I tried posting this earlier, but I don't know what happened to it. It
is not showing up in the newsgroup.
I recently bought one of those $200 Harbor Freight bandsaws. I guess
they are called a 4x6. Anyway, I was lucky enough to find it on sale
for $169 and $8.95 shipping, so I bought one. The motor was a 1/3 HP
and I had some qualms about that lasting long. I finally got it set up
on Friday and cut a piece of 1-1/2" brass stock. It didn't seem to do
too bad although I did notice the motor got a little warm just cutting
that. I then had a chunk of 3" brass rod that I figured would really
give the motor a workout. It did. For about 5 minutes and then it up
and quit. It only got through about a half inch (if that) of the 3". I
let the motor cool off for a couple of hours and tried to restart it.
Nothing. It would just buzz. I entertained the idea of leaving the
switch on and really letting it burn up, but I figured my wife would
not be impressed if I burnt the house down. Off to the local hardware
store and I got a 1/2 HP Dayton motor ($80). Wow. That made a
difference. It went through the 3" without so much as getting warm. I
even had to put just a tad bit of pressure on the end of the bandsaw
because the Dayton motor is about twice as heavy and it was throwing
off the balance. I'll figure out approximately how much pressure I'm
keeping on the end and then I'll just rig up some weights to hang off
the handle. I'm still mostly glad I bought it. The next cheapest
bandsaw was around $200 and about $70-$90 shipping. I also figured
those probably didn't have any better motor on them either. I now have
$260 in mine with a good motor.
Except for the motor being sh!t, this seems to be a pretty good bandsaw
for the money (at least for what I am doing). Buy one...but plan on
replacing the motor right off.
Mike