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Craftsman Tilt Head 1,1/8hp 12" band saw

19K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  dschlic1 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Anyone else ever buy one of these? They were great for cutting beveled edges on curves pieces and some angle cuts when they were new and working right. They were an interesting concept but made out of plastic and they lied about the motor HP.
There is a Utube video on them but I don't know how to put it on here.
 
#5 ·
Anyone else ever buy one of these?
[...]
There is a Utube video on them but I don t know how to put it on here.
- pontic
Looks to be the same saw that someone gave Matthias Wandel (woodgears.ca) for free. He wasn't too impressed. You can check out his thoughts on them along with a video of his attempts to get it to work here: Craftsman bandsaw repair fail

To save you some time, this was the end result:


Cheers,
Brad
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
The tilting head, which Craftsman did not invent, is a good idea if done right. The old time ship saws, usually 20" to 36" in capacity, often had tilting heads. That allowed one to saw bevels on big timbers and hull planking without having to fight gravity (although that should not be a problem for those who believe gravity is only a theory).

I looked at those when they first came out. I was not impressed with the poor fits of the aluminum parts. Same thing with a job site saw they were selling at the time. The table extensions didn't even come close to lining up with the main saw body.

Rather than smash one up and dumping it, I'd take the aluminum into the recycle center. Some of those will take electric motors, too.
 
#10 ·
I have one I purchased off of Craigslist. Spent about three days reworking the saw, but it now works. I have been able to saw a 2×8 yellow pine the long ways. Slow but it gets the job done. I have two complaints. First there is no way to retro fit better blade guides. Second the cut is very rough.
 
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