Posted on Shop Fox W1848
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#1 posted 04-02-2019 09:51 PM |
How is your bandsaw? You said that is HF? Yep. I picked up the HF 14” BS after (once again) searching for one locally on CL. Used ones were more than a new HF. And they weren’t anything worth looking at. I remember an older Delta, with the open base, and the seller wanted $800 for it. Pricing on CL is crazy, so when I saw the HF DC, I immediately jumped on it for $100 without even trying to talk the price down. I had to put some work into the HF BS to get it running the way I wanted. Not that it wasn’t usable ‘as is’. Assembly other than the base (which should have been a 15 minute job), is easy. The base took me a long time to assemble, and it should have been a straight forward job. I watched a few videos about people assembling this saw, and a lot of them commented on how bad the directions were for the base assembly. I finally figured it out after what must have been a couple hours. The pulley system is a bit of a pain to get aligned and the belts tightened. I just put mine on the highest speed setting and will leave it there. The stock belts are garbage. I upgraded to a pair of link belts, and along with a strategic brace inside the base, I got the vibration under control: The base itself doesn’t look like it is very sturdy, but it’s fine. However, one of the motor braces would vibrate a lot, even with the bolts tightened down. Could possibly be a pulley imbalance or something. That’s why I added the brace. It bolted into existing holes in the base. The table has no holes to mount an aftermarket fence. Which means you either drill them, or go with a Carter magnetic fence. I haven’t checked the wheels for balance yet, but I may in the future. I doubt if my BS would pass the ‘Nickle Test’, but it’s running pretty smooth right now, with very little vibration. And being on a mobile base, it’s going to transfer/amplify the vibrations anyway. The stock tensioning rod is a bit short for my liking so it was replaced: I replaced the stock steel guide blocks with Cool Blocks. The HF BS used both the round (bottom) and square (topside) ones. Again another ‘Huh???’ Also replaced the stock blade with a Timber Wolf. Dust collection is not very functional. I see some modifications in the future. Saw runs good. However, I don’t like where the on/off switch is: I will most likely add a Carter tension release lever in the future, and some sort of fence. But for under $400 out the door, it was a decent alternative to anything I saw on CL. -- "In the end, it's all Hack..." |
