Saws and sanders.

[Dmaxshawn]

i have a steel city band saw that the Big guy sold me and as a part timer and hobbyist it works great for my needs and its ability to resaw boo for cores.   Resawing exotics and hardwoods on this saw can get tricky you really have to have a brand new blade and dedicate a day for veneering and cores.  Yes I could probably buy a good carbide tip blade but the thickness eats up the pretty boards quicker.  I can cut them @.035-.040 and then go to the baby drum sander and take down to .025 in a coule passes.  I also have the grizzly 6x80 edge sander.  

If I was full time bowyer I'd definitely look at having two band saws edge sander  altered to fit a pattern or a spindle sander with a pattern on the table.  

Grizzly Green !!!!    hope this clears it up  

Shawn

[BigJim]

I have two machines in my shop that are real work horses. Yes, the rest are near and dear to my heart even if i haven't used them in a few months.

The two I speak of are my Grizzly widebelt and my crouch edge sander. If one of these breaks down, I just go to the office or go hunting. If anything else breaks down, I can always work around it.

Oddly, the one that was very important in the beginning (table saw) only sees ocasional use now.

Bigjim

[Brett Leinmiller]

Great input here. Thank you to all.

I'm debating the practicality of buying one bigger bs and switching out blades between resawing large stock and cutting on risers, limbs etc. The alternative would be buying a machine such as the Grizzly 0555 to compliment the bigger saw.

Its been my experience that work well laid out makes for an efficient shop. I don't know if this answers my own question or if a relatively inexpensive, smaller saw is still going to be worth the money. It would be really nice to have one saw dedicated to resaw duty.

[bornofmud]

It'd get the g0555, great workhorse and cuts veneers just fine with a carbide blade and a little fence adjustment.  Not ideal, but definitely workable.  If you then decide you want to do this stuff full time, and it'd be worth it to have a dedicated resaw bs, you can buy one and the grizzly will still be your main cutter.  You can change blades, it's what I do.  Used to play around with normal blades, finally got a carbide tipped and never looked back.  I think it's necessary if you're working with a lot of fiberglass and especially g10.  I now have two carbide blades, one for resaw, one for normal use.  Like others mentioned, I set aside a day to make a bunch of core lams and veneers and set the saw up for it, then switch it back when I'm back to normal tasks.

[BigJim]

It always irritated me to change out band saw blades so I ended up with three band saws and always looking for another.
I have two of the g0555 saws and they work great! One of them has been instrumental in the building of more bows than I can count and it keeps on ticking although the guide bearings have been locked up for years (fiberglass will ruing even the sealed bearings in short order).

BigJIm

[BigJim]

Oh, don't forget that buying a larger bandsaw will significantly increase the cost of blades...
92 1/2" blades are very very common and much cheaper.

BigJIm