Thank you for watching and commenting!

Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment, and good work on the repair! I have found that to be the case with a number of my cast iron Harbor Freight machines. Their castings are often suboptimal, but usually there is enough good there to warrant the effort of a repair.

Thank you for watching and commenting! Great work on getting the riser block installed!

Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment! I have also swapped out the V belts with link belts, and you are correct; the difference is night and day. I will need to look into the crank to replace the knob, I have seen mixed reviews.

Thank you! I have been looking at tension release systems that will fit this saw. I just have to get the courage up to spend the money. 🤣

Thank you! I will really need to look into an aluminum insert- I have been 3D printing mine and they work okay but aluminum would be a definite upgrade.

I will have to double-check but I definitely could not have simply installed the riser upside down. I think the riser may have a slight taper? I am not 100% sure though. It has been a while since I last had the saw apart.

Thank you for watching and commenting! 260 is a really good price for this saw, congrats! All good suggestions for making the included bar stock work,

I can't say for sure, but it looks promising.

I'm sorry you had a negative experience. I regularly use this band saw to cut guitar bodies and blanks for the lathe, many of which start more than 2 inches thick and are typically hard wood.

Thank you for watching and commenting! I have cut a little bit of rigid foam using a band saw, but I would hesitate to cut any foam softer than something like an exercise mat using a Band Saw; my fear is that it could snag, pull into the saw, and possibly do some damage even when using a high TPI blade.

@@BassadorWoodworking Well I'm trying to find the best power tool to 'rip' 8' long 4" thick extruded polystyrene (blue Dow Styrofoam) into 8" bevel cut strips for insulation on an underground concrete barrel vault shaped structure. Hundreds of such cuts. A hot knife worked slowly and poorly. Any ideas of a better idea than a large band saw? (most use spray applied application, but that's expensive and I already have a semi load I got a great price at auction)

@@ForbiddTV Foam insulation might be dense enough to not cause any problems for a band saw, take a look at Simmon's blades. It looks like they have a whole line of blades designed for medium to high density foam cutting.

@@BassadorWoodworking I will check that out, thanks for your responses!

I am really happy with it. with a little work it is a great saw!

Thank you for watching and commenting! It is definitely worth a look. It has been a while since I performed this upgrade but it would be cool if all the work I did turned out to be unnecessary 😂

No it doesnt work. If you flip it the holes are in exactly the same spot.

@@StinkyWizzleTits Good To Know Thanks.

Thank you for watching and commenting! Yes, it is a decently capable resawing machine. I have resawn a bunch with it, it is a little under-powered so I have to compensate with a more aggressive blade, but I make do.

I sure did! 😂

Thank you for watching and commenting! There are links in the description to all of the parts that I used. I am not sure I would trust the existing motor-mount to a larger HP motor. It would be a simple switch, but I am not sure the mounting plate is sturdy enough to stay true with a larger motor.

Thank you for watching and commenting! Those numbers sound completely reasonable and inline with most of what I do on the band saw. I have resawn larger hardwoods and just let the saw do its thing while I SLOWLY feed the board in. It takes a while but the cut quality has never been an issue. I usually give large boards a resaw pass on the table saw to give the blade a guide through the board. I don't think it is required but it is something that I have always done.

Thank you for watching and commenting! I have a link to the blade guide I purchased in the video description.

Thank you! The saw has a 1 horsepower motor, it is a great saw for bandsaw boxes; provided you use an appropriate blade.

@@BassadorWoodworking It's actually a 3/4 hp motor.

The riser gives me just about 12 inches of resaw capacity

Thank you for watching and commenting! Before the riser block, the blade length is 93.5", so you take that and add the height of the riser block (6") multiplied by 2. So you add 12 to the blade length and end up with a 105.5", the nearest size blade to that is 105".

I have had zero issues with the entire set up. I use it almost daily and everything is solid. I have been surprised by how much of an improvement adding the riser and the new tires made to the saw.

Thank you for watching and commenting! I don't think I spent that much on the upgrades. If I recall, I was closer to the $225 mark, but even so- I am not sure if it would have been cheaper. The Harbor Freight saw was $300 when I bought it, if we take your number of $300 for upgrades, that is still about half of what a saw with comparable resaw capacity etc. would cost from Grizzly or Rockler (about $1,000). If you take the cost of the HF bandsaw now, ($480) and add the $300 for upgrades, you are still coming out ahead. Also, my way was more fun 🤣, which was a large part of the point of the project.

​@BassadorWoodworking thanks for the idea! I just bought a 2hp motor for my central machinery band saw ($50 on fb market!) I'll be installing that soon and then I'll look at the upgrades in this video!

These are the bearings I purchased from Amazon, amzn.to/3RhDH7r The link worked for me, but if it doesn't load for you, just search for ACCURA 14" bearing guide. They were around $70 when I purchased them.

The upper blade guide came as an assembly and slotted right into the OEM slot and used the OEM hardware to mount.

Thank you for watching and commenting! I would have to double-check to see if that would have worked, I sincerely hope I didn't miss that as an easier solution- but it is entirely possible.

@@BassadorWoodworking yeah that would be one of those "now you tell me" kinda moments. Oh well it still worked

Thank you for watching and commenting! My saw is item # 60564 according to the manual that came with the saw.

@@BassadorWoodworking thanks!

Thank you for watching and commenting! It does appear that this is my most watched video. I do no do a whole lot of review videos; I have done like 3 or 4 review videos vs. more than 50 project videos, review videos have performed well, but I prefer to do projects over reviews.

It has been a couple of years but, looks like all the upgrades can be done for: Riser Kit: about $100 from Grizzly Band Saw Tires: about $20 on Amazon Rod for guide bearings: about $15 from a hardware store New guide bearings: looks like they go for around $80 now on Amazon, may be cheaper elsewhere though. So all in, it looks like it could be down for $200 if you were to use the most readily available parts. There may be savings that you can find by looking at compatible replacements from Amazon. I have links in the description to the parts I used which would make a good starting point but you can definitely save some money by shopping around.

There are a lot of variables to consider in that question so it would be hard to make an accurate recommendation. I can tell you that my first band saw was a 12 inch Craftsman 113 band saw. I love and still own that saw. It is a completely capable saw if your main intention of the bandsaw is to cut curves. It is not a great resawing machine. Wen also makes a really nice inexpensive saw that you can find on amazon.

Thank you for watching and commenting. The short answer is: Because it is fun. The Longer answer: Although it is only 1 HP, it is still a pretty capable at resawing if you use the proper blade. The Added height also allows for the use of a wider selection of jigs. I also get attached to my machines and would rather have them grow along with me by upgrading components when needed rather than toss and replace with a newer or bigger model.

@@BassadorWoodworking thanks for update!

Do you have any recommendations for a resaw bandsaw..im liking this saw an price

@@dancassidy7471 not for the price. You get what you pay for. Search for 14”, 1.5HP bandsaw. They are the cheapest of the nice ones so to speak.

@@Augcliffe Rikon 1.5 vs 1.75 hmm? Thanks as I'd like to leave this to son when my time is up..71 yrs here

Thank you for watching and commenting! I have a link to the kit in the video description

Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. I found the quality of my saw to be about what I expected. I was not expecting a perfect casting for the price I paid, I have had no issues with the belts or pulleys though. As long as they are coplanar, you shouldn't do any damage to the belts. In the process of performing other upgrades, I did swap out the stock V belts for a couple of link belts to reduce the overall vibration of the machine.

Thank you for watching! Being a lifelong Massachusetts resident, I have to disagree. Most of the people I have encountered in my life have been kind and respectful. There are bigoted people everywhere in the world but I don’t go into an interaction with someone assuming anything about them. There is a lack of big name woodworking stores but there are some gems out there if you know where to look- online shopping has also closed the gap.

@@BassadorWoodworking I would have to agree. I have traveled all over and there are awful people everywhere. Sounds like this person is either having a bas day or just wants to be a jerk behind the screen.

He hasn’t been to CT LOL