Now I've swept up bagfulls of sawdust from the floor in my workshop I've realised there is room for another toy, so I'm looking at the Elektra Beckum BAS 317 band-saw. Has anyone any experience of this ? It seems it only recently replaced the 316, but seems terrific value for money at £300:
http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=136559&MAN=Metabo-Blue-Bas-317-900w-Ban...
p.s. It makes me laugh when I see people bidding nearly £200 for an old used BAS 315 on e-bay

I think I paid about £300 for my E-B bandsaw and that was about seven years ago.

For the money its a good machine, swap the blade though the original is rubbish and if you haven't used a bandsaw much get Mark Duginsky's DVD "mastering the bandsaw" from Axminster Power Tools.

OK, I've ordered the Bandsaw. I've ordered the DVD from Tescos DVD rental (free trial) as it's been  a few years since I've used one, and then only for frozen meat.
So what blade do I need & where do I get it from ? I have no idea what brand would be a quality one.

[quote author=WOLF  link=1151540556/0#5 date=1151939690]what are you going to use it for, what material! are you going to cut,(hard/soft wood??) what thickness and straight or curved cutting...


and do you do "steaks" ........ or pork loin cuts!!! [/quote]

Well the project I bought it for will be 22mm ply, but I guess it will anyhow mostly be softwood. Oh, I'll be cutting a curve with about a 6' radius.

Steaks? No comparison mate, I used to cut up a lot of dog-mince, which was all the manky old bits of meat minced  up and frozen in a large plasic container, basically it stank 'orrible! And so did I by the end of the day !!!

[quote author=WOLF  link=1151540556/0#7 date=1151941699]clean cutting would require  a higher teeth per inch blade, and when cutting radii, a narrower blade will be required.............

so try...http://www.scosarg.co.uk

...or these......http://www.crowleysaws.com/ [/quote]

Marvellous, thanks Wolf. So what would be a good starting point, I have no idea how many tpi I need. The Scott Sergeant blades seem very cheap starting at only 7 pounds! At those prices I'll order a few if they are any good.