Hare & Forbes Bandsaw

[Strungout]

Hi all,

I see Hare & Forbes have 14in bandsaws for $389.00.

(Sydney Trading Post) Any comments on these?

I am after a small bandsaw for occasional use(cutting out guitar bodies/necks) so I dont want to spend heaps on one if I can avoid it.

Thanks all in advance

Regards

Greg

[gold leader]

I have the Hafco BP-14A, and the price sounds about right. Its a good saw for the money, but spend a bit to upgrade to roller guides and a better blade. You will probably have to change the lower guide bracket to take the roller guides, but for a total outlay of about another $50-$60, its well worth it.
I do have a little trouble with vibration, but I hear replacing the drive belt with link belt and maybe the two pulleys for machined ones will help this.
Hope this all helps!!

[AlexS]

What Gold Leader said is right. I've had one of these for about 10 years, and I think the quality of some of the castings has improved since then.

Although it's bottom of the market, this saw can be tuned to work really well. However, you will probably have to replace things with better quality bits as they break/wear out. Since I've had mine, I've replaced:-
the motor - Smith & Butler in Hornsby know exactly the motor to use, so I guess its not an uncommon problem,

Drive belts

Most bearings

The top adjuster casting assy.

Switch

In each case, the replacement was better quality than the original.

[bitingmidge]

I once had a cheapie, spent more than it cost replacing all the bits and building better stuff to fit it.

Eventually sold it for more than I had spent to someone who appreciated what had been done, and bought a JET.

Couldn't believe the difference. I know it is more than twice the price and probably built in the same factory, but I figured I won't have to buy another one as long as I live!

I haven't had to do ANY adjusting, and I can stand a twenty cent coin on end on the table when it is running. (I just about couldn't keep a 20c coin lying down on the last one ;) )

I did get five years out of the other one, and my money back at the end so can't complain, but the new one (2 years old) was worth the wait.

Cheers,

P

[Bob Willson]

What BitingMidge said.

If you can possibly afford it then go for the Jet bandsaw.

Nearly all the equipment that I have that was bought on price is unsatisfactory in some way. On the other hand, whenever I have paid the extra for a quality item, then I get continuing pleasure from using it just because it is so smooth to use and the results are so much better.

It is like the difference between using a sharpened screwdriver instead of a finely ground and honed chisel.

Good tools turn me from a poor workman into a mediocre one. :)

[Sir Stinkalot]

I bought the Hare and Forbes BP16A (now $769), which in the limited time that I have had it is a great machine. One thing that I have fallen in love with is the size of the table (505x400) most others are around 350x350. The large table is great for cutting large sheets of MDF or Ply and I would say is one feature often overlooked. The only problem I have had with the machine was that I bought a new blade from Carbatec and even though it was designed for Carbatec's equivalent machine (not shown in their catalogue but with features such as studier wheel covers etc but closer to $1000) was slightly too small and made fitting to the machine difficult. You could actually say that it was only a problem with the blade not the machine to be fair.
Other than that I have had no problem cutting mfd, ply, large slabs of red gum (150mm), 100mm Jarrah amongst other things. It really boils down to what you want to do with it, take some of your guitar templates with you to see how easily you can move them around on the various machines.