Band Saw - Harbor Freight or Grizzly?

[SmithDoor]

The HF I have has never need any thing has work great the day of the box in 2008. It was on sale that day for $160 .

Dave

I also have a red HF...my only issue is the free pulley (non motor end) for the blade can't be adjusted (I think) and the blade Cerf runs on the pulley dulling it very fast on one side !! I was actually thinking of milling the wheel down about .030" to keep the teeth off the pulley. Anyone else have this issue ?
Thanx,
Dave

 

[rodw]

I also have a red HF...my only issue is the free pulley (non motor end) for the blade can't be adjusted (I think) and the blade Cerf runs on the pulley dulling it very fast on one side !! I was actually thinking of milling the wheel down about .030" to keep the teeth off the pulley. Anyone else have this issue ?
Thanx,
Dave

This should be fairly easy to fix. My take is your top wheel (as in non driven) has to come out to line up with the bottom one. Remove the screw from the shaft and use a puller to pull the top pulley out until you get it lined up with the bottom one (use a straight edge). Get some washers that are the same diameter as the shaft (which you may need to drill out to a bigger hole. Pack the end of the shaft out with washers until it is level with the pulley and replace the bolt. I think some people also undo the gearbox and adjust the bottom shaf t with a spacer to get the pulleys aligned. The pulley is pretty tight so it should not move back in if you space the top pulley out with a puller.

 

[surfside]

I guess, the size of your pulley must have something to do with it.

 

[V 45]

Hi Rod- That's a better idea than milling it off. I will try that !! Thank you...
Dave

 

[SmithDoor]

Here is a Tip on getting the blade to last a long time KEEP the speed to the blade low
I have buy a lot of saw blades and have found a low speed will cut two or three times more steel than running at the speed the blade MFG said to with coolant.

Dave

 

[rich9959]

I just bought a Harbor Freight 4x6 Horizontal band saw. After look on line at some of the problems with this saw I thought for $168.00 it was a good deal.
The first thing I found was in the vertical position the blade would jump off the drive wheel.
After adjusting the blade using Grizzly’s 4x6 instructions this fixed the problem, however in the horizontal position the blade was 3/16” above the table surface.
Harbor Freight relies on the rollers to push the blade down to the table. Wrong!! The blade needs to be straight.
To fix this the blade wheels need to be shimmed 5/16” further out on their shafts. The shafts are a little too short for this, but for now it seems to work. In the future I will make new shafts for the wheels.

 

[rodw]

To fix this the blade wheels need to be shimmed 5/16” further out on their shafts. The shafts are a little too short for this, but for now it seems to work. In the future I will make new shafts for the wheels.

Don't have your saw but are you sure there is not a height adjustment bolt back near the Hinge? On my saw, this let's you adjust blade height.

 

[rich9959]

Yes there is a height adjust. I have it backed off all the way. The band saw arm casting goes down and touches the table casting.

 

[gus]

We have no HFs and Grizzly here in Singapore. The vertical and horizontal metal band-saws are mostly China Make and cheap and nasty.I won't touch them with a long pole.
Bought a Makita Portable Band-Saw and mounted it into a DIY plywood housing to make it vertical. Came with a cheapy M.I.China saw blade.Cuts well and straight and eventually went crooked and hard to guide. Paid a lot more to try out the Bimetal Saw Blades and they last and last.
See foto.
Would have gone horizontal if I have a a bigger balcony.

 

[MikeG]

Hi all. I've been using the green HF saw for at least 8 years. I agree about the stand, I had a creeper that I mounted the saw stand an all on. The creeper is a perfect cutoff, scrap holder! My fix for the blade popping off or not cutting straight is tightening the blade tension knob, when you think it tight, put your glove on and turn as much as you can! It works for me.

Regards
MikeG

 

[barnesrickw]

Like the stand Gus. Saved the pic so I can heavily borrow the idea.

 

[jwcnc1911]

My experience with the Harbor Freight 4x6 bandsaw covers 6 years. I used it a lot for the first 5 years and all I ever did was change blades (buy good ones). Then the motor burned out. I replaced the motor with an old 1/3 hp motor that a friend had laying around.

and have used that for a year without problems. I put the replacement motor on, and the shaft diameter didn't match the hole in the original cone pulley so I just put a single pulley on the motor that's about midrange speed. I rarely changed cutting speeds with the original setup.

Bottom line - the HF saw works fine and has held up well.

Phil

I have had this exact same saw for about a year. I would say under heavy use - more than the average "home shop" for sure. As previously stated, only buy the best blades you can stand to drop money on.

I have been very pleased.

 

[lathe nut]

Been having a HF 4X6 for about 10 years and love it but the first time I plugged it in the motor burnt replaced with a yard sale motor and now have three 4X6's from yard sales just picked this one up at a yard sale, I got him down to one hundred, that big boy eats iron, its a 10'' Caroline I don't miss the hacksaw at all.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Lathe nut Do you have a manual for that or know where to get one. I have had my saw for IIRC close to 15 years was wondering the make of it.Need to look closer for a data plate. stickers are gone.
Tin

 

[werowance]

Ive had mine from Harbor Freight for about 6 years. 1 recomendation i have is to make sure that the blade guides are adjustable. i dont mean that they slide back and fourth to accomodate larger material, i mean that the guides can rotate, like the one in the picture 2 or 3 up from my post. i was dissapointed that mine does not adjust and the only way is to shim the guides which is important to get a straight cut.

last recomendation, buy a quality blade. makes a world of difference. started getting mine from Fastenall after only getting bimetal blades from tractor supply, i was ammazed at the difference in cut speed and how the cut was straigt as an arrow. cost about 10.00 more but has outlasted id say 3 of the tractor supply blades.

other than that, ive had to adjust my pulleys to keep the blade lined up like others have mentioned, the stand is flimsy but works. and the saw cuts just fine.

thanks

 

[mikbul]

Get the Jet, it has sealed bearings on the blade wheels instead of bushings.

 

[Wizard69]

I've purchased machinery from both HF and Grizzly and frankly have had mixed results from both companies. In the case of the bandsaw I went with the model G0622 and frankly it has been one of the better experiences. These so called 4x6 saws are extremely useful to have around considering how much they cost.

In the pics above you can see the results of a new blade and the saw started on another cut in the same stock. It is hard to see in the first pic above but the larger piece was cut with the original blade while the second was cut with a new Starrett blade. The original blade would not cut straight at all and the cut was rough. The new Starrett blade cuts as straight as an arrow and leaves a finish that almost looks like it was milled. Very impressed as all I did was change the blade.

By the way the saw won't cut completely through that block of steel in one pass. The saw cuts good enough that I can flip the stock and hit the saw kerf right on if I use a square to set the position of the blade. That impressed me as to the mechanical shape of the saw as some have had real issues with the saw even after installing new blades. So the potential is there.

By the way, I ran out of cutting fluid while cutting up this stock so I went to the local hardware store and picked up some pipe threading oil to use as cutting fluid. I was impatient and didn't what to wait for a mail order. The stuff works surprisingly well.

I have been shopping for a 4X6 metal band saw and have found one at Grizzly (Model #G0622) for $404.00 shipped and at Harbor Freight (Central Machinery Model #93762) for $249.00 (and I think I can pick that up at a local store).

I picked mine up at the Grizzly store.

For those of you who might have one or the other, is the Grizzly the better choice at the higher price, or doesn't it make any difference? I don't want to spend more than I should, but I also don't want to skimp on quality and regret it later. I am just a hobbiest, so usage won't be that heavy.

Good question! For this specific machine I don't think there is a big difference. I'm not convinced there is $75 worth of extra high quality stuff in the machine. The motor might be better quality, some of the motors in the HF machinery look a bit pathetic though admittedly I haven't looked at a HF bandsaw lately.

Due to a number of issues, I've tried to restrict myself with respect to HF. The local stores are a mess and I've had decidedly mixed results with purchases there. So I went with Grizzly this time around.

Thanks in advance for any help! (As always)

Jeff

People have already pointed out some of the obvious issues. Just to reiterate here is my list:
1. The stand sucks, it must be a joke in China. Of course you are getting a lot of machine for your money when you think about it.

2. The blade that comes with the machine is worthless. The Pro DIe blade is incredible by comparison. This highlights that you aren't getting much extra with the Grizzly.

3. Trying to use the machine vertically with the supplied hardware is a joke also. It can be done but you get tired real fast trying to balance 50 pounds of metal on the machine.

4. The supplied hardware sucks. Here I'm talking the screws, nuts and bolts. For example the two screws that hold the vertical table in place where barely passable as Phillips. It wasn't a case of improper installation either.

5. There is no table or pan beneath the saw thus no way to catch oil and chips properly.

6. This maybe a "feature" of my machine but the jaws aren't as square as I'd like.

Lots of little issues as you may see from the list above. However considering how useful the saw is and frankly the good job it does , it is a bargain. Before you get to a saw that is significantly better you are somewhere around $500 shorter on cash. So you really don't have much of a choice here is the cash outlay is important as the next step up that addresses these issues is far more expensive.