Thread: H&F BP355 vs BP360

Has anyone had a chance to try both of these bandsaws?

I cant comment on the 360 but have had a 355 for about 6 plus years now and am quite happy with it. For me solid build and and power were the selling points.
There was some mention of these 2 saws before in past threads so perhaps having a look back down the list may help.
Regards
John

Thanks John. I've done some searching on it. The BP360 is quite new so there is very little on it and so far, I can't find any comparison between the 2. From what I have read and what you have said, the BP355 seems like a good saw. From the specs, the BP355 seems better than the BP360 but the BP360 is supposed to be replacing the BP355!?! They are replacing a higher speed bandsaw with a lower spec'ed one? I don't understand why they would do that so I have to wonder if the difference is something else, something I can't identify from the spec sheet and therefore, would like to hear peoples thoughts on the 2 bandsaws.

Buying any machine is always about compromise. What do I want it to do, space in the shed and unless funds are no problem then the best you can afford.
It may be time to get out there and see some saws in the flesh just to see what you think.
As to H&F marketing intentions they will be profit driven.
Regards
John

Hey I noticed your on the sunny coast. I am about to purchase a bandsaw myself and was looking at the same units. Not sure if you knew but the Working With Wood festival is happening in brisbane this weekend so im going there to have a look at some machines. Might be worth your time. Chris

Hi Chris,
I am planning to do down on Friday for a brief look around but have to rush as I have commitments later on Friday and the weekend is all booked up. I was hoping that H&F would have both units there so I could compare. I've seen the Laguna 14-12 a few times and it is very nice but also $700 to $800 more expensive. Similarly the Jet and Powermatic ones.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum, I have just bought the H&F BP360, this is my first band saw. I had a good look around before I bought it and I think it ill do what I want. Apart from the LED light blowing with in the 1st hour it is all good. The setup was a little tedious at first (You tube helps here), but once I worked out what needed to be done it was easy to setup.
I used Silver Glide on the cast iron table which makes for a much smoother operation.

I have the BP360. It lacks any power whatsoever, it takes about 1 minute to rip 5 cm of 2 by 4. It is so bad I am thinking the motor might be a dud on the one I got, so it would be good to see what others experiences are.

I bought a BP360 in the recent EOFY sale, haven't had the chance to do much with it as yet. It's my first bandsaw and I picked this model because I wanted something in the 1.5HP range and wasn't sure I'd use it enough to justify spending Laguna / Powermatic type money. Overall I'm happy with it, but there are a couple of minor niggles, like:

The length of the aluminium extrusion on the guide post as shown here doesn't seem to serve any purpose except to obscure visibility to the guide bearings and the point where the blade contacts the work. I'm strongly considering taking a hacksaw to this and shortening that extended front piece above those bearings. The lower guide bearings are also a pain to reach and adjust as you have to poke the allen key through the trunions and it's fiddly and difficult to do.

I've used it to cut tapers on some 70x70 pine for coffee table legs and done some test curve cutting and resaw in pine up to 100mm and it's cut through that without any difficulty or resistance. But, that's only after I replaced the supplied blade. I was always going to do that but this took supplied blade suckiness to the next level. Because the teeth are set backwards. I kid you not, the teeth were backwards. At first I thought I'd installed the blade incorrectly or something since I haven't set up a bandsaw before, but the blade only goes on one way. So the couple of cuts I made with that blade took a long time and well, when my dog chews a piece of timber he leaves a cleaner finish.

I went back to H&F and got the wide and narrow Starrett blades for this saw and compared them. I've thrown the original out already so I don't have a picture but the teeth were set in the opposite direction. The better results I mentioned above were obviously with these new blades.

When I get to some bandsaw focused projects in the next few weeks I was thinking of going to Peacock Saws (I'm in Ipswich, near Brisbane) to get a couple of blades made to length. Any recommendations on blades or suppliers would be welcome.

Are you sure the blade wasn't "inside out"? You can twist the blade and turn it inside out and the teeth face the wrong way.

Haha, seems logical. The idea you could do that never even occurred to me.

Woops I eventually worked out what I was doing wrong. I had tightened the belt between the motor and the wheel as much as the manual had suggested but not as much as was required.

Hi Folks,
I got the BP 360 a couple of weeks ago, I felt it was a punt as there is little info from actual owners around the place.
For the same reason I figure potential buyers might like an opinion........
It was easy to assemble out of the box, you screw the stand together and then mount the main machine to it.Then you mount the table.
I did this while everything was horizontal, then just tilted the whole thing up.

Please bear in mind that I bought this to make electric guitars, re saw WRC for garden furniture, help with renovations e.g window and general sawing for household joinery.
I never expected this saw to resaw railway sleepers......

THE BAD
1.Paint chips/small dents all over the unit.
2.The blade guarding interferes with adjusting the blade guides. I chopped the bottom of the top guide off to expose the guide bearings, and removed the bottom guard completely.
3.The tension guide is useless, you need to find a way of getting the correct tension for the blade.
4. The guys who built the unit did the absolute minimum number of welds to hold it together and the steel used is light on IMHO.


THE GOOD
1.With a decent blade I can cut 150 mm hardwood no problem( after setting the guides and the blade tension correctly).
2. The saw cost me $800 , and will do what I need it to.
3. I could put the saw together and get it to cut properly by myself.
4. Its pretty quiet and there is not a lot of vibration, I am very happy about this.

I am pretty happy with it, its an entry level 14" saw and I expected to spend some time and effort to get it to work properly.
Happy to answer any questions if you have some.
Cheers,

Hi mase

Did you look at any other bandsaws before choosing the BP-360? I'm currently looking between the Sherwood BAS-350 & 350-B and the Hafco BP-355 and 360.

I'm currently leaning towards the 360, but that is based purely on specs, and I am yet to properly lay eyes on one.


Thanks

Matthew