Charnwood W730 14' Bandsaw 1100W 230V

"I wanted to put this to some use before writing a review to be more helpful than those reviews that say '5 stars - not yet unboxed it'. So after a few weeks of resawing 150 year old floor boards here goes! First, Yandles, and Charnwood, have exceptional customer service. Phone calls and delivery slots sorted before I could blink. And when one part needed replacing, it arrived in two days, no questions asked. That said, when it arrived, after taking off the plastic wrap, the box had two worrying size 13 foot prints on it and was well knocked around. Nothing seems to have been damaged as a result, but not a great start. Assembly was a minor pain - instructions say things like 'use an M8 bolt' without clarifying which of the 3 lengths they're referring to. Not too bad if you use some logic and count holes. One bolt thread as mangled and it ruined the fitting it should have gone into (which is not described in the instructions - they refer to (loose) nuts, but these have now been replaced by threaded bits in the metal panels). Fine tuning the saw is a pain. The upper thrust/bearings have lightweight thumbscrews that undo themselves in a heartbeat - get a set of pliers on them to make them stay put. The bearings also didn't align with the blade, so one would touch and one would not come close - had to take the upper arm apart and reposition the armature it to fix it. The lower bearings/thrust are a complete PITA to get to and set up, but at least they have grub screws that (mostly) don't come loose. The cast iron table is pretty good (had to get a replacement as one mitre slot was too tight). But it's only 1/4" slots not 3/8" so not really 'professional'. The mitre gauge looks more solid than the usual junk you get at least. There are two problems with the table though. The trunnion for setting it is a joke - huge amounts of play and very flimsy. You have to fiddle a lot with the angle setting knob and the separate locking mechanism and get them to bind against each other to lock it firm, and good luck getting it set to 90 - tightening the locking arm can deflect it by a good few degrees. The other issue is with the fence rail attachment - it has screws they advise you to tighten to ensure a good fit. Don't do this as it warps the table - the screws are either side of the slot for the blade. But since the fence is a pointless flimsy piece of junk you probably won't want to attach the rail anyway. And why sell a 225mm resaw capacity machine with a fence that's 50mm tall? Just make a fence and clamp it on. The HP seem good so far - the machine isn't struggling with resawing old boards (they are really tough and can dull an M42 blade in no time). But it is *not* quiet. Really not quiet. All in all, if I had me time again I would have saved a bit longer and bought the Record saw. Likely it will still have 'machine on a budget' problems, but I'd rather take the chance that it had a little bit better build quality. "

"I have had a wonderful experience with my Charnwood Bandsaw so far. it was the first one I have spent serious money on and at £500 its not cheap, but I wanted something that would do everything I needed, which was to cut complex shapes, rip boards and slabs into thinner pieces and allow me to prepare pieces for construction witha minimum of sanding and fuss. I make guitars and rings made of natural materials, so chopping wood into thin pieces for laminate work meant I needed something strong. The Pros - This bandsaw excels as everything I throw at it. the huge 9 inch cutting depth means I can rip slabs of hardwood into guitar tops and it simply sails through everything. I ripped a whole slab of Purpleheart which is particularly unforgiving but it took it in its stride. theres enough power here to handle pretty much anything. Problems? Yes, there are always some until you get it set up correctly - and let me stress this point - you need to work WITH the machine and get it set up properly before it will do exactly what you want. The biggest issue I had whas that the blade did like to wander to the left when I first used it. I traced the issue to one of the blade bearing adjusters coming loose mid cut. I added a spring to the thread which allowed me to create a lot more tension on the thread so it doesn't undo while I am cutting long pieces. this is worth bearing in mind for any bandsaw I had 1 occasion where the piece kicked up at me but the height guide caught. The guide could be a bit more robust. its made of alloy and quite flexible, but unless you are spending £1000 and up, dont expect cast iron guides. The mitre guide has an annoying catch on the end of its track guide so that if you dont manually move it, you cant push the guide along the runner, however this is a minor annoyance that can stop you mid flow from starting a pass through the blade I have to say that the instructions that came with it are not that detailed. it takes a few read through to work out what is what, but even with that, it only took me and my partner 90 minutes to get it completely set up and installed in my workshop. have someone help you as the main assembly of the saw is VERY HEAVY! If youre going to buy any saw, My advice is to add 10% of the your purchase price and get some additional blades. the supplied blade is a 4tpi 3/4 inch blade so its not that sutable for cutting curves and while it will rip wood into pieces, it does leave a lot of tooling marks on the material. Yandles sell replacement blades fairly cheaply having a few different blades will add versatility to the saw thinner blades for cutting shapes and additional teeth per inch will allow cleaner cuts on long pieces Also have some scrap wood handy. Making a sacrificial base to the blade or the fence will help with some jobs. Overall, this is a fine machine and will last you a Long time! Clean it regularly! I have a dedicated hoover to suck the sawdust which I stick into sealable bags for glue join filling. be Warned - YOU WILLL MAKE HUGE AMOUNTS OF SAWDUST - Wear a suitable mask (with particulate filters) and dont forget eye and ear protection!"

"Product as described. Haven’t use it much. However it is easy to setup and cuts are straight and neat. Will buy it again. "

"excellent delivery time, very well packed. seems to be doing a good job so far"

"Delivered six days after ordering. Damage to base door but only slight scuffing due to poor packing. Very heavy and solid machine that I was able to quickly set up to test.Tested of. Setting up the next day to cut accurately was a different matter.Had to buy longer hex keys and strip out bearing guides. However it cuts 6 inch squares for carving easy.It's a big solid bandsaw that requires care and patience to set up. "