HF bandsaw sale

P

pso

Joined
Oct 29, 1998
Messages
494
Another heads-up. The Harbor Freight flyer arrived today. It shows the horizontal/vertical bandsaw (93762) on sale for $159.99. The regular price is $219.99 although the web site shows a sale price of $199.99. It also shows the Variable Speed Portable bandsaw on sale for $69.99. The regular price is $99.99 with the web site showing a sale price of $79.99. Call your local store first because the flyer I have might only be good for Southeastern Texas.

Oh yeah, the flyer also had an Electonic Fly Swatter for $2.98 (works great) and a Motion Activated Pig (91392) for $7.99. I cannot imagine why anyone would want one of the latter. :rolleyes:

Phil
 
Electronic fly swatters are good for shocking your friends. Friends you don't intend to keep, that is.

I got one of the portable bandsaws the last time they were on sale and used my 15% off coupon. It's not a bad little tool for $60. I added the base and attached a table to the material guide that came with the saw.



I've been having some trouble with blade tracking. Blades would run for a while and then get pinned beside the support bearings (or whatever you call the bearings that run behind the blade). A little creative shimming with some 0.010" brass seems to have remedied the problem.
 
DrThunder88,could you show a pic of the base you made ?
I just bought one here for 53$, and plan on doing the same thing. just haven't had the time to deal with it yet. Was too cheap to let it go :)
 
The base comprises three pieces of 3/16" mild steel from Lowe's. The two feet are 3x7" and the backbone is 3x11.5". My complete lack of welding gear led me to secure everything with countersunk machine screws (8-32, I believe) and Loctite. Here's a blueprint I made by slaving over MSPaint for about two minutes:



Here are some pictures displaying the fruits of my halfassery:





I determined where I wanted to D&T the flat end of the saw, centerpunched the case, and rubbed a pencil over the area to lift a pattern I could transfer to the base. As you can see from the bottom photo, I forgot to label "front" and "back", so I ended up with an extra set of holes in the spine of the base. I also didn't get the holes in the case and the spine to align quite right. I could get three screws to thread but had to use a stainless steel rivet in the last one. It's just as well, really. I was concerned about interior clearance on that hole anyway.

I know no one asked, but in case it comes up later, I fashioned the table in much the same way. Using 1/4" mild steel, I cut a 4x6" segment, drilled and countersunk holes, and attached it to the stock guide that came with the saw. I put nuts on the machine screws for the table, but the stock guide is D&T'ed and Loctited too.


 
Guys,

I would advise you against portable band saw. It won't last long. Mine lasted 8 month of light use. It's not repairable and has lots of plastic parts, including gears.
The HF horizontal band saw is much better deal. It's more expensive but will last you almost forever. You just need to mount it vertically.
I just upgraded to a 1943 Delta wood/metal band saw. It's in great shape and I just love it.

If anyone is interested I can sell you my old HF horizontal band saw for $40 plus shipping.
It's relatively heavy(even without horizontal part, which I removed), runs great, blade tracks good. It's a bit underpowered(0.75HP) to my taste but you won't find anything stronger for that price.

Funny thing is that my new-old Delta is just 0.5 HP but feels MUCH stronger. I guess HF "overstates" their equipment HP rating.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I have been putting off getting one of these for a while but at $159 I'll be hitting HF first thing in the morning.
 
I got one of the portables and it broke right away, when I returned it I asked about the warrenty they sell and for $10.00 got the 3 year replacement warrenty. I am on my third. They do have alot of plastic parts which do break, but do work well for a while.
 
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