Official Luthiers Forum!

As you may remember or not! Last year I bought a almost new Craftsman Professional 12" bandsaw from a cabinet shop that was going out of business. It was 4 months old when I bought it. It had been upgraded to a 1-1/2hp drive system. It is working fine. The saw appears to be a Rikon sold under Craftsman name with one exception. the blade length is 89 1/2". The Same saw in a Jet or a Rikon takes a 91" blade. Sears does not carry the blades in house. I can find 90 1/2" and 91" blades for their older saws all over the place but I have to online order the 89 1/2" of have them made up. Which I would most of the time anyway but it would be nice to be able to pick one up in a pinch locally. I just can't see why they found it necessary to to set the wheel centers short just to give a proprietary element to the saw. Just seems pointless to me. By the way the saw works great with a 1-1/2hp in lue of the 3/4hp it comes with.MichaelP39084.4721759259

Michael, I think it is standard practice for most companies to maintain a "frustration" committee whose primary function is to figure out new ways to irritate consumers.


Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I understand your frustration Michael, i have the 14" one from Craftman and it uses 99 3/4" blades IIRC, which are not available locally to the stores where i went anyway.

Other than that, the saw operates very smoothly though!

I know what you mean about not being able to find them locally. I have the 10" version of that Craftsman/Rikon saw and I love it so far, especially at the "open box" price of $105. I ordered some Timberwolf blades from Suffolk Machinery, it didn't take long to get blades made for it, and wasn't that pricy... But yeah, it's nice to be able to run to the hardware store in a pinch.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

There is an article on patching up bandsaw blades in shopnotes #86 {I think the one with the thiickness sander project anyhow}
- it looks like with a simple jig and a couple common tools you can alter or repair a bandsaw blade quite easily. I think it even suggests buying blade in bulk and making your own in the article - but mabye I read that elsewhere, I forget,
It wouldnt be too to hard to alter a blade by the looks of it.
Cheers
Charliewood

Have you tried a 91" blade? That could easily fall withing your saw's range of adjustment. It's not like there's a law that says you must only use the manufacturer's specified length.

Craftsman Professional is an oxymoron, you understand.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

[QUOTE=Howard Klepper] Have you tried a 91" blade? That could easily fall withing your saw's range of adjustment. It's not like there's a law that says you must only use the manufacturer's specified length.

Craftsman Professional is an oxymoron, you understand.[/QUOTE]

Ha Ha yea I knew going in Actually it is a prety good saw once upgraded to 1-1/2hp

Michael,
I have the same saw as Serge at 99 3/4" and resently sent an email to
http://www.carterproducts.com
asking them about this size.
They said there is no welding charge. They charge the same as there 105" standard blade.
Also 10% off of 10 or more blades.
Serge, have you figured a place to get blades?

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

R&D Bandsaws here in Canada (Brampton Ontario) will custom make blades as well ( I use only their industrial ones), and you get 15% off the 4th blade.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Neither of my bandsaws use standard length blades (a 50's Beaver, and 60's
Craftsman / King Seeley). I'm fortunate to be about a 20 minute drive from
Detroit Band Saw, which will make me blades there as I wait. I end up with
better quality custom blades than what you can find at a hardware store, at a
cheaper price! It's been a while since I had any made but if I remember
correctly a 100" Morse flexback 1/2" costs me under $10-$12 each. I had
briefly considered buying a blade welder until I found just how cheap
custom blades were.

Check around your area for blade shops and you may find one. If not there
are plenty of places like Detroit Band Saw that will ship to you.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

How hard would it be to add a 1/2" riser block?

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

can't with out cutting the frame and adding flanges.

That's too bad. I figured you already thought about it.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I think that is the same length my Laguna LT13 uses I order timberwolf blades from suffix machinery, usually takes about a week to get them.

[QUOTE=Howard Klepper] Craftsman Professional is an oxymoron, you understand.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Wade S.] Michael,
I have the same saw as Serge at 99 3/4" and resently sent an email to
http://www.carterproducts.com
asking them about this size.
They said there is no welding charge. They charge the same as there 105" standard blade.
Also 10% off of 10 or more blades.
Serge, have you figured a place to get blades?

Wade
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the tip Wade! i bookmarked your link!

Yes, i ordered my blades directly from Sears and it comes in a package of 3, i'd say their blades are cheapo if i compare with the TRIMASTER ones or Timberwolf but when you need them fast, you sometimes take the easy route.

Thanks also Charlie for the Shop Notes tip, will give that a look!

While adding the link above, i retrieved this link for those interested, check at the bottom of the page:

http://www.pswood.com/home.php?cat=47