Record BS350s

[justaskin]

Who is the prime builder of this bandsaw? I am looking for a variation of this which is available in the USA.
I am concidering the Carter guide system to replace the very sloppy upper guide which seems to suffer from considerable wear. :eusa-violin:

Richard

 

[9fingers]

Most Chinese machines appear in the west this way.

Someone does a basic design. A number of foundries produce basic castings. A different set of machine shops process the castings and make the machines. Western buyers choose a machine/shop factory to paint it their colours add any extras they want including badges and ship to the west.
This is why /how so many machines look similar but not exactly the same at a range of prices to suit their market.
The big boys like Axi are starting to put their own people in China to act as quality control and generally they are quite good products. Clearly there will be rejects from this process and maybe these appear from the smaller retailers who pile 'em high and sell'em cheap(er)

Have a look round the big US machine suppliers websites for things that look to be likely clones of the machine you are interested in.

hth

Bob

 

[Rob]

This time last year I bought a new bandsaw (BS400) and went through a fairly rigorous research process in my due diligence. One of the things I did was ask Record Power's management what the deal was with their range when they were clearly also sold by other "manufacturers" in the West but as Bob points out, with different paint jobs and some with a number of different bolt ons.

The BS350 and above (ie the 400 and 500) are noticeably better than the other people who badge them because they have cast iron band wheels as well as a cast iron fence assembly which is identical to the Startrite type fence . Record Power have taken a number of the successful design elements of the Startrite machines and implemented them on these less expensive saws. I queried how they were able to do that when they're not made by them and their response was that in the case of the bigger BS range (350 upwards) they have co-invested in the tooling with the Far eastern factory to differentiate their range. Specifically they wanted to incorporate the Startrite lessons learned about "heft" for want of a better word. Hence the greater and judicious use of cast iron. The other thing which the saw already had going for it (in the heft department) is the frame which is sufficiently hefty and compares favourably with the more expensive European made saws.

Incidentally, the reason "heft" is useful is complicated but amongst many other factors, beam strength is one of the primary factors in getting wider blades to tension properly. Correct tension and a decent quality blade are easily the two most important criteria in getting a bandsaw to cut true and eliminate drift. As an example of that heft in practical every day use. RP rate the 400 as capable of taking an inch blade. Now my experience of bandsaws is that they will really only tension properly one down from the manufacturers claim. So I would expect the 400 to really only be able to tension a 3/4" blade. However I tested mine to the limit and it was as good as the manual stated. That's what heft and a decent tensioning assembly gives. Incidentally, the N4400 max blade width is 20mm!!

If you're ripping foot thick green logs for turning blanks a 1" 3tpi blade from Tuffsaws is a very handy piece of kit indeed. Heft. I like heft!

 

[Alex161]

Hi Richard, not sure if yoiu have gone ahead yet, but I have had the Carter Stabilizer for a while now to use with my BS400 bandsaw.

It is excellent for the smaller blades and I use a 1/8" on a regular basis. However, it is not a 'replacement' for the guides, but another guide for smaller blades.

You should not be getting any excessive wear on your existing guides unless yoiu have not been setting them up correctly. How do you think your guides are not working correctly?

Alex