"Pete C." wrote:

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

I picked up my $135 HF bandsaw last night ($169 sale - 20% coupon).

Certainly not the best fit and finish but it runs remarkably smoothly
and even with the crappy blade it came with it made a few test cuts in
3/4" sq steel tube without any complaints. I'll pickup a decent blade or
two when I'm out shopping today. It certainly seems that the $135
bandsaw is far superior to no bandsaw.

Pete C.

I noticed two interesting things with the new HF bandsaw. First I
noticed when assembling it on it's legs that the blade guide bearings
had small grease lines around them indicating that they actually test
ran the saw in Taiwan. Tonight when changing out the so-so blade that
came with the saw for a better made in USA blade, I noticed that the
ball bearings on the made in Taiwan saw, the blade guide bearings and
the main wheel bearings that were visible, are almost all made in Japan
bearings. The new $15 wavy style blade cuts much faster than the blade
that came with the saw BTW.

Pete C.