Horrible Fright 9" Band Saw Review

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Rockytime

Rockytime

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Arvada, CO 80003
Well I did it. This morning I took my 25% off coupon to HF. I purchased the 9" band saw. With the coupon I paid $101.57. I unpacked it and assembled it. It took about 30 minutes to unpack and set it up. The most difficult part was getting the little 1/4" blade on the wheels. It is a swirly little bugger. After that setting up and aligning the table it was ready to run. I made a few cuts on 3/4" plywood the made several on 1" oak. I cut rapidly and accurately. I was expecting to dial everything into alignment but that was not the case. Tomorrow I will tweek the guides and that is about it. I rally think I got my money out of this little saw.
 

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I think you will be very happy with the little bandsaw !! My only suggestions would be to bolt it to whatever you are going to put it on, and purchasing an adjustable gooseneck light for it because the blade is in the shadow of the blade guide when using overhead lighting. Also use bee's wax or a candle on your blade to keep down friction and heat when cutting the harder woods or plastics. Have fun !!! Jim S
 
First impressions can be faulty. However, about all the saw will be used for is cutting blanks. Probably not much else since I am not a wood worker, I'm more of a machinist and have a large horizontal saw. If it does shoot craps in the next few months you can be assured of a scathing report. For $100 it is less than dinner with my wife in an upscale restaurant.
 
Rockytime said:
First impressions can be faulty. However, about all the saw will be used for is cutting blanks. Probably not much else since I am not a wood worker, I'm more of a machinist and have a large horizontal saw. If it does shoot craps in the next few months you can be assured of a scathing report. For $100 it is less than dinner with my wife in an upscale restaurant.
Click to expand...

Lol!

I am not thrilled on any HF saws , it's useful on the first three months but later on, you're starting to realize you get what you pay for.
For small saw, small work only. Good luck!
 
I have one of those I purchased a couple of months ago. I bought it because it was cheap and it fit the very small space I had available. For the most part it works just fine. I built a sled for it to help me cut my blanks straighter but I'm a little vexed that the blade does wander a bit when cutting denser material. I know this is probably a issue with band saws in general, but I bet a larger, heavier blade would eliminate some of that.

Overall I'm happy with the band saw, but I won't be able to do much in the way of segmenting with it unless I keep it very simple or cut larger and sand down square and to size.
 
I must disagree but I will not be disagreeable. I have a HF 14 band saw. I have had it for at least 10 years. How many pen blanks and snake skin blanks has it cut...just a few. How many bowl and other vessel blanks has it cut? Probably just as many. One summer I cut over 120 mesquite bowl blanks. This saw has never missed a lick. No problems at all. I do keep it well tuned and use good blades. It has a riser block also. Are all HF tools this good? Probably not. But this 14 inch band saw, my disk sander and floor model drill press (bought at the same time)have served me well.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Fishinbo said:
Rockytime said:
First impressions can be faulty. However, about all the saw will be used for is cutting blanks. Probably not much else since I am not a wood worker, I'm more of a machinist and have a large horizontal saw. If it does shoot craps in the next few months you can be assured of a scathing report. For $100 it is less than dinner with my wife in an upscale restaurant.
Click to expand...

Lol!

I am not thrilled on any HF saws , it's useful on the first three months but later on, you're starting to realize you get what you pay for.
For small saw, small work only. Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
its_virgil said:
I must disagree but I will not be disagreeable. I have a HF 14 band saw. I have had it for at least 10 years. How many pen blanks and snake skin blanks has it cut...just a few. How many bowl and other vessel blanks has it cut? Probably just as many. One summer I cut over 120 mesquite bowl blanks. This saw has never missed a lick. No problems at all. I do keep it well tuned and use good blades. It has a riser block also. Are all HF tools this good? Probably not. But this 14 inch band saw, my disk sander and floor model drill press (bought at the same time)have served me well.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Fishinbo said:
Rockytime said:
First impressions can be faulty. However, about all the saw will be used for is cutting blanks. Probably not much else since I am not a wood worker, I'm more of a machinist and have a large horizontal saw. If it does shoot craps in the next few months you can be assured of a scathing report. For $100 it is less than dinner with my wife in an upscale restaurant.
Click to expand...

Lol!

I am not thrilled on any HF saws , it's useful on the first three months but later on, you're starting to realize you get what you pay for.
For small saw, small work only. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Don: I must also agree to disagree on the Harbor Freight subject. One of my work benches (also HF) is a designated pen station. On it I have the bench top disk sander, Mini Miter saw, Mini Table saw, Mini tube Cut off saw, all Harbor Freight. I also have the HF bench band saw, and mid sized lathe. All of these items do the job they are "designed" for well !! If you keep your tools well maintained and tuned properly, no mater what the brand, you should have no problems that can't be corrected. Many people buy less expensive tools for different reasons, cost, space, or to do a certain job. Some try to make them do jobs they just weren't designed for. And, yes, you get what you pay for, but you knew that before you bought it. If I want to do larger projects, I use my larger more expensive tools. You could have a $3000 band saw, and still not be able to cut a straight line. Use what you have and buy what you can afford at the time !! Sometimes it's not the wheel that's out of wack, it's the nut holding it !! No offence to anyone intended, just an analogy !! Jim S
 
Don; The other nite I was getting ready to make a set of gun grips out of a piece of Bocote 3/12 X 4 X 1 inch. I wanted to bookmatch the grips, so I needed to resaw the blank in half while standing it on edge. I was standing by my HF 9 1/2" table top band saw and thought I would give it a try. I marked the center line and freehand cut the blank, no fence guide. With Bocote, being a very hard wood with crazy grain patterns, I expected a lot of drift and uneveness in the cut from top to bottom. There was none !! The little saw cut perfectly straight and equal thickness size blanks. The blade guide was fully retracted for the 3 1/2" cut. Just goes to show you that it isn't always size that matters, but how you use your saw !! Jim S
 
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I don't know anything about the little HF saw... my 9" saw is a Ryobi that I got for $99 at a pawnshop in Houston... it's been a good saw (If I can keep the squirrels and packrats from using it as a nut storage container - another story)... I've replaced it with a 14" Delta with a Grizzly riser that does the bulk of my cutting now... I only use the Ryobi now for plastic and antler blanks.

I do have a HF table top drill press, a 1" belt sander both have served me well for 10+ years...and my dust collector is from HF... it's relatively new - only about 8 years old.
 
I've been considering the same thing (saw with 25% coupon) for the last few months... not to cut blanks to shape (I have the 18"er for that), but to cut into the blanks for non-straight segmenting. I'd like to see a favorable review a few months from now...
 
Dan Hintz said:
I've been considering the same thing (saw with 25% coupon) for the last few months... not to cut blanks to shape (I have the 18"er for that), but to cut into the blanks for non-straight segmenting. I'd like to see a favorable review a few months from now...
Click to expand...

Dan; I have used my HF 9 1/2" table bandsaw to make those type of cuts using a 1/4 inch blade. I beleave you can also get a 1/8" blade and a 3/16 " for tighter curves. I have also used a scroll saw for this operation and also for doing inlays. Jim S
 
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A scroll saw was another option, Jim, but the HF bandsaw just looked like a cheaper option (after the coupon). Not concerned about the money, but it's another space-taker-upper, so it'll likely get moved around a lot and semi-abused for that price. Wanted something easy to move/store and didn't care about beating it up should things get ugly.
 
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