HAFCO BS-5S Bandsaw Unboxing, Assembly, Usage and Thoughts
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- čas přidán 30. 12. 2020
- I bought the BS-5S bandsaw a while back and took some footage along the way. I thought i'd nasty hack it together with as little editing as possible into something others might find useful.
You can find more specs/buy it or something else here: www.machineryhouse.com.au/b003
WARNING: Bandsaws are dangerous and this is not a safety video. There are many quality videos covering how to safely use a bandsaw on CZcams. I strongly suggest you search for and watch those. - Jak na to + styl
Thanks for a video that has info on how it performs after a decent amount of use.
Hi mate.
Bought that same model, and persisted with it for a week.
Couldn’t keep the blade on the saw no matter what I did. Followed the instructions to the letter…. had daily communications with a variety of the staff at Northmead.
List of ‘faults’ very long.
In the end, I returned it for H&F to ‘have a go’. Half a day later, they gave up. They offered to swap it for another one ( on display), but instead I got a credit, and bought a plasma cutter 😤.
Don’t get me wrong…. I’ve been dealing with H & F since 1965, and spent a truckload of cash with them over that time, and I can’t fault their customer service.
I’ll probably try again ( but with one of their Taiwanese saws).
Good luck with yours.
Regards
Robert
Yeah i think with these kinds of things you can get lucky, or in your case, unlucky. So far i haven't had any major issues. If i used it more often and could justify spending more i would have gone something a bit larger and better made. But for what it costs and what i use it for, it's ok.
I brought the bs4 the older one made in Taiwan no swivel head I paid 70$ second hand and it has a never say die attitude about it 😊
Would have liked to see more cuts with it
As you can probably tell from my quality video uploads, im not the worlds best content provider ;) hahaha..
It has done maybe ~500 cuts through various materials mostly angle iron.
Once its setup, and the blade is running true, its pretty solid in terms of getting consistent cuts. My only gripe with it is that i'd like to have been able to set it up for a cut, then just let it do its thing. However, i find without some kind of automatic pressure control on down feed, i have to watch it and manually control the cut pressure.
Would i buy it again, yeah probably, unless it wasn't much more to get down feed control.
Hi Mate,
Nice video I also have the same machine and I’ve also had the same teething issues you had with your machine. I’ve done a few things to improve it like putting some foam strip’s between the blade cover and the casing to stop the horrible noises it was making, the blade runners 1 bearing is fixed and the other is adjustable like a cam I’ve changed the fixed one for an adjustable so I can now adjust the blade at a more true running position as before the blade had deflection to the right coming off the bottom pulley when looking at it in the vertical position seems to help with tensioning ad blade adjustment.
I haven't needed to do much to it other than tweaking the blade guides so it cuts perpendicular as the blade drops and adjusting the spring setting to reduce pressure on the blade if I let it cut by itself. Foam strip sounds like a good idea, mine has the same horrible noise.
I think if I was to modify it is probably try to fit some kind of hydraulic down feed control. If I was to get more exotic than that it's probably time to sell and buy a better model 😁
It does have downward pressure adjustment. There are 3 holes on the hinge that the spring slots into. when delivered mine was in the centre hole. If you move the spring to the hole closer to the front of the saw the downward pressure will decrease and you shouldn't have any more problems with the saw stopping (assuming your blade has all its teeth).
There are better blades available. Scott Turner mentions them in his shop tour vid (I can't remember where from but they're here in OZ).
I was hoping you were going to have some info on squaring up/adjusting the blade.
Every time I change the length of the blade guide spacing the saw goes out of alignment on the vertical axis. It's becoming a real pain to have to setup the saw every time I change the width or angle of cut. Having said that, it still beats the hell out of the old abrasive cut off wheel.
Good luck with the saw and please... next time could you film with your camera in landscape/sideways. It makes for a much more watchable video.
Thanks for the tip about the spring, will give it a go.
As for the blade guide causing alignment issues, i haven't hit those yet, most of what i cut i can use the narrowest setting.In general, the machining/bolts/adjustment of the upper bearings/guide isn't precision enough to take the pain out of getting the alignment right. But, as you said, it's better than using an abrasive chop saw.
Blade adjustment/squaring is fiddly, and that probably warrants a video of it''s own.
Thanks for the feedback re-video. I knew when i was editing my iphone footage it was going to be less than desirable but i thought i'd publish anyway. I'm far from what you would call a seasoned youtuber. 🤣
Other things i have since noticed. If you adjust the angle of the cut, the stopper which pushes the off button changes height, so where it would stop automatically on a 90 degree cut, on the 45 degree cut it doesn't.
@@OzDizzer That's weird. I've never had that happen. Changing the cut angle shouldn't effect the auto stop at all. The auto stop is mounted to the same plate as the hinge/blade/motor and swivels with the saw on the same axis. It should never change position in relation to the stopper bolt.
As I'm sure you already know, adjusting the auto stop is easy (even with a hammer), but you shouldn't have to after changing the angle.
@@rolandellis5309 hrmmm.. I will take another look this weekend. Maybe I hit it with something. If I can reproduce I will post a video.
@@OzDizzer Good Luck. BTW I had a closer look at a couple of Scott Turner's videos it looks like he doesn't adjust his blade guide spacing at all. Taking that on board I fought with my saw and have set the spacing so that it should be wide enough for the sizes and angles I usually cut. So far so good and the accuracy is awesome.
hi what's the height of the bandsaw when closed, width and length?
dont forget cutting oil :)
Yeah, I do the dodgy wd40 spray to keep it running moist 👌
Get bi-metal blades don't use the factory blade get smaller teath
Quit watching when the audio never got audible!!