– So, Mr. Kyle Bellon, one of
the viewers of this channel, sent me this as a gift. Thank you very much. I wanna know, is this WEN band
saw a good beginner band saw? This is a nine-inch band saw, meaning it'll cut nine inches wide, that it'll cut three
and a half inches deep. This will be excellent for
cutting out small parts, which is one of the main
reasons I want a band saw. I was given this as a gift. So, take that for what it's worth, but you gotta see this review. This video is brought to
you by 731woodworks.com.
Be sure to check out our store where we have build plans, merchandise, as well as products we make
right here in the shop. Instruction manual. A little miter gauge. It's plastic and aluminum. It looks like a little fence. It's also aluminum. We've got our tabletop. It's really lightweight. It feels like aluminum. So what's awesome that I can see so far is I don't have to put a whole lot together. And I like that. I like the size of it 'cause it's not going to take
up a ton of room in the shop, and space is at a premium right now. The blade is already installed. (upbeat music) So I'll give you a quick
overview of the saw and then we'll start cutting something.
So the back is just the motor and then it also has
dust collection which… Yes. Up here we can adjust how
the blade is tracking. On the very top is a tensioning knob that you can turn to loosen
and tighten the blade. And then back here we have our knobs to adjust the angle of
the table from 0 to 45. There's a little window here so you can see how the blade
is tracking on the pulleys that are inside. I'll open that door in just a second. And then down here is a little knob and all that does is
lock that door closed. Same thing with this big knob, it just locks the door closed. And then the front side
we have our on-off switch. And then the two access panels so you can change the blade
out when you're ready.
It does come with a little fence. It locks on there good and
solid, which I really do like and it actually kind of surprised me that it's so solid on there. And it looks like it's fairly square. It does have a little miter gauge. This is fairly cheap. It's kind of expected. But if you needed it, you got it. Keep in mind I've never
used a band saw in my life.
The only thing close I've
ever used is a jigsaw. So if I do something wrong
in this video and you see it and it can improve my cuts or my safety, you can drop those in the comments below and let me know that, and others can check those out as well. So I wanted to be able
to clean up CNC parts. When I misset the CNC, it
doesn't cut deep enough.
As you can see, there are
some pieces sticking off there that I need to clean up. (upbeat music) Oh yeah, baby, yeah. That's all right. Oh, that's perfect. That's all right, right there. Yes, sir. That's exactly what I needed this for. I was able to clean that up and I can start gluing things together. That way I can make my mallet. So I can use this piece as a
template to cut out of this. That should give me a reference, kind of a template to go by. I can cut around this. I'm hoping I can get something
very similar to that. I'm going to turn the dust
collection on, aka the shop vac.
(upbeat music) What? Where has this been in
all my woodworking life? Ah, I should have got
one of these years ago. This thing is $165 for this band saw that otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make that cut any other way. I would have to build a
special jig for the table saw or for my table saw sled
to be able to hold it. And this has made it so simple. I'm impressed so far, so far. This is going to let me finish this mallet when otherwise it would have
just kinda been a lost cause at this point. I'd have had to cut what I wanted with a scrap piece like
this that I can't use. And if you like these tour reviews and woodworking projects that we do, click the Subscribe button,
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This thing is handy as a
shirt pocket, you hear me? I could not otherwise have
cut that on the miter saw, a jigsaw would make a mess out of it. This is such a good clean cut, I'm assuming because the
blade is new and sharp, but man, I'm impressed, y'all. Man, thank you for giving me this gift. This is a good tool, man.
It'll go right over there
beside the drill press. I can set it back there. I already know where I can put it and it won't be in the way. I can pull it out when I need it. It's not so heavy that you can't just set it on
your work bench and use it. Yeah. I like it. So far I like it. (bright music) So what I like to do is
actually take this piece offcut from a cutting board I made. It's got maple, it's got wenge, it's got mora, purpleheart, I mean there's I think
bloodwood on the ends maybe.
So you've got some really
hard hardwoods in this piece, and I'm going to slice it in half. (upbeat music) It died. I don't know, I think
it got bound up, maybe. (upbeat music) She's struggling. But there's a lot of dust coming out. I need hook my dust collection up. (upbeat music) All right, its getting
bound up and we'll stop 'cause I don't wanna tear it up. It would probably had done
better if I'd free-handed that instead of trying to use the fence.
You can just tell it did
not cut straight at all. It did not like all that hardwood. I'm gonna go ahead and finish
the cut with a freehand and see if we can do anything with it. (upbeat music) So maybe it cut it, it
just cut it crooked. It could be me. I'm not used to having a band saw, so it's maybe operator error.
So this knob actually lowers the track so that you can make it tighter so that this doesn't walk as much. I mean, we're almost at max
capacity anyway up here, less than an inch there. So I could have lowered it that much, but I don't think that would've made a whole lot of difference. This is an extreme test.
It's a lot of extremely hardwoods there, trying to split all of them. I got to try to be fair to it. I don't think it was meant to do that. But for small parts, things that I'm going to be using it for, I think it's perfect. Wow, am I impressed? It might not take much to impress me, but for $165 for this, for what it does, this is a game changer for
my shop because it scares me to cut small parts on a
miter saw or a table saw. And actually on my layered cross video I was trying to cut a small part. It was probably… Man, it was only about this big and it actually kicked back
because the saw caught it and it kicked back and I
think it broke my thumb, literally, 'cause it hurt for
weeks, like several weeks.
Right in there, I think
it actually broke it. Never went to the doctor,
but a matter of fact, I can still squeeze it right now and it hurts and that was months ago. Bad things can happen
when you start trying to cut very small parts on big tools. This is perfect for a small
part, something like that. You got three inches or so, three and a half I think the stats say. Man, I'm impressed. I'm impressed, I'm impressed,
at $165 for this WEN. If you want to check it out for yourself, there's a link in the description below. I believe this is the 2017
model that they have for $165. I think for 10 or 15, $20 more, you can get the newer version. Not sure what the differences are. You can check those out,
decide on which one you want. This thing is going to
be a staple in my shop. Now I'm telling you,
especially if you got a CNC or even if you want to
cut out a small thing. Two Moose Design is where
I got this template at for mallets, for the CNC.
However, included in there are SVG files, which is a picture file. You could actually print
this out on some paper and cut this out with a band
saw just using the template. That's a perfect thing for band saws. If you have templates, you'll be able to cut this pattern out and make your own mallet with a band saw. Another perfect use is
my stove cover handles. Sold hundreds of these stove covers and I always had to cut
this out with a jigsaw. And if I wanted to make
some more of these, it would be so much
easier to cut all of these or all of these curves using a band saw. So curves, small parts, perfect,
perfect use for a band saw. It does generate a fair amount of dust. However, if you just use your shop vac, and the port fits to the
shop vac hose perfectly, when you put it on there, you'll see here when I open this door, you can see the dust in there. When I close it, it
actually creates a suction and pulls that dust out.
So the dust collection works
extremely well on this band saw for anything that goes below the blade. There's a little bit of fine dust that winds up on the table, but is minimal with
the dust collection on. I always get a fair amount of questions on the overall footprint of a tool. So this one from the base all the way to the top of
that knob is about 29 3/4. From the base all the way
to the end is 19 inches, give or take. And then as far as the width goes, the table's a 12, and
to the back of the motor you're looking at about
close to 15 inches. So on a fist bump score, we give a one out of five
fist bump score here on 731, I'll give this a four
out of five fist bumps. It's that high because the price: $165. The usefulness, the size of it, I like that it's a compact size. I like that my drill
press is a compact size. They may need to go on a cart.
Maybe a drill press slash band saw cart. Maybe, we'll see. I give it a four, a
solid four out of five. I like it. I'm impressed with it. I would suggest you buy it if you're a beginner and
you want a small band saw, or even if you're not a beginner. I'm no longer a beginner woodworker, but this is a really nice
tool to have in the shop for small parts. I think it's safe to say this is not the rednecks backroad in band saws. However, I think it's
an extremely good value for what you're getting. Super shout-out to Kyle Bellon for sending me this as a gift.
Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. I really like it, it's a good tool. You know what time it is: power tip time. So the power tip for this band saw review, throwing a power tip
in on the other review, pick up an extra blade when you order this just in case you break it, bend it, or it just gets worn out. You'll have an extra one on hand. That way you're never down on your tool. Same thing for your
miter saws, table saws, things like that. Always keep an extra blade on hand. You'll thank yourself later. Be sure to check out our online store, 731woodworks.com/store. We've got easy-to-follow build plans there to make some awesome projects with. We also have mallets,
trays, things like that, we actually make right here in the shop. We greatly appreciate
any support you show us. And if you liked this review and you want to see the
WEN drill press unboxing and review, click that box right there, it'll take you to that video. Clicking that box gets you
the big old virtual fist bump.
Also another one of my favorite
tool reviews right there..