Henry,
Good to see a manufacturer interested in users views. There was no question in your survey regarding the importance of cutting accuracy.
The reason I (and possibly others) joined this group was to solve a problem with their faulty bandsaw, for me it was to resolve accuracy problems. I have a lot of tools but only join user groups for the tools I have had problems with and need more information to fix them.
I bought a 30 year old 4x6 second-hand bandsaw, made in Taiwan, thinking it was a good deal at 1/4 the price of a new one. Unfortunately the bandsaw had poor manufacturing quality, the pivot pin for the cutting arm was not parallel to the work surface and always cut on an angle. The only fix for this is regrinding the work surface (thank you John for helping with this) or making one of the ears for the pivot pin "adjustable".
I think a problem with buying these bandsaws, or any tooling now, is determining how accurate the saw cuts, or is it fully adjustable to enable the user to make it cut properly compared with others on the market. I've learnt we can't just assume that the tool will cut perfectly from the factory or be adjustable. Almost every part of my bandsaw has required adjustment/modification to get it to cut accurately, all of these things could have been easily sorted out at design or manufacture stages.
John has just posted a very good list of requirements and things I also feel a good 4x6 bandsaw should have. I think getting the saw away from "looks like all the others" so must be crap or good may be an important selling point as John mentioned at the beginning of his list.
Finally, "why do I need a small bandsaw for DIY"?
A small bandsaw fulfils my requirements to cut materials for my projects "quickly", "quietly", "safely" AND "accurately" with the "least effort" possible on my part, along with "reduced dust" creation. None of the other tools I have, grinders, a metal chop-saw (I rarely use this now and thinking of selling it) come close to filling all these requirements as well as the bandsaw does. But, a good small bandsaw costs a lot more than these other tools, which is why I bought a used one.
Hope that helps somehow.
Steve
