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Needing to downsize - smaller shop space. I just sold my table saw, Powermatic Band Saw and Powermatic Drill Press. I already have one of the Byrnes 4" Table Saws that I love. Use it for cutting fret slots and a bunch of other tasks. Great saw!

Needing a bench top band saw and drill press. I'm looking for a quality 9" band saw and drill press. Any recommendations on what to buy or what to avoid? I've had hit and miss experience on Grizzly Tools.

Appreciate any words of wisdom.

Thanks!

I have the NOVA Voyager (floor model) drill press. It is the drill press of my dreams. You might check out the NOVA Viking, the bench model. https://www.teknatool.com/products/dril ... es/viking/

The bench model has got my interest. I'm really happy with my 18" Delta but it is awful large and quite a bit bigger than I need. I have a small shop and have downsized some of my other power tools to smaller high-quality units that I'm very happy with. I checked the NOVA site and I cannot find the size of the bench model listed anywhere, I even looked through the manual. Maybe I'll give them a call.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The Nova Viking is a 16".

I saw that. What I was looking for were the physical dimensions of the tool.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve? When you say smaller high-quality tools do tell? LOL

Did you get a smaller band saw? If so, what brand.

Hey Mark, I used to build custom furniture so I still had some of my larger tools. My shop is small and I only do guitar work now so I just didn't need a lot of the bigger tools I had in there.

I replaced my full size 6" jointer with a 6" bench mounted unit from Cutech; the spiral cutting heads do a really nice job as long as the stock is not much longer than 36". I also got rid of my full size table saw for a Bosch 4100 that does everything I need with a Diablo 7 1/4" blade. Finally I just got rid of my planer after I didn't use it for a few years. I also took out the miter saw.

I still have my full size Rikon 10-325 band saw and haven't seen a smaller unit that I like yet so I will probably keep it. I got the 18" Delta drill press because it was a nice unit with the features I wanted. I could go with a smaller drill press as long as it has low runout, a depth stop, lower speeds and a solid table.

On the other hand I upsized my belt/disc sander from a 6"/36" bench unit to a free-standing Jet 10" disc/48" belt sander. It's a beast but it also gets used all the time, the disc is big enough to shape head blocks on.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The Sears Craftsman two wheel 12 inch plastic covered bandsaws are relatively light weight and can be turned into a tabletop saw by mounting the motor beside the saw rather than under it. If you mount the motor to a board and wingnut the saw to the same board you can store them as two pieces and quickly assemble them when needed. The saws are fairly common and cheap to buy on the used market. They can handle most lutherie tasks easily and I have even done some resawing on them.
For bench top drill presses I think radial drill presses offer some advantages to the woodworker. They are not as stiff as the more usual design but offer greater reach and allow boring at odd angles more easily.

This is the type of bandsaw I mentioned (some can be found for less):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284529439975?_ ... 0667.m2042

I have had a couple of the Craftsman 12 inch bandsaws--one was an older one with a metal cover and the other was the newer plastic cover model. They both worked very well. I did some light resawing with them too. I ended up replacing them because cutting banjo pegheads (they're cut perpendicular to the fingerboard surface, not to the peghead face, and they're typically pretty fancy shaped) needed more throat depth. I have a JET 18 inch saw these days.

But the 12 inch Craftsman saws are definitely worth looking at, and they're typically pretty cheap.

Dave