I've owned a 14" band saw for years. It works great. But when I came across a deal for a 2nd hand 17" Bandsaw, which was only about a 1hr drive away, I jumped at it.

A 17" Bandsaw gives me more power (2hp motor), more height for resawing, and the ability to handle larger (1") blades.

My son and I made the drive to purchase the beast. Getting it into my van was really not that hard. We dismounted the table and wheeled it out of the seller's garage

Then it was tipped back onto some plywood and blankets, and it slid on it's back into my van.

There was plenty of room.

Once we had it home, it was again fairly straightforward to slide it back out of the van and stand it upright in my garage. This is a rear view. The saw weighs about 350lbs (158kg). This is pretty manageable on the mobile base, but for carrying it down the stairs I thought it best to strip it down as much as possible.

The table was already off, so it was on with the stripping...

The doors are beautiful -- their hinges are just pins, so they lifted right off, and they were pretty heavy steel! The dust hose also was easy to remove. The wheels were a bit trickier, but just a nut to be removed. The motor was VERY heavy, and required a bit of help to hold it while removing the bolts.

Unfortunately, I did not weigh the individual items. The motor and the table were both over 50lbs, best as I can recall. At a guess, I think we knocked a good 150lbs off of the weight of the saw. With the help of two strong boys and a two wheeled dolly, we got the saw downstairs.

Unfortunately, we were rather busy wrestling with this beast in tight quarters, and there were no photos taken of the actual move down the stairs.

And there it is in it's "naked" glory.

Then was the work of putting it all back together...

(In the second photo that follows, you can see the stairs in the background. This is a full flight of stairs from the main floor down to the basement!)

It is now hooked up and providing great service in my basement shop.