Steve,

I was googling, and came up with Grizzly and Jet horizontal bandsaws in the
two to three hundred dollar price range. Should I opt for one that is a
little more, or just go with the HF standard? Anyone have any experience
with these brands? Can anyone suggest others in the three hundred dollar
range?

I have a Grizzly 6x10 that I purchased after using my "no name" 4x6
for several years. I liked that 4x6 a lot, so when I had the need I
moved up in capacity. When I say that I liked it a lot, I mean that
it was a great time saver and rarely had any problems. It's overall
quality was pretty low and that in itself made it hard to love. I
kept that saw to use as a backup saw for the smaller jobs when the
bigger machine was busy.

If you go with the 4x6 saw you will probably want to go through it and
upgrade/repair some of the weak areas. There are several sites
listing the common corrections needed.

I do think that all these machines are the same, except for small
details. The difference is in after sales support. Grizzly has
excellent customer support, at least for the few times I have required
it (not for the saw).

There are important differences to look for in the "better" models,
however. For instance, Grizzly sells two 4x6 machines, the basic and
the Swivel Head. They have the same specs as far as speed and
capacity. The Swivel model has the hydrallic down feed and is better
balanced.

The hydrallic downfeed should be included with "all" saws. The
spring-type counter balance just sucks, It will work though, as many
have testifed. Don't wander off while making a cut.

The question of balance is is a safety issue. These 4x6 machines can
fall over "backwards" when raised fully to the vertical position. It
really doesn't take much to get them to flip over when sawing on what
they call a table.

The bigger machines may also include a coolant pump, a feature I use
often when cutting thicker stuff.

All the problems with the 4x6 saws except capacity can be corrected
with money and ellbow grease, however.

Steven Harris