What's your most unexpectedly brilliant tool and why?

On occasion I do resort to a bandsaw for some cuts. After struggling with an inexpensive 20+ year old small benchtop bandsaw (4 inch) from Harbor Freight which would not cut hardwood thicker than approximately 1.25 inch without throwing the blade I decided to look for an upgrade. After much research it looked like a 14 inch Laguna or 14-17 inch Grizzly (price $1500-$2000) was the way to go – until I kept reading such positive reviews of the 10 inch Wen.

The Wen is placed really well as it has a 6 inch rip (resaw) capacity versus the more common 4 inch for the bench top models. Plus it had a nice fence that is similar to a high end saw which has both a tall and short option for different thicknesses of stock. Couple this with a $250 price and I thought it worth a try. I checked Walmart’s return policy first and found that I had 90 days to return it so I gave it a try. Truthfully I was dubious.

The first task was to take a 6 inch piece of white oak and rip it. It worked perfectly somewhat to my surprise! Since then it has done everything that I have needed to do. Would a high end saw cut faster – sure. But, since this has met all of my needs with a low cost and smaller footprint I am more than pleased. Now the common 1 inch stock can be easily ripped to make the thinner pieces for projects like the Dovetail Caddy Project and the Coasters. Not to mention that after hand cutting all the pieces for the rocking chair my first use was to cut the rocker rails – it was a very nice experience!

I just wanted to pass along my positive experience with a relatively inexpensive bandsaw that has worked for me.