HF 4x6 bandsaw - buyers beware

[Old Iron]

I've had mine about 5 years and know problems so far, I also have a old 4 X 6 made in Taiwan that was under 4' of water for about a week when Ivan hit here only needs a bearing in the gear box.

It is a lot better saw than the H.F. so I need to fix it when I got the band saw I also got a power hack saw. Whats funny about it is the motor still runs on the band saw and the motor on the hack saw is lock up.


I need to get to work on both of them I only gave 50.00 for both and a floor model drill press.

Paul

 

[7HC]

no it isnt good long term, and the first thought that came to mind is that they are changing the design- but you would think that they would still stock up on replacement parts before revamping the factory for a completely different line of machines which makes me think they stopped making those a WHILE ago... either way. not very good news. I hope it's just HF though. makes me wonder if I should replace, or ask for a refund all together.

I think I'd go for the replacement, just because it's such a handy machine to have around, and in relative terms the cost isn't that great, and if it came to the crunch most of the parts could be replicated or repaired.

It might be interesting to check with Grizzly/Jet/Northern to see if they have parts available.
It's hard to imagine it's going completely away, even Home Depot sells a version of it.

M

 

[November X-ray]

Hmmm, Decisions, decisions.....as far as getting a refund or a replacement, I guess it all depends on what your final goals are. If you plan to one day perhaps have a larger band saw, perhaps a refund is in order, however if you think a 4 x 6 will serve your needs for a reasonably long time, then maybe a satisfactory replacement (as long as you inspect it before departing the store with it) would be the prudent thing to do with the knowledge that some tweaking may/will be required.

All in all the little saw is a fairly reasonably priced "kit" that once the bugs are worked out of can be a decent addition to one's stable of metalworking toy,,,er, tools! Just make sure you drain the goop out of the gearbox and wash it clean before you use the saw and refill it with some type of gear oil. While the gears are exposed check the quality of the surface finish as some have needed the gears stoned to remove rough finish. There is quite a bit of information available on the Yahoo 4 x 6 Bandsaw Site.

Good Luck with your decisions!

 

[PurpLev]

yeah, I'd prob go for a replacement as I don't think I'll ever need anything larger than this (hobby use) and yes, not a whole lot of parts and all those that exist can be remade (just don't want to remake something that is brand new and is under warranty). just a bad taste to this whole thing I guess.

 

[November X-ray]

(just don't want to remake something that is brand new and is under warranty). just a bad taste to this whole thing I guess.

True, however we as consumers of all things cheap have done this to ourselves. It is a crap shoot, even with buying stuff from Wal-Mart as they lower their standards all in the name of cost, or in our case, "prices". If you look at it from another perspective though, you could not begin to build one from scratch for $200 and you would not be near as far along in building one as the unit comes from HF in it's "kit" form and there is even somewhat of a warranty for just in case you do not feel like working on the kit!

It'll all work out in the end!!!

 

[PurpLev]

Update:

After getting the reply from CS saying that the guide (part #112 in the HF manual) is discontinued and being suggested to return/replace the entire unit at the store I did just that. repacked the behemoth and took it back to the store. as much as the equipment is lacking in QC the staff is full of CS. I was pleasantly surprised how painless and forthcoming the experience was to replace the saw albeit having to repack->bring to store ->drive another saw back home part of it. the saw was replaced and a new 90day warranty was issued on the spot. This time around I opened the box before taking it home (had to open it in the car) - after giving it a general checkup that all the parts seem legit I strapped the now open box and took it back home:

here is candidate #2:


brought it to the basement (AGAIN), unpacked (AGAIN), built the base (AGAIN), mounted saw on base (...), did another general checkup of all parts before I put any more work in this - saw seemed LESS stable than the previous one, but other than that in much better condition parts wise. I liked the fact that this spring does not do the "TING" sound the other one did when the pressure was applied on it. cleaned it up including emptying the oil from the gear box, cleaning up all the debris in there, and refilling with new clean oil:


...and gave it a test run which seems to be running well. I still have to fine tune it all, but for a step-1 all seems to be well with this one:


so yeah, had to work hard to get here, but the cost savings on this one were huge compared to all other alternatives so I think its one of those cases it's worth it. but that's cause I know what I'm doing. any other way I would have been real disappointed.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

 

[November X-ray]

Hopefully everything will be well worth all of the effort and it will be smooth sailing from here on out. Of course in life we need a little turmoil every once in awhile in order for us to really appreciate the good times!

Enjoy using your new saw!

 

[7HC]

Good to hear that #2 worked out.
There wasn't any casting sand in the gearbox on mine. It has a rough finish from the casting process, but it looked like it was cleaned out before it was painted.

Mine was set up well from the factory, the blade runs true and the new motor runs well. There's sufficient adjustment on the mounting plate to allow the pulleys to be set at the same height and square to each other.

The worst part of the saw for me is the paint color, which could probably best be described as 'Industrial Sludge'.

The stand works ok to hold it up so it won't fall over, though it might if you look at it funny. :whistle:

However, a new stand is easily made, and it won't be hard to make something that's stronger, wider and more stable, and that's easier to roll around.

M

 

[November X-ray]

I just remembered something, on my HF 4 x 6 saw, which I bought about 4 or 5 years ago, it began breaking blades after a month or two. Best I can figure is the wheels had powder coating or something on them that wore off and made them become out of round by about .050". I chucked them up on my 9" lathe and trued them up and have not had any more blades break since.

Just an FYI.

 

[PurpLev]

Just an update, after cleaning the saw up, and setting the fence at 90 to the blade I can a test cut through some 1.5x3 aluminum bar and was very pleasantly surprised by how true and clean the saw cut even with the stock blade:



I did get some Irwin bimetal blades from enco last week but will wait until this blade will fail before replacing as it seems to be doing well so far.

thanks for all the feedback

I just remembered something, on my HF 4 x 6 saw, which I bought about 4 or 5 years ago, it began breaking blades after a month or two. Best I can figure is the wheels had powder coating or something on them that wore off and made them become out of round by about .050". I chucked them up on my 9" lathe and trued them up and have not had any more blades break since.

Just an FYI.

That's very interesting info and good to know - will definitely keep that in mind. thanks for posting.