- Joined
- Jun 10, 2013
- Messages
- 130
Eastwood Bench Top Bandsaw review
It’s time to “upgrade” my bench top bandsaw. There are only a few different versions of these things floating around the web, just rebranded, and this is a good example. Probably the most common version is the KaKa Industrial version – easy to find anywhere or on Amazon, the Eastwood in the end is a blue version of such. They all start out as a “BS-85” made in China so you can Google that also.
First off I made a standoff to support larger pieces of which I attached the cut-off bar. If you wanted to take that bar on/off one would have to bolt from the underside which is rather a PIA. This is set at the exact height of the vice.
Of course at this price point one cannot expect too much. Initial impression is good, seems solid, but after one cut I notice it does not cut square over my 1” bar stock. In the pics you can see I used a square and measured with the blade all the way down and all the way up, I had to shim the vice 0.025” on the one side (0.032” might have been perfect but I didn’t have anything that size) as the main plate is simply not flat (yes, flat is relative but in this case it’s not good enough). Vise measures parallel so it’s not that. Anyway, much better and the cut will only deviate a few thou over most things I cut.
I then added an “air deflector” for the motor. A little wind never hurt anyone but this thing blows right in your face, with any accompanying metal dust, so I wanted to eliminate that. A 1” aluminum angle channel attached to one of the motor mounts does the trick.
The “feet” have no traction whatsoever and it easily slides around on the table top so I added a couple of rubber feet to the front to replace the OEM stuff.
Finally, I added a 1” fender washer on the stand-off clamp as the plastic knob does not have enough “wheelbase” to hold the clamp firmly.
So… like most things like this I have found that the factory does about 90% and you need to do the last 10%. I’m expecting it to be reliable and there should be tons of these things out there and parts should be readily available if needed. Time will tell, but yes, I would purchase it again. Watch for “sale prices” and Eastwood gave an additional discount “before you go” code.
JK
It’s time to “upgrade” my bench top bandsaw. There are only a few different versions of these things floating around the web, just rebranded, and this is a good example. Probably the most common version is the KaKa Industrial version – easy to find anywhere or on Amazon, the Eastwood in the end is a blue version of such. They all start out as a “BS-85” made in China so you can Google that also.
First off I made a standoff to support larger pieces of which I attached the cut-off bar. If you wanted to take that bar on/off one would have to bolt from the underside which is rather a PIA. This is set at the exact height of the vice.
Of course at this price point one cannot expect too much. Initial impression is good, seems solid, but after one cut I notice it does not cut square over my 1” bar stock. In the pics you can see I used a square and measured with the blade all the way down and all the way up, I had to shim the vice 0.025” on the one side (0.032” might have been perfect but I didn’t have anything that size) as the main plate is simply not flat (yes, flat is relative but in this case it’s not good enough). Vise measures parallel so it’s not that. Anyway, much better and the cut will only deviate a few thou over most things I cut.
I then added an “air deflector” for the motor. A little wind never hurt anyone but this thing blows right in your face, with any accompanying metal dust, so I wanted to eliminate that. A 1” aluminum angle channel attached to one of the motor mounts does the trick.
The “feet” have no traction whatsoever and it easily slides around on the table top so I added a couple of rubber feet to the front to replace the OEM stuff.
Finally, I added a 1” fender washer on the stand-off clamp as the plastic knob does not have enough “wheelbase” to hold the clamp firmly.
So… like most things like this I have found that the factory does about 90% and you need to do the last 10%. I’m expecting it to be reliable and there should be tons of these things out there and parts should be readily available if needed. Time will tell, but yes, I would purchase it again. Watch for “sale prices” and Eastwood gave an additional discount “before you go” code.
JK
