Okay, I have decided to buy a table saw; and read the long thread about Harbor Freight.
Has anyone actually used their $340 saw?
I'd only buy it if you could get it locally. Otherwise you run the risk of paying shipping to get it, and then paying shipping to send it back. You may have to repeat that cycle several times to get a good one. That can eat into your savings pretty quickly.
I used to try HF, and the quality was certainly hit-and-miss. I'm not sure I saved enough on the good things to make up for the turds that I got. Machinery in particular seems very random in quality.
Even their pencils are substandard, the erasers break off very easily when you erase something.. they only purchase Bangeldesh's finest I guess ha ha
The only problem with HF is that buying something from them is a crap shoot. I really think that there is just one factory in Taiwan that produces tools for all the dirstributors. The better brand names have resident QC folks that say, I'll take this one, that one, etc. The next level of distributors have a sampling technique where they reject a lot if too many defects are found. HF gets what's left.
There is a better chance of getting a "works out of the box" with Jet or Delta. With HF you can count on expending some tuning time. It's pay me now or pay me later. Only you can answer how much you value your time. If you're a brain surgeon or a plumber and make the big bucks, you may decide that a few hours spent aligning a saw to save a couple hundred is not cost effective. If you are a subway musician, a few hours work to save a couple hundred might be a great deal. Even if you are a brain surgeon and find tinkering to be relaxing then go for the HF. You might even get one where all the tolerances lined up just right and it was perfect out of the box.
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Well, who's the "substandard" one if you have to resort to the eraser. Get it right the first time! I mean, I even removed the backspace key from my keyboard. Ha!
I've got one of their bandsaws that works very well after a good tuning. I was looking at one last week and am tempted to give it a try. (no shipping as they are local to me)
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Suggest you check the forums as woodnet.net. There are is one guy that owns that saw and has a web site whcih features it. If I recall the motor pulls a lot of amps and is not TEFC but the fence is pretty good and can be easily shifted to a 12/36.
The $340 price is high if youknow how to manipulate the HF codes. See woodnet.net forums for insrtructions on how to get it for under $300 freight inlucded. Try clicking on order from catalog and entering the number 46813-1vga ( instead of 46813-0vga ) ^
Considering that you can get Ryobi's BT3100 from Home Depot for $299, why would you even consider a Harbor Freight tablesaw for $350?
Um, quality? ;-)
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA
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Some people have an affection for cast iron and induction motors. Can't say that I blame them, honestly -- the lack of those two features *is* annoying sometimes (although I'd settle for flat aluminum instead of the ridged stuff, even).
--randy
Greetings,
Due to the lack of postings about personal experience with this saw, I assume no one has ever bought one. If anyone has bought one, I would very much like to know their experience with it.
S> Okay, I have decided to buy a table saw; and read the long thread about
I bought one a at a yard sale once, it was new in the box. After setting it up I found that even with a good blade the saw would bog down when cutting hard wood also the fence system was a joke, the adjustment bolts on the fence were not long enough to get the adjustment needed and it would need constsnt attention to cut semi true!! also the trunnions kept moving out of adjustment .
basicaly it was a p.o.s.
I sold it and bought the grizzly cabinet saw. not thats a saw.
hope this helps
Greetings,
Thanks. This helps. Sometimes you can pay for more than you need. In this case, $340 does not seem to buy enough.
S> I bought one a at a yard sale once, it was new in the box. After setting it
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