Could be a long post. It's about tooling and I can get quite long winded,you've been warned.
Yes to the OP,have made a bunch of grips for handguns. There's a certain piece of equipment that will really make sanding intricate and delicate curves not only easier but downright fun.
In present day interweeb wood working circles,bandsaw use is usually centered around the ubiquitous 14" Delta and it's derivatives. These are very nice,have had several,yadayada. BIG bandsaws are nicer for resaw work and other straighline chores,the reasons are many. Every once in a while the subject of older,and honestly,cheaper made 10" bandsaws enter the discussion. They are usually not very well made,usually.... but there are some very nice ones. In fact there's a small Delta that is the bees knees and the prices they command reflect this,so let's drop that one from the table.
These cheaper 10's are,to put it politely,looked down on by "real" internet WW'ers. Now we're getting somewhere..... these things can be had for literally beer money. My cast iron miniature Rockwell was 20$ or something. Here's the deal. We aren't using them as band-SAWS.... they get converted to,band-SANDERS. The sanding belts are made at home using easy peasy skived joints and slow setting epoxy. They will lose every pcs of grit before the joint fails. You buy cloth backed belts in wider,longer sizes and RIP them to 3/8" and 1/2" wide strips. And can go smaller.
One major complaint about the cheapy 10's is;
Their blade guides,in a word,suck. They are so bad that I don't know how they even work? But with the sanding belts,guess what?..... that's right,chuck'm into file 13. Yup,toss'm you don't need them. You pretty much are done.... no guides,no platen,heck toss the little cheesy table hole filler piece,don't need it either. We used to make right many trad bows,still do a few here and there but look at a recurve bow handle and compare those with a set of handgun stocks...... I'm telling you,a 10" bandsander is about unequaled for ease of operation. No,you aren't going to be grinding knife blades with them BUT,linishing leather and wood handles on knives? Oh HECK yeah.
So sorta keep it under your hat if you've read this novel,and start looking for craigslist freeby 10" BS's. You won't regret it.
Edit to add pic. The old Case if for scale but,it reminded me that these little jobbers are great for leather,edge work. This Rockwell is extra special,besides the 20$,it's a miniature of that co's 20" bandsaw,which is way nicer than any 14" saw BTW.
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