Harbor Freight

[dennis thompson]

I am a hobbiest & am considering buying the Harbor Freight bandsaw (about $300). Has anyone had any experience with this? They have two, one with a single speed & one with 4 speeds (for only $20 more). Any need for 4 speeds?
Thanks
Dennis

[lowell holmes]

I don't know about the Harbor Freight saw, Home Depot has a 14" bs that sure looks a lot like my Jet. A friend has one that does quite well with it. Michael Fortune has one in one of his atricles about tuning band saws. The Home Depot has $385 on the price tag.

[Tony Bilello]

From my experience, HF has very low quality. I bought many tools from them when I was putting together my shop. The HF electric drills, routers and router table all started making grinding sounds after not too long. Soon aftreward, everything died. One drill motor locked up. Another drill had swith burn out. Both routers had thier shafts loosen up. Not sure if bearings went out, but they are loud and leave chater marks on the wood.

Tony B

[Curt Harms]

I am a hobbiest & am considering buying the Harbor Freight bandsaw (about $300). Has anyone had any experience with this? They have two, one with a single speed & one with 4 speeds (for only $20 more). Any need for 4 speeds?
Thanks
Dennis

I don't have one but I've had similar machines. Plan on doing a fair bit of tinkering and perhaps some parts replacements i.e. bearings. They can be made into satisfactory machines but likely not a great "take it out of the box and use it" experience. Having said that, if you need a band saw, a Harbor Freight one may beat the crap out of no band saw. I did find that when I got a good band saw I used it more than I had anticipated. Perhaps someone who has bought one recently will chime in.

HTH

Curt

[scott spencer]

$300 seems high for that machine and is more than I would pay for it...it goes on sale for much less often. HF quality can be variable, but their return policy is pretty good. Some items are surprisingly good, some not...the BS gets decent feedback for being a serviceable saw for low cost. I've got an HF DP and mortiser that I'm pleased with but if I were spending $300 on a BS I'd look at something used of better quality, or would look at the Ridgid or Craftsman on sale.

[Bill Huber]

I have seen the HF bandsaws on Craig's list for $100, 6 months old, so I would say they are not that good and do not hold their value at all.

I got a Jet a few months ago and if I was going to do it again I would get the Grizzly, they are $325 and come with a fence. From what I have seen they are almost the same saw as the Jet.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/14-Bandsaw-3-4-HP/G0580

[Carl Eyman]

I've had some good lick and some not so good. I've never seen one of their bandsaws, but if you can't find a good used saw it mightr be a way to go, but with some risk.

I bought a millling machine for our maintenance shop when I was still working and it turned out to be a real buy for our limited needs. I bought a router table with built in router that served me very well in my hobbiest woodworking shop for 21 years.

I understand their guarantee and return policies are pretty liberal; so that is a consideration. Good luck, you may need it. Carl

[Shane Sura]

Dennis,
I own the Harbor Freight 4-speed Bandsaw. A couple of things I will say. First of all, as mentioned earlier, HF tools are not take out of the box and use. I bought a pin nailer yesterday and had to take it apart to get the size mechanism to work right. If you like that kind of stuff, like I do, then great, if not buy something else. So far the bandsaw has been great. I use it for some of my turning projects and it is great for rough cutting. I also purchased the 6 inch riser from Grizzly and it fit perfectly.

I would say that dependent on what you are using it for it may be a bit underpowered. I have learned to deal with it but if you want it to just rip through something this is not your saw.

I use this machine a lot. It is my goto for quick cuts resizing and I have done some resawing as well. All in all it has been a great tool.

One last item I will mention is price. HF tools are great because of their price. That being said never...ever....buy a major HF tool at full price. they always run discounts at some point or another and you can pick them up cheap. They used to run a lot of 15% coupons in which you could get an even better price but those are semi hard to come by now. I think all told I got that 4-speed BS for $170 (I want to say I managed a 30% coupon that time). I did the same thing w/ their lathe and DP.

Right now HF has a 15% coupon going. Just do a search online and someone out there will have a scan. Print it out and at some point in the next month (the coupon lasts tille the 21st) that BS will go on sale (if not already). Bring ur coupon and get it at a great price.

Good luck!

Shane

[John Shuk]

A friend has had one for about 7 years and has always been thrilled with it. I think he tinkered a bit and bought HF's after market guides.
He understands that there are better tools out there but he feels it has always met his needs.
I know he does some resawing using Ipe for fretboards. He has the riser block and has never complained about the power.

As far as speeds go. I wouldn't pay extra for 4 speeds. Few woodworking saws have multiple speeds and it really isn't necessary.

[Dell Littlefield]

My Harbor Freight drill press is still going strong after 22 years. It stll has the original v belts so it is getting a little noisy. I used it in my clock repair business until I retired so it has been in almost daily use and still is accurate. I have used HF tools for even longer and have had pretty good luck with all of them. One exception-- I purchased a set of Forstner bits and they are all .001 to.003 undersized. It never caused a problem until recently. I found the undersized problem after replacing the top of a Workmate table. Now the bench dogs don't fit.

[David G Baker]

My opinion, save your money and try to find a higher quality one used. I have three that I have purchased at garage sales and all are better quality than HF. One is a 14 inch Craftsman (paid $85), one is a 12 inch Delta (paid $75)and the last one is a 14 inch import (paid $200). None are great quality but work fine for my hobbies. I have had the 14 inch for 15 years. If I used one on a daily basis I would get a new Jet or a Grizzly.

[Michael Wetzel]

I will not buy a power tool from HF unless there was no other choice. I would sooner wait a bit longer to come up with the money for a better product. I use HF to purchase something I will use and not care if it breaks aka "throw away tools"

I went through the same issues with buying Sears 18v drill/saw combo's. I do a lot of framing, decks, etc and I was constantly killing the batteries. So I decided to spend 2x the $$ and buy a Ridgid kit. It was the best decision I made on cordless tools. I use the cordless circ and a speedsquare instead of running entension cords all over.

[Rob Will]

Run away from HF power tools as fast as your legs can carry you.

If you take your time and watch the used market you will be much better off.

Rob

[Ben Cadotte]

I have had the HF 14" 4 speed bandsaw for 6 years now. I have not had to order a single replacement part for it yet. I have only had to adjust the upper wheel once (when I first got it). I just recently installed their 6" riser block and had to make no adjustments. For the price I paid I am truely happy with it. I just did a recent post in which I installed a new resaw blade and after tensioning it, I cut a 6" oak log in half, freehand. It took just 2 pases on the jointer to have it totally flat. The only complaint I had is during assembly its a pain to adjust the motor.

I also have a HF jointer for 6 years (no failures, although I don't like the fence). I have a HF 2 hp dust collector that is just fine. A 10" slidemiter saw that is dead on accurate. And a HF drill press that is also 6 years old still going strong.

With 5 HF woodworking tools with all at least 5 years old. I have had 0 failures!!

[John A Gray]

I have a HF 14" single speed bandsaw picked up at a garage sale for 100 bucks. The bearings sound dry and bumble when it's turned on but the bearings are tight and work. It's kind of bear to retrack the blade after retighten the tension. I does what I've needed so far but a Grizzly is on my want list.