BS300 review

Revision 2.

Revision 3. 2007-10-23T15:36:24Z

For a current project I have a need for some 6mm oak, about 120x40mm. It is scary trying that on a table saw. So obvious to use a bandsaw. Long time back reading woodwork mags, I read the statement that the bandsaw should be the first substantial workshop purchase. I pooh poohed the idea. I'll find out now. This is the one I've bought. I agonised between this and the ten inch bigger brother, reverting to this when I realised that I simply don't work with big stuff. A six inch clearance under the guides will do me no problem. Buying at a 'show', a funny description. 5 manufacturers crowding into the yard of a moderate sized tool outlet classes as a show. OK by me though. It resolved into show prices, meaningful to those who visit woodworking shows. It was brought out to the car by a fork lift. Two men eventually lifted into my boot. 500x300mm and about 6 foot long. Careful drive home and after unpacking and careful maneuvering I got it into the workshop.

Scores in bold. Fully unpacked, the heavies are the table, cast iron, and the main stand and motor. I'd selected the wheeled base and spent nearly an hour interpreting the fuzzy green pictures to guess which way the steel angle iron shaped pieces went together. -1. Looking at the bits, the phrase British Engineering came to mind. Not today, but as applied in the fifties. Brick .. outhouse is the other variant. It is solidly constructed +1. The wheel assembly is all overlaps, giving lots of choice as to which piece overlaps which other piece. Bolting two pieces of flat steel together, one punched with a square hole, the other drilled, I tut tutted at Record, when I finished up with stud and nut on the outside. I'm going to catch my leg on that. Then I swapped the overlap and the outer oner piece, with the square punched hole meant that the bolt (with a square neck to stop it spinning) head was on the outside. Sorry Record. One flimsy bit. -1. The base is rectangular. The shorter side is held at the bottom with 1/4 rod and a locking clip. These are tied together on the longer side with a slender (1/2 inch) strip. Due to the v.clever lifting mechanism, the two shorter ends are a bit floppy during the build, and the long side strip became bent as the not insignificant legs moved around, as I bolted them. All fastened together with nut and bolts. I was heartily sick of seeing them by the time I was done. Neat design though and more than solid enough +1. I'll update this with pics when I make time. After a lot of thought, I hefted the body onto a step, then onto the legs. Yes, help would have been handy.

The main body stands on a steel plate, with the edges rounded over, downwards. I guessed that this sat over the legs... but -1, it doesn't. The edge of the steel rests on top of the flat sides of the bases angle iron. Mmmm. why? This left some M4 (guess) two inch bolts to tie the base to the body. It sat flat... except for one corner. I can only think that it had been banged in transit. I initially guessed that I'd tightened the base up whilst on uneven spot on the floor, but I'm tending towards a twisted base plate on the body now. I dont have any longer bolts that size, I'll try and cramp it down then bolt it, or drill out and use some longer M6 bolts I have.

Next the handles and table top. I was left with a spare handle which bothered me, until I realised it was for the bar on which the rip fence rests. All neat and tidy.+1.

Next the table itself. This is heavy. Other than British habit, I wonder why it needs to be so heavy, when a saw of this size is rarely going to take much weight? It bolts to a trunion, 4 bolts. The threads in the cast iron needed working to make a good fit. One remains stiff. I clearly didn't work the bolt in far enough. Aligning these is hard. I used a roller stand to take the weight whilst I nudged it this way and that to get started. Even with two bolts home I wasn't happy it was secure. The trick is to hold it off the bracket (lump of wood wedged on the lower body), which gives the bolt enough room to wiggle and find the thread. Not sure there is a better way. Found a photo of a bolt on the table, reputedly associated with the alignment of the table and blade at 90°. I presumed, wrongly, that it was there. It wasn't. But there were a few spare bits. One of which was the said piece. Need to read the wording very carefully prior to hunting it down. Screws into the table underside and acts as a stop against the frame! Simple, effective, but the table tilt is so sensitive it took me 15 minutes to get it right. I think it is shown in section 3, item 8 as a 'nut and bolt'. Lights and bushels?

There is a 3/4 round bar that bolts to the (working) front edge of the table. On this slides a machined piece to which the fence is bolted. At some time in its life, a very sharp edge had caught this, dug in, and left a lethal spike sticking out. Blood to the fore. Filed it down. Accident? Yes, but Record need to take more care. -2 for crap QC. Aligned the fence using a brilliant and very simple piece of engineering, +2. The two bolts which hold the bar at the font of the table can be tweaked either side of the table edge, and are 'sloppy' by a millimetre, such that I can align the fence with the blade and the fence with the table, in very fine increments. Nice one Record. After wiping the grease off the table I called it a day. Record recommend Silicon spray to keep the table top slippy. I'm wondering what I use to keep it from going rusty. Cast may be solid, and flat, but it rusts something cronic. Is 'silicon spray' the same thing as the WD40 I have? I don't see that as 'dry'.

Next inside to watch the freebie video from Record. Again a mixed bag. The guy clearly knows his stuff, speaks clearly and most of the shots are good. The sound is highly variable, on one track barely audible -1. The other downer is that the guy is using two different models. Design iterations I guess +1 which shows that they are improving it. The upside is that a couple of times on the instructions, I read "with a 13mm spanner, not provided", yet there is a 13mm spanner in the bag of goodies! +1. They need a bit more QA in the documentation side. Back to the video. The presenters confidence is really quite inspiring. He runs through setup (two cameras would have helped when he goes round the back to slack off the cam to release blade tension) +1, blade selection, use and then advertises other Record saws. IMHO fully covers the machine +1. Makes it all look easy, or at least straight forwards and made me want to nip outside and carry on setting it up. His advice on blade tension is of the pragmatic variety. His advice on blade selection is relaxed (he demonstrates using a 3/8 blade to cut a two inch bowl blank and to rip a 5 inch block. His advice on bearing guides is nearing comical. He demonstrates slicing a thin veneer, with the guides backed off. Makes a very good job of it. As I said, confidence inspiring. +2. Leaves you thinking positively and unafraid of mucking the job up. Occasionally I noted variances between the machine on the DVD and the one outside, which kept bugging me. A giveaway? No. They sell it at a tenner. Out of date. Definately. Needs improving (tech quality) and bringing up to date. -1

Started it up this morning. Set the rip fence to 90°? You may, but in my case it didn't work. Symptom? When ripping against the fence. At the start of the cut, it drifts out to the right then seems to remain parallel. Trying to follow other guides I freehand cut to a line, marked the line on the table, then set the fence to that. No, not good enough. Tried to find a line parallel to the blade. Too thin. Changed to a 5/8 blade. That's better. With a half inch steel rule against the blade, leave it, then tweak the fence guide adjusters to align it. Just remember to use the locknut when tightening down. It's very sensitive. Re-checked the rip fence, 90 ° to the table. Oh. Daylight either end (top and bottom) of the rip fence. -1. Darned thing isn't straight. Must be half a mil top to bottom. It's an ali extrusion. Not up to spec for this job. OK for <1", but for a 3" thick piece? More room for error. After lots of tweaking I re-checked the bearing guides and all of a sudden I could work without my ear defenders! Much better. Unsure what that was. I don't think I'll be putting that 3/8 blade back on. The 5/8 has an issue. When cutting, it 'kerchink's perhaps once per revolution. Sounds as if something isn't right, weld perhaps. But it does cut way better. Odd experience with the cam tensioner. It flipped over from 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock with the 3/8 blade on. Barely get it to 12 o'clock with the 5/8 on. Reduced the tension accordingly, cam still isn't working as it did on the thinner blade. Blade length perhaps? Duredge is sounding like a good bet for a telephone call on Monday. I later installed the new, 3/8 4tpi skip blade. It too is very tight on the wheels, and also has the 'kerchink' sound as it rotates! Having taken more time to set it up though, this one isn't screaming - I can use it without ear defenders. Later set up resulted in quieter running, though not without the 'kerchink'. Replacement blades ordered.

Another gripe. Setting the bearing guides requires two allen keys. Ergonomics says I'm going to be adjusting them together.. why the heck aren't they all the same size? -1. Tried using the x-cut fence. Seems the new ninety is about 89.5°. Mitre cuts and a bandsaw? No. With the rip fence about 2.5mm off in 245mm (1.05 ° out?), this geometry is getting a bit skewed.

The 4" outfeed is supposed to collect dust. After about 100²" of cuts, I've got sawdust on the top of the machine. Most seems to come away from the lower bearing area, but the dust outlet is pretty clear, but then half of it is covered up with steel place in the lower cabinet. Solution? Re-route the vacuum cleaner so the hose is readily accessible after using the saw.

Ease of use. Yes it's dangerous. Those teeth are a bit on the wicked side. It leaves me calmer than when using the table saw. I ripped some 8mm oak for drawer fronts with another 8mm scrap. +1 I need another technique for using the push stick!

One more point. The mitre fench runs in a ... 6mm T groove. So I can't use an alternative mitre fence.

The blade tension mechanism (a knob on the top) is sufficiently stiff I need to use two hands to even move it. I'm guessing this is due to the spring by which tension is maintained. -1. Maybe it is necessary, I don't know. The guy on the video spins it with one hand!

With respect to setting the guides, the only missing item is a torch! With a bit of sawdust, it's really hard to see what's happening under the table. Does your workshop have low level 'bandsaw' lighting?

The on-off + cutout switch is neat and simple. Lift the cover, switch on. Push with the cover down and it goes off!

Warning

When I wanted to move the entire saw, I reached for the table, assuming the wheels to be up, i.e. in contact with the ground. Reach for a bandsaw and what comes to hand? The big strong table. Except the big strong table is connected to the other 60kg whatever, of the saw body, by a very weak (in comparison) trunnion mechanism. I could see the table move relative to the body. So much for accurately setting up the angles! -1, for each of us. A design weakness and a bit of stupidity on my part. Some form of handle is needed to reduce the occurrence of this - or make the trunnion strong enough to withstand such usage.

I stand corrected on this. The trunnion held, the single bolt fastening the table+ trunnion to the body gave a little allowing the twist that I registered.

Having changed the blade twice now I noted an oddity. It seems pretty obvious to me that the line through the table slot should align with the right hand side of the two wheels? Unless I've buggered it up trying to move the saw using the table (possible) I find it odd that the blade sits right to one side of the table insert. Now solved. When investigating the 'twist' on the table wrt the body, I found it not to resemble the torturing of bent metal. It turned out to be the sliding of one piece wrt another. The lower body supports a chunk that holds the guides and the table trunnion. It would appear that one 13mm bolt holds this together. The turning was the result of the table moving on this bolt. Loosen it, twist, and the slot lines up nicely with the blade centred in it. +1 for simplicity. I was going to score it downwards for a design flaw, but it's either fiendishly clever, bitter experience with pratts like me or a lack of anywhere else to bolt the two chunks together. So far I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Minor quibble with the documentation. The PDF downloaded from the site todays date has text 'blacked out', by bad graphics. See fig 9.1. It's where some graphics package has been used to draw the line drawing, then when imported into the PDF the resolution is mismatched. Same with figure 9.2. The table in figure 9,3 has been enlarged which has screwed up the legibility. Ditto 11.11 and the drawing in section 12, the exploded view of the parts, is really quite hard to look at on the first page, yet the second page of section 12 is crystal clear! The documentation is important to new users Record!

Oh, and don't forget the 5 year warranty? +1

Variances

This is a list of the variances I've found between the actual saw and either the literature provided (manual and DVD) and the website. RPS is the current spec. Changed around 20 Oct 07. The manual, without revision information, is available here in PDF. I note that this version is more up to date than the paper version packed in my saw. The web based one has a far clearer picture of how the body is mounted on the wheels.

1. Blades - range of widths. Web 6-19mm width. machine label, 6-15, manual 6-19mm. Email from Lee at Record, "they do say 5/8, but also do a 3/4 which will fit although it is very tight on the blade guides and may cause you problems." I'd suggest stick with the 5/8 which is tight enough to cause blood to flow.
2. Manual has a Table stop safety bolt (clamps the slot where the blade is removed). No such hole in the table. Also mentioned in the DVD as the 'table locking screw'
3. Saw has two speeds. Not mentioned on the DVD. Wrong. Mentioned briefly in the introduction. Sorry Record.
4. The DVD shows a different rip fence running bar to my machine.
5. The most recent manual shows two side braces on the wheel kit. The kit provides 4. With two, your toes don't get caught up in the side braces when you release the wheels! Assuming it's sufficient, remove the one that catches your toes.
6. DVD mentions 'if cutting non-ferrous material. The manual says unsuited to cutting metal.
7. The DVD mentions the 3/4 horse, 550W motor. I think mine has a 750W motor.