# Need opinion on 14" Foremost 1hp 120v bandsaw



## abehil (Sep 26, 2014)

I am buying my first bandsaw. Can someone give me an opinion whether this older Foremost is a good machine and whether blades and parts are still available?

I need to really not over spend (I want to buy a planer also). I'm watching craigslist and I see this 14" Foremost bandsaw (1984) for $250 described as needs blade but works great. While it looks clean in the picture I have no idea if Foremost is/was a quality saw.

Another option available is a Jet 10" for $150 and it has 10 hours on it so pretty much new condition. 
The only reason I am looking at the 14" is in case I start needing to resaw larger than 2×4.


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## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

It looks like the 14" is Taiwanese, ,it's just a clone of old Delta bandsaw,it has to be in tip top shape to be worth $250 ,there are many woodworkers (myself included) that use these saws.
These Bandsaws for the most part do what they are suppose to do.
I would not buy the 10" bandsaw,unless it meets all your needs,a 14" is the smallest you should be looking at.
Just my opinion.


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

I bought a 12" Craftsman (Rikon) off of CL for $150. $250 is high for my area.


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## rantingrich (Sep 19, 2014)

Look at GRIZZLYs


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Anything under 14" is going to have more blade
breakage. I use a high quality 3 wheel saw with
9" or 10" wheels and it breaks 1/4" blades 
often enough. I solder up my own and repair
them too so it's a tolerable annoyance for me,
but if you look at band saw blade prices and
consider breakage as the end of the blade's 
life, then blade costs can add up.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

$250 is high for an off-brand Taiwan 14" band
saw.

Here's why: the body castings on those saws
are all the same. Sometimes the wheels
are different and stuff like that but they are
all copies of an old Delta pattern. The problems
that come up have to do with sloppy fitting
practices with the way holes are drilled in
castings and things like the travel of the upper
guide bar. There have been reports of wheels
drilled off-center and things like that. For some
years there were a lot of articles of tuning up
these saws in magazines but they stopped
short of correcting poor machine shop work
I think, though sometimes in tuning wheels 
would be removed and shimmed-out to make 
them co-planar. Most of the corrections assumed
the bandsaw was basically made correctly 
and sought to improve the tracking performance.

That said, if the 14" saw in question, no matter
what the brand, has been checked over and
tuned up by somebody who cares about performance,
it could be a solid performer. Considering the
effort that can go into making these saws "sing",
a saw that has been tuned to do so might 
be a pretty good deal at $200.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Don't worry about blades for a saw like that. Probably uses standard 93.5" (do I have that right?) blades, but any saw shop can make up blades in any length you want. Whatever saw you buy, do get a good quality blade for it. Even on brand new saws, the blades are usually pretty poor.


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## Surfside (Jun 13, 2012)

Go to CL and do some search on used band saws, you'll find a better deal than that.


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