Harbor Freight 4x6 Bandsaw

fenneran · Mar 2, 2004

Spencer,

The problem is that you let the smoke out. You should never let the smoke out of one of these units...they never work right afterwards. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

-Frank

JerryG · Mar 3, 2004

Last fall I made my mind up to get a bandsaw, but after talking to several people I bought a Dewalt chop saw. I am glad that I did, it works great. Got it at Lowe's for about $200.

fivestring · Mar 3, 2004

Spencer,
He is much too young to smoke! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Soundguy · Mar 3, 2004

Yikes. I think you just got a bad one. Looks like a run cap went...

We are using a HF band saw in both our shop locations. One unit cut ALL the steel ( in one day.. non-stop )to make a trailer for our big diesel miller welder/genny we haul out to sites.

We cut steel i-beams and all. When the blades get hpt.. we've had the motor stall.. but it never smokes.. had reset trip a few times during extended cuts.. 20 minutes or more.. I think you lost a cap.. or there was a poorly insulated winding ont he armature.. etc.

The only thing we did was got rid of the el-cheapo blades it comes with and went to a bolt/blade store and got a good bi-metal blade.

For what its worth.. it is the same unit that is selling at TSC.. part for part.

That is a defect.. go get a replacement... like I say.. our cuts metal every day.. big metal... piston ram rods, etc.... and has for months..

OEM cheapy blades are my only complaint about the machine.

The bandsaw we had in the shop befor this one was a lso a chi-com one.. though not harbor freight.. was 9 years old.. someone backed a front end loader into it and it fell ocer, and cracked the top cast housing... so it wasn't a mechanical failure that made us replace it...

good luck

Soundguy

SPIKER · Mar 3, 2004

Yep i would say it was a faulty motor, someone forgot to put the SMOKE plug back in and everyone one knows that the SMOKE is what makes em run! once its gone the motor is all used up /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

we have one similar and it works well HF buy for like 169 I think a few years back, but we bought a totally awsome saw for metal, 9we have a fab shop so have to have good saws.) it will cut a 10" heavy I beam through at 45 degrees in about 45 sec! a 1" solid bar round in about 20 sec. but it cost 4500.00 too! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

ok anyhow like others said the HF blades are bad get good blade for it. and return for trade.

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif nice pic too.!

BIGUN · Mar 3, 2004

I have had very good experiences with HF power tools such as their drill presses and bench grinders. Have had a small drill press over 20 years and still works fine, so went with HF again when I bought a new large floor model this past year.

Deerlope · Mar 3, 2004

Sorry to hear & see your problem. when you really needed that tool. I bought a 4x6 JET $250 from Northwest tools that I thought was a cheap tool but it has worked very well for 2 years now. I cannot beleive the engineerning that they put into that little saw. You always get cheap blades with them but I have since started buying bi-metal blades for it.

tillerkiller · Mar 3, 2004

I am sure that your bandsaw must be defective because I have a Harbor Freight $19 angle grinder that got hung up /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif while I had it in a place that it should not have been. It smoked pretty good before I could get it shut off, and that was after I tried to yank it back out of the bind I had put it in. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I was sure that I had killed it, but that was two years and a whole lot of abuse ago. I keep trying to buy another one there but I haven't ever seen that _same_ one on sale. I have to get the very same one don't you know,,, YOU CAN'T KILL IT! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

ljh2 · Mar 4, 2004

You didn't by chance catch all that smoke for the 'smoke-replacement' procedure did you? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif No? Well, in that case it sounds like you should try to return for replacement.

Bummer!

Spencer · Mar 5, 2004

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. Harbor Freight had just opened up their first store on this side of Michigan. I went down their that Saturday to get the saw instead of ordering it online and having to wait weeks to get it. The saw was actually $20 cheaper in the store. I didn't want to take the whole saw back and get another one because I didn't want to re-assemble a whole new saw. I used a lot of extra washers and I put Loctite on all the fasteners. I called the store and talked to the manager and he said he would just swap out the motor for me. I printed out the picture of the smoke coming out of the motor and I gave it to him. He was quite surprised and said that they have had good luck with the saw overall. I brought the new motor home and hooked it up. I could tell instantly that this motor was a lot stronger that the first one. I cut up a bunch of metal with it this week and everything seems fine now. I will probably end up getting a better blade for it some time. The manager did give me a replacement blade for my trouble, but I am sure it is the same kind as the original blade.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I'm just amazed that you had your camera that handy to get a shot of it the way you did! )</font>

Garry, the main reason I got the saw last week was because I wanted to start a new project. I had the camera out in the garage to document the project for a future post here on TBN.