[Shop-talk] recommend a portable bandsaw

[Arvid Jedlicka]

Sounds stupid but "another HF". I have one and other than I took it apart 
and
made sure that it had real grease in it rather than the stuff that was in 
there that
had turned quite hard - and the fact that it makes a lot of noise - it seems 
to have
held up quite well. I follow their advice and relieve the blade tension when 
I am
not using it, but other than that I've had good luck with it.

Given that the Milwaukee is $300 at NorthernTool I an planning on going thru
three more HF saws if this one ever gives out.

I will qualify the recommendation - if you want to actually call it that - 
with a
"I don't use it every day" and "I bought some non-HF blades to put in it"
disclaimer.

Arvid


> Ok, following my normal practice, I bought a cheapie portable bandsaw from 
> HF for $70 to see how it worked, if I liked it, and if I used it much.
>
> It worked well (while it worked), I liked it, and I used it pretty often.
>
> Of course, its from HF so the other night the fact that the blade doesn't 
> hit the roller bearings finally meant the blade wore through the case 
> enough to toss the blade and chew up the drive wheels.  So now I'm 
> wondering which 'real' portable bandsaw I should get.
>
> Any advice?  I'm leaning toward the Milwaukee mostly by default.  One 
> reviewer I saw liked the DeWalt, but I've seen spotty quality on some of 
> my DeWalt stuff and all the Milwaukee things have been bulletproof.
>
> Anyway... Recommendations or things you don't like about one of these in 
> particular?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark