I bought a bandsaw

[Craptastic]

Sweet deal on a late 70's vintage Craftsman 12" bandsaw yesterday. A model 113.243311 that appeared to work well when he turned it on, with a few extra 80" blades thrown in, for $125. The former owner said he had it for a few months but he never could get it to consistently cut straight with a lot of blade wander so he just bit the bullet and bought a new saw that he knew would work right. The new one was a real purty Laguna too. He said he paid $275 for the Craftsman but just wanted it gone at this point.

Got it home and stuck in in the workshop til I could go over it today. Glad I popped the covers and cleaned it up to inspect it before I ever even tried to cut wood with it. It all looks in pretty good shape except the guides are rather shot and that looks to be the result of the blade not being anywhere close to riding the guide bearing on the upper and lower blade guides. The bearings were adjusted back so far they never touched the blade which was probably because the guide bearings had been replaced with ones that were too large for the saw. No wonder he had blade wander. The saw blade was pretty much unsupported by the blade guide. Surprising that he hadn't twisted and snapped blades anytime he tried to saw something.

New guides and bearings on the way for a whole $25. Then I'll see if the initial impression of this being a decent bandsaw was right.

 

[Andrew A]

A very underrated bandsaw IMO. Very capable, I just needed more throat capacity

 

[Craptastic]

A very underrated bandsaw IMO. Very capable, I just needed more throat capacity

It's a decent bandsaw for the money. Replacing the guides and the thrust bearings made a hell of a difference. It's noisy (mostly the metal cabinet parts vibrating) but rather efficient. The dust collection is totally inadequate but that was the era. I've been trying to design a fence to use on it (table is aluminum so magnet fences do not stick) but otherwise freehand scrolling on deep material is even quite good.

 

[John Jimenez]

I picked one up a while back for 40 bucks. I put new wheels, guides and bearings and it has really donee a great job. I stuck a 1/2” blade on it and it handles my resawing pretty well. I think you will really like it.

 

[tvrgeek]

A bit of automotive " audio" butel damping sheets on the sheet metal will dampen most of the vibration. Solid weighted ( sandbags) base helps too.