General International 3.4 Amp 10 in. Woodcutting Band Saw

6 reviews for General International 3.4 Amp 10 in. Woodcutting Band Saw

1. Rated 5 out of 5

   Paris Block
   August 29, 2022    Verified Purchase

   easy to assemble. Cuts thick oak with ease.

2. Rated 5 out of 5

   Joshua Jerde
   January 9, 2022    Verified Purchase

   I received the online order exactly in time for Christmas. When unboxed, I found that everything had been packed well. The assembly instructions were easy to follow and best of all, the saw works beautifully.What’s not to like?

3. Rated 4 out of 5

   Justus Nikolaus
   July 20, 2021    Verified Purchase

   Unfortunately, I returned this product to my local Home Depot. The only reason was the limited availability of saw blades for this saw. I could only find one blade in the entire city that would fit. I would have had to order them on line.Otherwise, I believe this to be a very good tool and I wish I could have kept it.

4. Rated 4 out of 5

   Alda Kulas
   July 18, 2021    Verified Purchase

   This machine is solidly built, weighing 90 pounds total (yes, I actually weighed it). Doesn’t suffer from the squeaks, rattles, vibration, or other issues common to 9-inch models. This machine is two grades up from your common 9-inch model, but isn’t without flaws.The packaging is pretty bad. Most of the parts included with the machine were not nestled in their designated Styrofoam places, but instead the Styrofoam was broken and the various parts were left to rattle around mingled together in a heap in the center of the box. Also, the saw was shipped with the blade tensioned, which I don’t like. Assembly is mostly straight forward, but the included guide has some steps omitted & out of order. The table is solid, heavy, & spacious. The fence is well built & secure, & there’s a little glass lens with a mark that let’s you pretend you’re getting laser-like cut accuracy. I did some 1/16 inch trims without issue. I suspect I could easily get thinner should I try.The included miter-guide fits solidly in the t-slot on the table, but it a little wonky to adjust and doesn’t slide very smoothly. There is no indent at 0′, which it should have.The table’s tilt mechanism is unlike any other I’ve seen. It holds the table firmly, but doesn’t move easily & a ratcheting mechanism isn’t included to make adjustment easier. You just unlock by loosening the lock nut and sliding it (roughly) to the desired degree, which is marked plainly on the angle-guide.All of the adjustments work easily enough. It has a blade tension quick-release lever, & a sight glass to see the blade tracking, but frankly the blade tracked so well despite an oddly ungulating wheel that I just adjusted tracking with the door open. A black blade on a black rubber tire just isn’t easy to see through a little plastic window.It has a blade-tension guide built right into the tensioner so you don’t have to guess, it shoes you the needed tension markings for the various blade widths. It was well setup at the factory (other than table-perpendicular to blade setting, which wasn’t done at all), & I only tweaked a few settings, the guide bearing’s.The blade guard tracks well, is parallel with the blade, & doesn’t change side to side or front to back when moving it up and down. It’s solidly built & works fairly well.Now for the big issue: the guide bearings cannot be adjusted side to side for their proximity to the blade, and they’re off. Top bearing on the right too close, bottom bearing on the left too close. I don’t see any way to move them in that direction and will contact the manufacturer for tips, because if you’ve ever seen any band-saw tuning instruction, that’s the thing they focus on the most (after blade tensioning).It runs quietly and there’s a disk with holes right where the blade passes the table to suck sawdust through the vacuum port at the bottom, which supports multiple hose sizes.This model is solidly built & doesn’t compete with the 9 inch models. It’s closest competition would be the Wen 10″ or the Rikon 10″. The Wen is less expensive & includes the ability to run the blade slower (for cutting metal), but I suspect the quality isn’t as good and videos of the 10 inch Wen I’ve seen have that weird rubbing sound that occurs every rotation of the blade, like it is rubbing on something, but I can’t figure out what. The 9″ inch Wen does this too. The Rikon is similarly priced, doesn’t include a miter gauge, but does have better adjusting blade-guide bearings. I’m not sure this saw is the best deal out there, nor am I sure it’s worth it’s retail price, but it’s a decent machine for the size and vastly more substantive than the 9 inch models, build & quality-wise.I should mention the motor is advertised as being “1/3 HP.” I’m not so sure that’s true. The motor is quite a bit larger than the 1/3 HP motors I’ve seen on 9 inch band-saws, and doing the math, 3.3 Amps at 120 Volts yields .53 HP, or “1/2 HP.” I’ve seen this model advertised both ways, as a 1/3 HP & a 1/2 HP, so for what it’s worth, the math works out to 1/2 HP. I can’t imagine there’s much mechanical loss, since it’s a simple urethane belt on two pulleys, & I doubt they’d calculate mechanical losses for such a simple system.

5. Rated 5 out of 5

   Dan Beer
   April 15, 2021    Verified Purchase

   I think that I read almost every review on this band saw before buying it. There were a few people that had a negative reviews souly based on how it was cheaply packed. I will say from My experience the packaging did well based on the fact that it shipped originaly from China. If it was packed better it would cost much more. A couple of fasteners were missing but no big deal, I had what I needed in my stock. I was impressed with the quality of the saw and stand. I’ve been in the sheet metal business for the past 25 years and the quality compares to ours. A few people complained about the lack of instructions in the assembly manual, I found everything that I needed as far as assembly instructions. Being mechanically inclined does help.I purchased this saw for my personal hobby and have found it to be an Excellant addition to my power tool inventory. For the price it is well worth buying and I’m very happy with the saw.

6. Rated 5 out of 5

   Rose Schulist
   December 31, 2020    Verified Purchase

   This was a Christmas gift and has just had it about 2 weeks. He loves that it has its own stand and a light but a little disappointed that the box was crushed in shipping and it required a little repair before he could start using it. It is well built and heavy duty and loves having it.It more than meets his expectations.