diff --git a/sandbox/count-band-single-pass.py b/sandbox/count-band-single-pass.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..1a93a9c391
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/count-band-single-pass.py
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+import argparse
+import os
+from math import floor
+import pickle
+import sys
+
+import khmer
+
+
+class BandedHashBuffer(object):
+    """
+    Store k-mers in separate bands, using disk to keep memory usage low.
+
+    The `self.hashlists` variable is the primary member. It is a dictionary
+    that stores a list of hash values for each band.
+
+    When a hash value is added to the buffer, it is stored in the list
+    corresponding to the appropriate band. Once the buffer accumulates a user-
+    specified number of hash values, each list is serialized and written to
+    temporary files on disk, and the buffer is flushed and reset.
+
+    Once all the input is consumed, the temporary files are re-opened and used
+    to populate a k-mer count table for each band, one band at a time.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, numbands, outfmt='tmp.band{band}.buffer{buffer}.pickle',
+                 maxsize=int(1e8)):
+        self.numbands = numbands
+        self.outfmt = outfmt
+        self.maxsize = maxsize
+        self._num_flushes = 0
+        self._hash_count = 0
+        self.hashlists = dict()
+        self.reset()
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        # sum([len(hl) for hl in self.hashlists])
+        return self._hash_count
+
+    def reset(self):
+        del(self.hashlists)
+        self._hash_count = 0
+        self.hashlists = dict()
+        for i in range(self.numbands):
+            self.hashlists[i] = list()
+
+    def flush(self):
+        if len(self) == 0:
+            return
+
+        # Keep track of how many times the buffer has been flushed to help with
+        # managing temporary files.
+        self._num_flushes += 1
+        print('DEBUG flush', self._num_flushes, file=sys.stderr)
+
+        for i in range(self.numbands):
+            outfilename = self.outfmt.format(band=i+1,
+                                             buffer=self._num_flushes)
+            with open(outfilename, 'wb') as outfile:
+                pickle.dump(self.hashlists[i], outfile)
+        self.reset()
+
+    def add(self, hashval):
+        band = floor(hashval / (2**64) * self.numbands)
+        self.hashlists[band].append(hashval)
+        self._hash_count += 1
+        if self._hash_count >= self.maxsize:
+            self.flush()
+
+    def get_counts(self, memory, ksize):
+        if len(self) > 0:
+            self.flush()
+
+        for band in range(self.numbands):
+            counts = khmer.Counttable(ksize, memory / 4, 4)
+            for i in range(self._num_flushes):
+                bufferfilename = self.outfmt.format(band=band+1, buffer=i+1)
+                with open(bufferfilename, 'rb') as bufferfile:
+                    hashlist = pickle.load(bufferfile)
+                    for khash in hashlist:
+                        counts.add(khash)
+                os.remove(bufferfilename)
+            yield band, counts
+
+
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+parser.add_argument('-k', '--ksize', type=int, metavar='K', default=31,
+                    help='k-mer size')
+parser.add_argument('-n', '--num-bands', type=int, metavar='N',
+                    help='number of bands')
+parser.add_argument('-b', '--buffersize', type=float, metavar='B', default=1e8,
+                    help='number of k-mers to keep in memory before writing '
+                    'the buffer to disk and flushing')
+parser.add_argument('-m', '--memory', type=float, metavar='M', default=1e4,
+                    help='memory (in bytes) to allocate to each counttable in '
+                    'the output')
+parser.add_argument('-o', '--outfmt', metavar='FMT', default='band{}.ct',
+                    help='a string template for output files; default is '
+                    '"band{}.ct"; brackets will be replaced with band numbers')
+parser.add_argument('infiles', nargs='+')
+args = parser.parse_args()
+
+
+kg = khmer.Counttable(args.ksize, 1, 1)
+kbuffer = BandedHashBuffer(args.num_bands, maxsize=int(args.buffersize))
+for infile in args.infiles:
+    reads = khmer.ReadParser(infile)
+    for read in reads:
+        for kmer in kg.get_kmer_hashes(read.sequence):
+            kbuffer.add(kmer)
+
+for band, counttable in kbuffer.get_counts(args.memory, args.ksize):
+    fpr = khmer.calc_expected_collisions(counttable, max_false_pos=100.0)
+    ctfilename = args.outfmt.format(band + 1)
+    print('Band', band, 'FPR', fpr, ctfilename, file=sys.stderr)
+    counttable.save(ctfilename)