SKIL 3386-01 120-Volt 9-Inch Band Saw with Light , Red

Real female-type person here: I love this band saw! I thought this saw would be "power-tool orange", but it is a lovely shade of red, which matches my workshop beautifully! For all the folks who said it is made of cheap plastic and spoke of this product disparagingly, I completely disagree and shame on you! This arrived from Amazon at my front door, unscathed and in perfect order. This saw was thankfully lighter in weight than the 45-lbs I had expected. This saw is made of very strong ABS-type plastic that WILL last well-beyond an atomic blast or requisite zombie invasion. (Albeit, with such an event you really won't need this saw after all, except to possibly fight a zombie or two. There is a nice bright light that comes attached to the saw that should help in this event.) All those folks who said the plastic was 'cheap' probably are paid shills and I hope their armpits become infested with 10,000 sand fleas.This saw was an extremely easy set up! I need this saw to construct magic tricks and props. I will not be sawing heavy duty materials, just lightweight materials, such as 1/4" plywood, but this saw may very well work on thicker materials. On the test run, this saw performed beautifully. This saw is a breeze to use and cuts through 1/4 ply like butter!! I think you simply need to use good judgment when using this saw or other power tools and not push them beyond their intended capacity. The saw blade will be easy to replace (turn the two black knobs and the entire housing opens up to reveal the blade and wheels, just reduce the tension knob at the top of the saw and voilà!) I am going to order a set of three to keep on hand. This saw is also easy to mount to a surface with the four pre-made holes on the black base of the saw. I am very impressed with my Skil brand Band Saw!

For the price this saw is awesome. It was delivered a couple of days ago, I did a quick read of the manual and was able to set the thing up in 5 minutes. Took me another 5 to figure out how to make sure the blade was adjusted properly. I clamped it on to a portable workbench and I was off to the races.We gutted one of our rooms, removed paneling and put in drywall. But I needed to extend the window jams before I could trim them out. With somewhat uneven walls this was going to be a difficult task because I really need to cut custom jam extensions to be flush with the wall. This saw made it easy. I used it for cutting the grooves in the window stool too.I don't have enough room for a full on shop equipment, so the tools I have are portable and can be wheeled around to the back yard or garage. This was a great compliment to my tool set. I will probably upgrade to a slightly better blade, but other than that I am quite pleased. One day I hope to be able to have a full on shop model, but for now this is getting real work done.

After studying numerous saws online, I picked the Skil 3386 for the features as well as the many positive reviews. Since I have owned several band saws, and still have an elderly Delta/Milwaukee 14 inch, which I bought used some sixty years ago, I felt that any minor tweaks on these little saws to get good performance would be no problem.I will give gold stars to the "Amazon warehouse deal" folks who repackaged this saw. The saw was listed as used, but arrived here so thoroughly wrapped, packed, and boxed, that it could have survived most any mishandling. The saw to all appearances was factory fresh and totally complete with all listed parts and manuals.After digging the saw and loose parts out of all that packing, the first test run showed that the saw was probably okay to go (per advertised "factory setup") but was not tracking as good as I felt it should. The lower (drive) wheel had the factory saw blade teeth hanging completely over the wheel's edge rather than on or near the wheel's crown. No amount of tracking adjustment would move the lower blade track back to the wheel's center crown. This problem was very apparent when viewing the hub of the upper wheel. The upper wheel was nowhere near seated on the upper stub shaft (shown in the first photo). The upper wheel was in fact jammed in that "too far out" position. The wheel rotated freely enough, but would not slide either on or off the stub shaft.Indeed it took a "wheel puller" to remove the upper wheel so that the end of the stub shaft could be dressed down enough to allow the wheel to slide fully in place, and of course a trip to the hardware for a snap ring. (second photo)The end result in this case, is a little saw that will run smoothly enough to balance the traditional nickel on edge. Can rip 1/16 strips, even with the cheap factory blade. Is light enough (30 lbs) that I can carry it with one hand, and operate it wherever I wish. Is versatile enough with the proper blade to cut many different materials. A snap to change blades to match the job. Has a built in light to help these tired old eyes follow a cut line. Is inexpensive enough to fit most any budget.If a little band saw will do the size work you have in mind, this Skil 3386 is certainly one to consider.