Well, I decided that I needed to buy a bandsaw.  I’m not sure what my logic was that made me think that buying a bandsaw was the best choice at the time, but anyway.  I eventually justified it to myself and went to a store that sells Jet seconds (items that have had boxes damaged or some scratched paint, but otherwise pretty much perfect) that get sold for about half the normal recommended price.

I went there to buy the bigger Jet (14″ closed stand) band saw, but ended up just buying a benchtop Jet 10″ Benchtop Bandsaw (JWBS-10OS) for $100.  Screaming deal.  But I completely agree with the video review at that link – the blade that it comes with travels all over the shop, so getting good straight cuts, even with a fence is next to impossible.  I’ve just ordered the blade that he recommended, which should hopefully help somewhat.  I’ll post an update when I’ve tried it. Things to consider when trying to buy a band saw: What are you going to use it for – resawing (i.e. chopping big bits of wood into smaller workable bits of wood for your project) is one of the big uses of a band saw, but the one I bought is DEFINITELY NOT designed with this in mind.  If you are wanting it to cut wood (2″ or less?) into different irregular shapes, then this saw does just fine.  One thing that I wanted to do was cut a log – roughly 6″ diameter – in half lengthwise, but there is not a great enough gap between the table and the housing to let the log pass, which was a little annoying. If I could turn back the clock, I don’t know if I’d buy a bandsaw, or if I would still buy this one.  For $100, it was a good deal, but if you want to do ANY resawing, I’d recommend that you look elsewhere.  I’d also recommend that you start your tool collection with buying a table saw. 🙂 But I realize that is a tough purchase out of the gate…