Decomisioning the Small bandsaw and the portable dust collector

Teams Woodworking
1

Hello people!

I want to decommission the small bandsaw and the portable dust collector. The real state at the shop is getting expensive and these tools don’t add to the shop.
If we decide to get rid of them, they could be sold as they are on gumtree or FB, they could be given away to similar organizations to us or they could be taken by other teams. I just don’t want them in the shop nor want them to be a woodshop team responsibility.

Small bandsaw

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For the last few month, this bandsaw has been without use. We are running the consumables for this machine on a BYO scheme. This is because is hard to keep track of the use of the machine because is missing an interlock and as well there’s no induction prepared for this machine. This machine is undersize in a lot of scenarios and the quality of this machine is way down in the entry level market. People who use this machine tend to try doing things you can’t actually do with it.
If we compare this machine to our Hammer N4400 (the big bandsaw) it can’t do anything that the hammer can do.
A machine in the shop means the responsibility to maintaining and creating the whole WAD thing for it, in other words, it means a lot of work.
Inductions for the hammer are running smoothly and nobody is complaining. The hammer machine is totally approachable and it’s worth be maintained, as well is a professional machine that can take the beat up of living on the hsbne (this means less time maintaining it).
I believe the cost of this machine brand new is $500 dollars, probably we could ask $250 for it maybe (I don’t really know). The point is, I understand that because the price is so low, we don’t need to vote for this at a general meeting. Having said this I’m bringing this to you.

Summarizing

I want to get rid of the bandsaw because:

  1. We already have a bandsaw totally accessible.
  2. We need the floor space to allow for a better workflow on the woodshop.
  3. Maintaining this machine creates a cost that doesn’t match its benefits (is not just about consumables, man-hours is a cost as well that we tend to not pay attention).

Portable dust collector

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We have a portable dust collector that has served very well in the past but now that we have the dust collection system working its not being used anymore. As well it has been broken for the last few month (is just rewiring the electrical switch that came loose though).
Just like with the small bandsaw, this tool is a redundancy that we don’t need in the shop. As well because it uses a bag filter is a health concern.

2

is the small bandsaw useful because it takes a finer blade? can it do finer work that the hammer cant?

3

The N4400 can take fine blades also. the bp250 is nice because the blades are smaller/cheaper and the general advantages of having more machines (ie we can leave small blades in one and let it specialise)

But, we trialled that for a bit and without WAD and interlock, people just straight up broke all the fine blades because that was the machine accessible to them and they wanted to use a bandsaw and couldnt use the n4400.

So yeah, only worthwhile if the shop wants to WAD/interlock it, and if they dont then its a bit moot.

4

The n4400 can take small blades as well. A 10mm/4tpi wide blades do good curves, a 6mm/6tpi would be perfect.
We will be keeping this two plus the 27mm/1.3 tpi always available once budget concerns have been set-up.

5

The small bandsaw doesn’t do anything big Hammer bandsaw or a scroll saw can not. It’s just in the way and is barely, if ever, used. I fully support getting rid of it.

6

not arguing agains the main topic, just want to make a quick point:

If a machine is not stocked with consumables, and is not accessible, no arguments can be made on the basis of usage, as it is not ready to be used.