I have a 4x6 from MachineMart in the UK which I would expect comes from
the same sources. They are not known for selling the highest quality
items but its horses for courses. It has done a lot of work so the £170
it cost delivered was money well spent.

I had the motor on mine burn out after it stalled while unattended, I
was in another part of the workshop at the time. Whatever burns in those
certainly would make a good chemical weapon as I couldn't get near it
for the smell which would make your eyes water. The motor had upto that
time done about 6 years good service. I replaced it with a 3/4 hp unit.
The original was 1/2hp or 5/8hp depending on which rating plate you
read. It had 2 one visible on top of the motor and one underneath which
was visible after you removed the motor.

While I had it apart I determined the cause of the stall was the worm
drive mesh being too tight, I had this problem originally and corrected
it. Over time the sharp edge on the worm had worn away the wheel and
caused a tight mesh. The replacement parts were cheap at about £17
delivered. I removed the sharp edges on the worm so hopefully that won't
happen again. I'll check it occasionally. When I rebuilt it I replaced
the bearings with new. One of the bores in the original ball races was
0.004" oversize and that wasn't wear. It was one of the ball race that
supported the main bandsaw drive wheel.

mj wrote:

I ended up buying one of those cheapy HF bandsaws. I got mine on sale
for $169 plus $8.95 shipping. I checked the site yesterday and it is
now $209 and the same low shipping. It had (HAD) a even cheaper 1/3 HP
motor on it. My only concern in buying this was the motor. But since
the next cheapest bandsaws were around $200 and $70-$90 shipping, I
figured if the motor went out, I could always just replace it and still
be saving money. Besides, I figured the rest of them probably did not
have a motor much better than HF.
Yesterday (Friday) I finally got it set up. I cut a chunk of 1-1/2"
brass and it seemed to work pretty good. I replaced the blade with a
bi-metal cutting blade too. I started cutting a 3" chunk of brass rod
and the motor ran for about five minutes (if that) and quit. It was
getting somewhat warm to the touch, so I let it cool off for an hour or
so. Went back and tried it and nothing. I went to the local hardware
store and bought a decent 1/2 HP motor for it ($80) and I am in the
process of installing it. I need to go back this morning and get a
pulley for it. I figured I am still ahead even with the motor change.
The bandsaw itself seems to be made well enough. I could tell the motor
wasn't going to last long, but I was sort of surprised it went out on
the second cut.
I thought about contacting HF about it, but I didn't want another of
these piece of sh!t motors again. And I was not going to take apart the
bandsaw and send the whole thing back had it come to that.
One more thing...when I got my bandsaw, the blade was already
installed...backwards.
Mike