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Central Machinery 4-Speed Band Saw

In June of 2000, myself and several others on The Woodworkers mailing list purchased the Central Machinery 4 speed woodworking bandsaw from Harbor Freight for $219.

At first glance, I am impressed with the machine and feel that I definitely got my money's worth on this buy. The only reservation that myself and everyone else concurs on is that the blade that comes with the machine is of really poor quality. I plan to replace it with a Timberwolf blade ASAP. The only thing holding me back is the question of whether or not I want to spring for the optional riser kit for the saw. I don't want to be stuck with 93 blades when I need 105 inch blades for use with the riser kit.

One accessory that I did pick up for the unit is the magnetic lamp you see between the wheels. This was a whopping $5.95 at Harbor Freight when I picked up the bandsaw, so I couldn't resist, knowing that it might (and does) come in handy.

The following pages (accessible through the frame at the left) are at the request of some of the woodworkers and try to document assembly and modifications I've made to this bandsaw over the years.

(Follow-up Sept. 2001).

I added a riser block to the saw, and also added a hand crank (from http://www.i-n-i.net ), both of which were good investments. The riser block I purchased was from Grizzly Tools (http://www.grizzlyindustrial.com ), but I had to make some adaptations to this one, so I would recommend you get the one from HF if you are considering it. Click on the picture to the right to enlarge it.

I haven't had any problems with the saw to speak of. It has done everything that I've asked of it. Of course, I haven't asked a lot of it yet.

As far as resawing goes, I've only cut a couple of 8" tall oak pieces, but didn't have any problems with that. No bogging down on the motor or anything, and that was with a 4 tpi Olsen blade. Incidentally, I leave the speed setting at the highest speed. It is too much of a pain to change the speed, so I don't even bother anymore.

The dust collection on this beast works OK at best. You can definitely tell when you don't have the shop vac hooked up, but there is always some sawdust on the table when I get finished.

So, was it worth it? Would I do it again? Sure, no problem.

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