Will this size band saw be enough for a hobby builder to cut out telecaster 2 inch body blanks outlines?

[Englishhobbymaker]

Hi new to the forum, I have built one telecaster so far and it was difficult and time consuming with no band saw.
I am now looking to buy a small desktop bandsaw with the sole purpose for cutting electric guitar body blanks outlines of tele guitars.

I dont have space for a big standing bandsaw, would something like this sized bandsaw be possible to cut tele body blanks with?

this is the benchtop bandsaw I am considering buying 'AXMINSTER WORKSHOP AW1400B BANDSAW - 230V'

I understand it can cut up to 5.5 inches in thickness.

The table looks quite small however, Please advise me , I prefer to get a small band saw this size rather than a expensive jigsaw or using the forstner bit and hand saw and chisel and technique it is too slow and noisy for me.

Thanks for letting me join the forum been using is as a non member for few years for many questions I googled.

Please advise many thanks

 

[Freeman Keller]

In my humble opinion it is small but if all you are going to do is cut out tele bodies it will be adequate. The key here is "if all you are going to do". I build guitars, including solid and chambered solid bodies and I picked up a used 12 inch Craftsman many years ago. I consider it adequate but I wish it was at least a 14 inch. With a good blade and proper setup I can easily cut any of the up to 2 inch body woods - most of mine are mahogany. Here is mine



The table size should OK and while the throat is small, if you are careful about how you go around the parameter you should be fine. You may have to make part of a cut then back he blade out (tricky) and come at it from the other side. Here is a body I cut on mine, think about which parts will be on the inside of the throat



The problem is that once you have a band saw you will use it for lots of other things (guitar related and not). I don't do much resawing on mine but I do occassionally cut up to 5 or 6 inches. I regularly cut 3 inch nick blanks and find that a good fence is important. Here is a scarf jointed head (you only think you'll never do this)



So yes, its marginal, but will be adequate, and you may find yourself wanting to upgrade. Enjoy your new saw.

 

[Englishhobbymaker]

Thanks for the detailed and fast reply Freeman Keller, your workshop is beautiful too, when people on the forum describe bandsaws sizes 12" are you referring to the table width or the depth of cut?
I dont mind to forstner bit relief holes when cutting the curves to enable less backing up of blade I hope?

I have been cutting everything by hand for a few years, I have improved my handskills this way alot and how to sharpen the hand saws and so on. Same with preparing wood I use hand planer only and so on.

Been wanting to get a band saw now I see how slow and inefficient the method I currently have is.

I will purchase it as soon as its back in stock!

Many thanks

 

[eallen]

12" is referring to the distance from the blade to the back post, or the throat depth. When bandsaws speak of resaw they are speaking of the height between the table and the upper blade guide for how thickof material can be cut.

I have a larger throat 14" saw with 14" resaw. If I had the space I would still have a smaller 12-14" for sawing body shapes and such just due to the inconvenience of changing big blades.

 

[Englishhobbymaker]

12" is referring to the distance from the blade to the back post, or the throat depth. When bandsaws speak of resaw they are speaking of the height between the table and the upper blade guide for how thickof material can be cut.

I have a larger throat 14" saw with 14" resaw. If I had the space I would still have a smaller 12-14" for sawing body shapes and such just due to the inconvenience of changing big blades.

Thanks Eallen, that makes sense now. Should I buy two quality blades for it one for cutting longer rip cuts with a fence and one for more tight curved cuts like the telebody blanks? Thanks again

 

[Freeman Keller]

Eric answered the question about size. Twelve inches is the throat. My saw actually takes a blade that is 80 inches around. Once you buy your band saw and start lusting after a small drill press be aware that throat is very important to us guitar builders, my little desk top pillar drill as you would call it, does not have a deep enough throat to drill the thru body string holes on a tele. I've MacQuivered a way to do it but if I was starting over I would want more.

I share your like for hand tools. A recent challenge to myself was to build a classical guitar using as few power tools as possible - originally I said none but that changed when I got in to it.

My shop is the corner of my garage with all the problems associated with that. However over the years I've built 30 guitars and the little 12" saw had a part in every one of them.

 

[old_picker]

In my opinion you should put you money into a 14"machine. You can do pretty much anything to with guitar building with a decent 14" bandsaw. The AW1400B is not really going to cut the mustard if you get bitten by the bug -I believe this has already happened. If you are very limited with space it may be the only option. You will find this little saw an endless source of frustration. YKMV and others of course will howl me down.

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[old wrench]

I'm fortunate to have 14" bandsaw, but if I was limited on floor space, I believe I'd be interested in a smaller saw with features similar to the Rikon 10" model

It looks like the Axminster has a little under 8" of throat or cutting distance between the blade and the riser, just over 3" of thickness capacity, and a 1/3 hp motor

It's a fairly small machine, but it does look like it's built pretty well with a welded steel frame and a cast iron table

 

[robt57]

55" blade VS for example my 131.5" blade will be # of teeth and wear rate. My Grizly has 2.5 x teeth to wear it's blade way slower.

get extra blades... 12" throat be minimum for me for bodies. Re-saw capacity less important for slab body making.

 

[guitarbuilder]

If all you are doing is cutting out two tele bodies, then I'd consider a high quality scroll saw and good quality blades. Small bandsaws are pretty useless, having owned a couple. A tele is 1.75" thick. Plane your wood before cutting it out. Make your routs while it is a rectangle. Buy a spindle sander to clean it up to the line. Most important...read the build threads here and ignore Youtube. You'll see how not to screw things up by seeing how everyone one else did.

 

[eallen]

Thanks Eallen, that makes sense now. Should I buy two quality blades for it one for cutting longer rip cuts with a fence and one for more tight curved cuts like the telebody blanks? Thanks again

I wouldn't bother with 2 blades for a smaller saw used for cutting shapes. A good 3/8" will accomplish all needed.

 

[bullfrogblues]

I had an old Rockwell/Delta 14" band saw, and it really was an all purpose saw. I had no riser block so my resaw capability was only about 6".
One trick I learned early on was instead of using the saw on the cut away parts, I drilled them out with an appropriate Forstner bit so I didn't have to make any tight turns with the saw.

 

[58Bassman]

It has a 1/3HP motor and that should be good for whatever you need to do, as long as the blades are sharp and tightened enough for the thickness of wood.

I would recommend clamping it down, to make sure it's stable and for guitar body-sized pieces, a larger table would help. Aside from that, it looks like it would be a good choice. It's nice to have larger machines when the shop space allows, but when it doesn't- this looks like a well made saw.

One thing I would recommend- make sure that any blades you buy are annealed at the weld- if they aren't, they tend to break at that point because the weld makes the steel brittle and annealing returns it to a more flexible state.