Best bandsaw for woodworking: 5 picks by resaw

The best bandsaw for most woodworking shops is the JET JWBS-15, and if you resaw wide boards into veneer it is the JWBS-18SFX-3. The biggest number on the badge does not make the best band saw. That number is the throat, the width the blade clears past the frame, and on most saws it says nothing about the cut you bought the saw to make. Two saws both called 14 inch can resaw 6 inches or 13. That label lies.

So the five below are split by what matters: how tall a board the saw resaws, and the motor behind the blade. They run from a compact saw that tucks into a garage corner to a 3 HP machine built for veneer, and the gap between them is enormous even where the size number looks the same.

Match the saw to the tallest board you cut and the circuit you have, and the badge number stops mattering.

How these picks were chosen

Every spec here comes off the manufacturer's own documentation and its own product renders, and the order follows the award slots, not price or any single number. Owner reports were counted for three of the five, the two JETs and the RIKON, and they are thinner than the shelf totals suggest: most of the comments sit on general bandsaw videos and name no model. The deepest corpus that does name its own model belongs to the RIKON, ahead of the saw at the top, and even that one mixes in a 10 inch RIKON and a 10-326. The two WEN saws were never counted at all. Here is how the awards work.

The five bandsaws on one axis

Spec	JET JWBS-15	JET JWBS-18SFX-3	RIKON 14 Deluxe (10-1414)	WEN BA3962	WEN BA1487
Resaw capacity (basis stated)	14 in	16 in	14 in	6 in	8.85 in
Throat depth	14-1/8 in	18 in	13-5/8 in	9-3/4 in	13-3/8 in
Motor (hp, volts, amps)	1-3/4 HP, 115/230V	3 HP, 230V	1-3/4 HP, 115/230V	3.5 A, 120V	9.5 A, 120V
Blade length and width range	133 in, 1/8 to 1 in	150 in, 1/8 to 1-1/4 in	111 in, 3/16 to 3/4 in	72 in, 1/8 to 1/2 in	100-3/4 in, 1/8 to 1 in
Dust port diameter	Two 4 in	Two 4 in	2-1/2 in and 4 in	3-in-1 (1-3/4, 2-3/4, 4 in)	3-in-1 (1-3/4, 2-3/4, 3-3/4 in)

Basis: manufacturer documentation, and every exception to it on this table is a dust port. The WEN BA1487's come off its manual, because its product page disagrees on the largest of the three. The WEN BA3962's come off its product page alone, since its manual names only a 2 and a 4 inch hose. Neither JET spec table states a port count at all, so the pair on both JETs is read off JET's own renders and its dual port callout.

Best bandsaw overall: JET JWBS-15

It resaws 14 inches and takes blades from 1/8 inch for tight curves up to 1 inch for resawing. The dual voltage is the practical part: the motor is wired for either 115 or 230 volt, so the machine follows the shop instead of the other way round, and our JET JWBS-15 review covers the move to 230 volt. JET's sheet prints 230 in its prewired field, and that same field is wrong on the JWBS-18SFX-3 below, so we would not bank on which way yours arrives. Plan the changeover as work.

Skip it if the 115 volt outlet where it will stand is on anything less than a 20 amp circuit, because the motor draws 15 amps and JET asks for 20 behind it at 115 volt.

Best bandsaw for resawing: JET JWBS-18SFX-3

Wide boards and shop-sawn veneer are the reason this one exists. It puts 16 inches of resaw under an 18 inch throat, on a 3 HP motor that takes a blade up to 1-1/4 inch wide, wider than any other saw here will fit. Woodcraft puts 1-1/2 HP at general bandsaw work and 2-1/2 to 3 HP where resawing is the point, and no other pick here sits in that second band. Everything about it is built around that one job, and it costs size and weight to get there. The JWBS-18SFX-3 review goes through that trade.

Skip it if you do not have 230 volt service where the saw will stand, because it does not run on a standard outlet. Getting 230 volt there is a wiring job, and no checkout option covers it.

Best 14 inch bandsaw: RIKON 14 Deluxe (10-1414)

Buy this if 14 inches is the class you shopped and you want it done properly: a full 14 inch resaw under tool-less guides, dual voltage for 115 or 230, two dust ports, and a cast iron trunnion under the table. Alone among these five, its resaw matches its name.

Skip it if you resaw wide hardwood often, because 3/4 inch is the widest blade it takes and 1-3/4 HP makes that 14 inch capacity a ceiling. It is not an everyday number.

Best bandsaw for a home shop: WEN BA3962

Compact, and it does not pretend otherwise. A 10 inch saw that ships with its own stand and a worklight, cuts 6 inches deep, and tucks into the corner of a one-car garage.

Skip it if you plan to resaw wide hardwood, because 6 inches on a 3.5 amp motor is a curve-and-hobby saw, not a veneer saw.

Best budget bandsaw: WEN BA1487

Value end of the shelf, and it still resaws. A 14 inch two speed that cuts 8.85 inches deep on a 9.5-amp motor and comes with a stand.

Skip it if you came to the 14 inch label expecting 14 inches of resaw, because this one stops at 8.85, and the RIKON above is the saw in that class that actually reaches 14, inside the limits of its own 3/4 inch blade.

What to look for in the best band saw for woodworking

Two numbers decide it, and neither is on the badge. Resaw height comes first, the tallest board the saw can stand on edge and cut, running from 6 inches to 16 across the picks here, and the motor comes second because resaw height is only a ceiling while horsepower is the thing that actually gets a wide blade up to it. Curves are the exception. A saw sized for them is a different machine from one sized for veneer. The full walk through of why the 14 inch name misleads sits on the companion bandsaw size page.

If the saw is going in a small shop, size the dust collector beside it by its duct diameter and not its motor, since a free-air rating means nothing once the hose is attached.

Match the resaw height to the tallest board you cut, then the motor to the wood, then the circuit to the motor. Do that and the badge stops mattering. Our full bandsaw shelf carries the rest of the picks and the specs behind each one.