WEN 3962 Two-Speed Band Saw with Stand and Worklight Review
|For any woodworker, having a bandsaw can be a major game changer. Using a quality saw will make it so that you greatly expand your creativity and use the wood to its full potential. We honestly believe a bandsaw is one of the most important tools to have in a woodworking shop – ask any woodworker about this and they’ll tell you the same. A bandsaw isn’t just something that is capable of cutting shapes and curves in wood – it goes deeper than this.
When an individual that is just starting out in the woodworking niche, they start to acquire major woodshop machines. Many times, they forget about the bandsaw and may look at it as low priority. Instead, we highly recommend the bandsaw as being one of the first machines you should get in the shop. With this type of machine, it’s importance and versatility is unmatched by the other machines.
When you’re on the market for a new bandsaw (or your first), you need to go for quality and capacity as much as your budget allows. A good bandsaw for a small shop would consist of a steel frame for added durability.
We took time to do research for you and that is when we came across the WEN 3962 Two-Speed Band Saw with Stand and Worklight.
Basic Specs
Includes a work light, a fence, a miter gauge and a 3-in-1 dust port
Throat depth is capable of accommodating up to 9 ¾”
Uses 72-inch blades that measure anywhere from 1/8 to ½ inches in siz
3.5 amp, 1/3 HP motor
6” resaw capability
The entire machine is solidly built. The legs are easy to install – they screw directly onto the base, making it so that you can either put the machine on a benchtop, or have it freestanding.
The blade it comes with is 3/8” and surprisingly, it isn’t going to require much fine tuning or set up once you take it out of the box. Basically, right out of the box, it’ll be ready to cut.
The fence fits nicely on the table and it has its own measuring system that you can use in order to line things up when you are doing repeated thin cuts. There’s a 6” clearance, so there’s some resaw capacity. When it comes to working with bigger pieces of wood, we also noticed that the motor doesn’t really struggle, which is a major bonus.
There’s a couple of minor design flaws that we feel are worth mentioning. The location of the lighting is one of them – it’s not ideal when extra illumination is needed. When setting things up, the resistance knob doesn’t have any markings, so you have to be careful with it. Also, when it comes to changing speeds, you’ll notice that you’ll be required to loosen the motor so that the drive belt can be moved to different locations.
Conclusion
All in all, we believe this is a fairly nice band saw for such an affordable price point. The Wen 3962 has many features that you won’t find in the expensive saws, which is an added bonus.