Five Reasons for Choosing a Band Saw
Doug Hicks, executive editor at August Home Publishing, was asked this question recently at one of our woodworking seminars at the Woodsmith Store: If you could have just one tool on a deserted island (assuming it had electricity!), what would it be?
Doug’s answer was a band saw and he gave his reasons why in a seminar later that spring. Here are his reasons:
Doug: I’m often asked by new woodworkers, “What woodworking machine should I buy first?” Of course, I usually recommend to start with a table saw for the first stationary tool, and a router for the first handheld tool. They are truly the heart and soul of a home woodworking shop.
But, if I was told I could only have ONE machine tool what would it be? For me, that’s an easy one. I’d pick the band saw. Here’s why:
1. Resaw. The band saw is the only common machine tool you can use for resawing wide pieces of wood in one pass. (Resawing is cutting thicker wood into thinner pieces.) The maximum width you can resaw on most table saws is about 3-1/2”. A typical 14” band saw will allow you to resaw at least 6”-wide pieces. This is perfect for cutting book matched pieces. I’ve even resawn pieces as thin as 1/64” to use for veneer.
2. Curves. Ever try to cut a curve with a table saw? You can cut a curve with a scroll saw, as long as the wood isn’t more than about 1” thick. And I’ve had some bad experiences with handheld jig saws. The blade tends to wander and bend. The band saw is the perfect tool for cutting curves in all kinds and thicknesses of wood. And by changing the blade to a narrower width, you can make very tight turns. I can cut a radius the size of a pencil eraser with a 1/8” blade, and can actually make a 90° turn with a 1/16” blade on my band saw.
3. Stretches the Imagination. I consider the lathe and the band saw the two tools in my shop that allow me to be creative. Most other tools (table saw, jointer, drill press, etc.) are designed to cut or drill only straight lines. You are limited to working with designs that are built around straight, angled, or beveled lines. Or building some kind of a mold (such as when bent laminating) to produce curves. The band saw is much more free flowing. Lines can be straight, angled, curved, or any combination of those. I recently visited a gift store and saw a wide variety of band-sawn boxes. They were all made by the same craftsman – and all were very different. The famous woodworker James Krenov once wrote: “Of all my machines, the band saw has done the most to help me use wood the way I really want to.”
4. A Precision Tool. Most people consider a band saw a rough-cutting tool. They would say it’s a “get-it-close-enough” tool that must be followed with a lot of sanding, filing, or planing. But most of these people probably haven’t spent the time to tune up their band saw. Using the right blade is the first trick and making sure it’s very sharp is the second. If it’s tracking straight and positioned correctly in relation to the side guides and thrust bearing, a band saw can be a very accurate, fine-cutting tool. Creeping the fence over a hair will trim just the tiniest bit off the thickness of a tenon. Or sneaking up on the final fit of a dovetail cut on the band saw is pure pleasure. For me, it’s a much more controlled cut than I could get with a hand saw or chisel. In some ways, it’s a “motorized hand tool” that allows you to be intimate with your work.
5. Does It All. Probably the main reason I would take my band saw with me on the deserted island is quite simple: It does it all. There isn’t another machine tool in the shop that crosscuts, rips, resaws, cuts curves, bevels, miters, joints, cabriole legs, cones, collapsible baskets, marquetry, and with the addition of a jig will cut a perfect circle, a duplicate to a pattern, and a whole lot more. You can’t do all that on a table!
So, if my shop ever catches on fire, my band saw on its mobile base is the first thing you’ll see me grab on the way out the door!