Record Power BS250 Bandsaw (Review)

In the late 1980's Record advertised their little three-wheel BK3 with a r.r.p. of over £200. It sold on the high street for about the same price then, as the new BS250 machine is today, which is much more powerful and has a much larger depth of cut around 120mm. Of course this represents a major value-for-money improvement over the old British made machine, although it saddens me to have to say it, being a mechanical engineer myself who was forced to change career following globalization of automobile manufacturing in the 1980's.

Overall design.

I would challenge anyone to find more than superficial detail differences between this and 250mm bandsaws from Axminster (AWSBS), and Electra Beckum (BAS250G), to name but two. If they are not made in the same factories, they must surely have been designed by the same team, which is presumably where the economies of scale are made.
I would describe the design as "agricultural", that is to say, sturdy and simple, but effective and easy to manufacture, with ample adjustment allowing wide manufacturing tolerances. The body is from thick welded steel giving a relatively stiff frame. Doors have turnbutton locks, in this case with wings, but in versions by the other manufacturers, may be knobs or allen head buttons. Doors fit well and have a microswitch on each.
Record Power pride themselves in specifying the better quality components to be fitted at source. It is alleged that overseas suppliers provide graded quality components to reach a desired price range, rather that western style quality control.
The motor is quiet and well balanced. I have never stalled it yet.
The bandwheels are on double bearings and it is nice to see balance weights fitted to the rims. Replaceable rubber tyres are fitted. The usual tracking and tension screws are fitted. Unusually, no tension spring is fitted to the tension screw. Loose to fully tight is about 1.5 turns. I fitted a stack of 4 dished washers under the steel tension nut to give a little springiness and the adjustment is now 2.5 turns. A little graphite grease on the tension nut threads and on the dished washers gives a better feel. I always slacken off the tension two turns when not in use to protect the tyres.
The carrier for the top bandwheel which gives the tracking adjustment seems rather loose, but under tension does not move. Can be modified by adding shims between the carrier and the frame, but the nasty star washers need to be prised off.
The table is a nice heavy cast iron unit, and is adequately flat, being dished by approx 4 thou (0.1mm) in the centre, which is perfectly OK for bandsawing, but I would not flatten my hand planes on it. Tilt mechanism is quite smooth, though the Bristol lever usually needs more than the available half-turn, and needs to be repositioned each time.
The rip fence runs in an aluminium track which has been added as a design improvement. The fence has a face which can be set for ripping boards to width, or swapped round for resawing thickness. It is adequate for most resawing, but not stable enough in square-to-table to cut thin veneers or to cut a finished square face. If you want to make a sturdier fence from mdf, the rail can be removed, and the table end is nicely machined flat and square. You would need to add the traditional 6mm bolt and wingnut in the blade slot to add rigidity.
The mitre fence is plastic and adequate for rough hobby work, but again you can add home-made crosscutting sleds and fences for precision cuts and mitres.

Bearings.

This is the only niggle I have with this machine. The blade roller guides are metal shielded ball bearing units (626-ZZ). There are six in total as in the picture. The design is simple, inspired and elegantly cheap. However in use I have found they begin to clog with sawdust after about six months. This would not be so much of a problem if the official spares were not £6 each from Recordpower, and they are not covered by the warranty. Cheaper ones can be obtained from the internet, typically $10 for ten. Even jammed they will still perform as hard steel rubbing guides, but as I like things to work as designed, I am experimenting with 626-2RS rubber sealed units, also from the USA. With these units I have the bearings quite close to (even touching) the blade for best support. I can see there may be a problem guiding an 1/8 inch blade due to the radius on the outer race, but I have not tried one. With hard guides like this, the guides must never cover the teeth or all set will be lost
I have even replaced the four bandwheel bearing units with rubber sealed 6001-2RS. The old ones came out as per the manual and tolerances seem well engineered, tapping out satisfyingly with an 8mm drift. I used old socket spanners of the correct diameter to tap the new ones in, using the OUTER race to avoid damage to your balls.
N.B. the 6001 are for the BS250 only. The bigger bandsaws have bigger bearings, so check the markings on yours, or consult the manual.

Delivery and assembly

I obtained mine from Bedford Saw and Tool co. and it arrived in a large box just too heavy for me to lift, so a decent tip to the delivery man gets it straight to the bench. The table is separate from the frame in the box and once unpacked these items are then OK to lift for a pensioner like me. I use it bench mounted, and I added wheels for convenience. The instruction book in 2004 was adequate but had many "holes" in it. The improvements to the fence and the tensioning door were not mentioned. An improved manual can be downloaded from the Record Power Website. Look up product BS250 and drill down to the instruction manual.
Be prepared to adjust EVERY adjustment there is, to fettle the saw into a working condition. Fortunately the agricultural design meant that almost everything was bolted together with slots. The first thing to do after loosely fitting the table is to slacken all the blade guides and tension the blade on the bandwheels. Then get the table adjusted for square and also so the blade runs in the centre of the slot. The table mounts have enough slack to do this. Then the blade guides can be set to the blade with a gap no more than the thickness of paper.
Blade tensioning is 1/4 inch movement with a finger over 6 inches of blade. This can be done with the blade guide right down, lifting the black sliding door in the guide column, and pressing the blade against the side of the column. This feature is not described in the current manual.
The saw came with three blades. The skip-4 blade is good for resawing and general ripping, and gives a reasonable crosscut.
When fitting blades of different widths, move the upper and lower thrust bearings as a coarse adjust, and use the tracking as fine adjust.