MiniMax MM16 Bandsaw Review

When I needed a new bandsaw, I decided to get the best saw I could afford in the size I wanted. That meant deciding between the Bridgewood PBS-440, the Laguna 16HD and the MiniMax MM16.

I decided on the MiniMax, based on reviews of their customer service and devout following. From their website, the specs are:

• 4.8 HP Motor
• 16" Resaw capability
• 5mm thick steel frame (for those playing at home, that's 0.2", over 3/16", or 6 gauge steel!)
• 1/16" - 1 1/4" Blade capacity
• 154" Blade Length
• 17.75"x24.5" Table
• 35" Table Height
• Over 500lbs. Net Weight

I’ve owned the MM16 for a few weeks now. As I get more familiar with it, I will add to this review.

Delivery

I took delivery of it today, and the delivery guy couldn't maneuver his truck to get the liftgate into my garage. So onto my little Tacoma pickup it went. Doesn't it look sad up there?

Back in the garage, I rigged up a pseudo-pulley system using some of my rock climbing equipment. It's a good thing I've got such a tall ceiling!

As I was prepping the saw to be moved, I noticed this small crack in the back of the table. I called MiniMax and they told me to mark the end of the crack with a sharpie. If it gets worse, they’ll replace the table for me.

I pulled off all the plastic and started getting ready to lift the saw. There are 2 holes in the top of the saw that are supposed to be used for lifting. The instructions say to pass a rope through the two holes and lift by the web of metal in between them. The 'sheet metal' that this saw's case is made of is thick enough to be a load bearing member! What a tank.

Here it is, all ready to go. With a little help from the neighbors, we held the bandsaw in place while my wife drove the truck from underneath it.

The eagle has landed! With the help of my most awesome neighbors and my most awesome wife, we got the MM16 off the truck. My wife drove the truck out of the garage, my neighbor and his son manned the ropes, and I slid the machine off the back of the truck. I was shaking like a leaf when the weight finally came on my pulley system. But it worked like a charm! The men were able to gently lower the machine to the floor without a scratch! Now it's time to set it up...

Set Up

I installed the Mobility Kit, which consists of a pair of wheels for the back and a wheeled ‘Johnson Bar’ to lift the front of the saw. Even on my epoxy coated concrete floors, this setup is a nightmare to use. If I planned on moving the saw around a lot I’d have to replace it with a normal mobile base.

While rearranging my shop, I had to move the MiniMax to a new spot. I put the Johnson bar under the brake and started to heave. As before, I almost killed myself moving it. Then I noticed a trail of sawdust behind the tool. Upon futher inspection, it turns out one corner of the base was dragging on the floor!

It turns out that the attachment point for the wheels has a lot of play. You need to make sure the wheels are down as far as they can go before tightening up the bolts, as the clearance is less than 1/8", even when they're all the way down. It appears it got knocked out of alignment when I moved it off the truck.

It's still not the best design, in my humble opinion, but the tool was MUCH easier to move after fixing the wheels.

I finally got the tool wheeled into the shop and started to set it up. First thing to do was open it up and make sure everything’s clean. I cleaned the table and everything metal with some Kerosene, then applied paste wax to anything that was bare metal.

Access to all of the internals and guides is excellent. The top and bottom doors open easily, and are microswitch protected, so you can’t turn the saw on while the doors are open.

Wiring

The saw comes without a plug. I simply purchased a 20A 240v male plug and attached it to the three wires hanging out of the unit. I may wire the unit up on a 30A circuit some day, but have had no trouble with the 20A line.

Installing the blade

I installed the stock 3/4" blade. The table pin at the front is easily removed - it’s just a solid steel pin that keeps the halves of the table aligned. Now the doors must be fully opened to allow the blade to slip into the channel on the spine of the saw.

Because of the Mobility Kit’s wheels, the lower door can only be opened less than half way - about 80 degrees. This is an annoyance with a 3/4" blade, but will be a serious problem with anything larger.

Other than that, installing the blade was uneventful. The tension knob is easily grabbed and adjusted. I used a micrometer to set the band tension to about 15000PSI (more on this later). I then marked that tension on the tension scale so it could be repeated later.

Tracking is different from what you may be used to - the tires are completely flat; no crown. You just track the blade so the teeth are barely off the edge of the tire and call it done. The flat wheel has the capability of trasmitting a lot more power to wider blades.

Adjusting the guides

The upper guide is raised and lowered via a rack and pinion mechanism, which operates smoothly. One problem I had was with the blade guard (lovingly known as the ‘Armadillo’).

The guard is basically a set of metal sleeves that slide inside each other. When I first raised the upper guides all the way, one of the sleeves slipped out of the other and bound solid. I had to take the whole assembly off the saw and beat them back into the correct alignment. I then put the assembly back on the saw and carefully aligned the top and bottom so they operated smoothly. This is key to keeping it from happening again. The Armadillo’s sleeves are made of a very heavy gauge steel (I’d guess 12 gauge).

Adjusting the guides themselves was very easy. The European-style disc type guides are moved in and out via micrometer-type knobs. This makes it simple to get the disc just a hair off the side of the blade. The whole assembly is moved fore and aft on a sliding bar (to get the discs just behind the blade gullets) and locked in place with a thumbscrew. The rear thrust bearing slides freely, and is locked in with a thumbscrew.

The only problem I had was access to the thumbscrew for the thrust bearing on the bottom guides. It's almost impossible to get one's fingers in there, and the knob hits the case of the saw. I bought my saw slightly used, and the previous owner had already cut one of the wings off the knob so it would clear the case of the saw.

A nice feature of the lower guide is the ability to move it up or down to suit your work. You can slide it all the way up under the table for good blade control, or slide it down a bit to tilt the table. This is nice so you don't have to compromise on the best position for the guides if you do most of your work with the table in one position.

Table tilt

The table's beefy trunnion is locked in place with a lever on the back of the saw. Unlocking it allows the table to tilt very smoothly. One difficulty here is with the table insert. The throat plate isn't centered over the trunnion's rotation point, so the blade binds on it when you try to tilt the table. The plate must be removed whenever you want to tilt the table. I spoke with MM's customer service, and they told me I'd need to either leave it out or make custom zero-clearance inserts.

MM16 in action

Plug it in, turn the safety interlock, hit the switch, and I'm rewarded with a pleasant 'whirrrrrrrrrr'. Zero vibration to speak of. The blade brake is a really nice feature and stops the blade instantly. It's also protected by a microswitch, and will stop the motor when you step on it.

Right out of the box with the stock blade, the saw cuts beautifully.

Look at that piece of maple veneer! 0.050 thick, with only 0.005 variance. Like butter. The oak was a no brainer. And what a nice surface it leaves! Even better than I had anticipated

Next I built a sled so I could hack up a log of moraine locust I had lying around. This is a hard, tough wood. Not a problem! Ready to be turned on the lathe.

I wanted to see how it would handle wet wood. I had a big, thick piece of wet sycamore lying around, so I used the saw to cut it round so I could turn it on the lathe. The piece was about 7" thick and 18" in diameter. The MiniMax cut through it with ease, leaving me with a 15" diameter circle I turned into a lovely bowl that you can see in my turned bowls gallery.

A few days later, I was building a 6x6 retaining wall in the front of my house. The MiniMax was a life saver. I was able to rip long 6x6's into wedges, cut out dadoes, and crosscut with ease. The motor never even changed pitch, let alone bogged down. A real testament to the power of the motor and the overall design.

In the year or so I've owned the saw I've thrown a lot of big stuff at it. Wet wood, dry wood, logs that came right up to the capacity of the saw. The saw has performed flawlessly every time.

One very useful improvement I've made was to change the door hinges to lift-off hinges. I can now remove the doors completely, making blade changes FAR easier.

Overall Impressions

The good

The saw does everything you could ask a saw in its class to, and then some.

• POWER: The saw has a ridiculous amount of available power. I haven't even slowed the saw down yet.
• Smoothness: The saw is quiet and smooth. No vibration here. I could balance a dime on the table.
• Capacity: The table is huge and nicely finished, and the 16" resaw is much more than most hobbiests will ever use.
• Rigidity: The saw is rock solid. There's a lot of cast iron and heavy sheet metal here.
• Customer support: MiniMax service has been very pleasant and helpful, both on the phone and via email.
• Accuracy: The guides are excellent, and easy to adjust. The cast-iron fence is solid and easy to use.

The bad

• Mobility Kit: This seems like an afterthought to a well designed tool. It's difficult to use and prevents the lower door from opening properly. I can't believe it went out the door like that, and I further can't believe they normally charge $175 for it. If I hadn't gotten it free as part of a show special, I'd return it in a heartbeat. Note:Other woodworkers tell me they don't have as much trouble moving the machine around with the Mobility Kit, but it requires a very smooth, clean floor. The door opening issue happens to everyone.
• Table tilt: Pretty annoying that I have to remove the table insert to tilt the table even a little bit.
• Lower guide thrust bearing thumbscrew: Very difficult to access.
• Instructions: The included instructions are a bit sparse.
• Armadillo: I think it would benefit from being made of a lighter-gauge steel. It would make it easier to raise the upper guides, and possibly less prone to binding. It also needs to be adjusted out of the box, and I don't believe the instructions say anything about it.

A couple of the above may seem like nitpicks, but I think on a saw of this caliber they're things that should have been fixed, especially since this version of the saw is a "new design".

I find that I don't miss a quick tension lever, since the tensioning wheel operates quickly enough that it's not an issue.

The conclusion

I'm very happy with the saw, and I'm glad I made the decision to go with MiniMax. I wish some things were different, but that's going to happen with any machine. The good definitely far outweighs the bad.