Grizzly or Harbor Freight 4x6

[bfk]

I'm in the market for a 4x6 band saw for use in the high school robotics workshop, so you know it will be treated with the utmost kindness and consideration.
With a 20% coupon at HF and a 10% coupon at Grizzly, the HF is half the price, partly because I can pick it up in town and Grizzly charges $89 for shipping.
So the question is, is the Grizzly twice as good as the Hazard Fraught version?

To make it a little trickier, there's one of the old HF saws (the green ones made in Taiwan) on CL locally for about $100, so that could be a possibility. Condition unknown and we have limited time to spend working on tools instead of working with them.

Cost, space, and time are always issues, so we won't be getting something bigger, no matter how old and how American.

I'm sure someone here will have an opinion.

 

[markba633csi]

If you can check out the older HF saw including opening up the gearbox and having a look in there, you could save some money; but if the worm gears are torn up you don't want it. Check for bad bearings also and broken/missing parts. The older Taiwan saws are good. (I'm biased cuz I have one) but you still might have to fix it up some.
mark
the stands were and are pretty ricketty. I reinforced mine with some old bedframe pieces.
The Grizz is better than the new HF but not twice better

 

[4ssss]

I have one of the older green HF saws I bought off CL for $100, and it works as it should, no problems so far.

 

[coherent]

I've used both. The fit and finish on the Grizzly is better but no, not twice as good. For the price on sale and 20% off the HF's are great value for the price. I made a few minor mods to mine (steel tube stand on castors, better blade guide bearings and a good bi metal blade) and used it regularly for 4-5 years. Decided long before then that band saws are the way to go (vs chop saws) and sold mine on Craigslist and upgraded to a larger Grizzly with more capacity. That (limited capacity) was about the only thing negative about the 4x6's in my case. There are lots of web sites and forums with info, mods and such too.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

There was a 4x6 that had the blade guide arms on the outside of the casting . I had one but it was truly worn out, I replaced it with an early Rong Fu imported by BusyBee(Canadian Grizzly) . The one with the arms on the outside was a better machine.