaw-plunge was a great sale at Woodcraft when they were phasing out the Jet blues for the new sissy-white.
After much comparison shopping, I decided the Jet jwbs-14cs was the saw for me. I've added a few Timberwolf blades (get you one if you haven't tried them!) and a mobile base. Recently I upgraded the original Jet fence to the new Jet fence with the resaw attachment - very nice improvement. I also recently installed a riser block to bring my resaw capacity up to 12". I've resawn boards up to 10" thick with no problems - the 1 Hp motor keeps up just fine with no stalling (of course a sharp blade and correctly set-up saw help things too).
After several years of doing without a band saw, I now find myself using it probably as much as my tablesaw. It's very versatile and relatively safe and setup is quick. The quality of cut usually requires a fair amount of clean-up.
The only complaint I have about this saw is that the guideblock post that adjusts up and down doesn't move exactly parallel to the saw blade. This necessitates an adjustment of the guideblocks for every change in depth of cut. I've heard that this is a problem with all bandsaws, though. All in all I'm very happy with this saw.
Here are a couple shots of the dust collection modifications I’ve made to my saw. These include a wheel brush and a retrofitted 6” dust collection hood in the lower door. These things work great! (Thanks to Terry Hatfield for the idea for the dust hood)
© Copyright 2006 Chris Billman