Thread: Bs-5s

Can someone who has this model Hafco bandsaw tell me if the power head is supposed to have 10-12mm of shaft float where it attaches to the swivel bracket on the baseplate?
Also is it normal for the plastic cover on the motor fan to get crushed by the saw base in the vertical position?

Hi Phill,

I would say no to both questions !

What you have described is not acceptable on a new machine.

I would be taking photos,sending them to Hafco (if they are the vendor) and ask what they can do to put the defects right.

Your bandsaw is obviously not fit for purpose so I would be telling them about it, very quickly.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for you as I had a problem with a brand new vertical bandsaw from them about 22 years ago.

The slide down guide was about 20degrees out of plumb and the top pulley was warped.

They wanted me to freight the unit back to them at my cost. There,s no way they would come into paying the back freight.

I ended up fabricating the top end.

It will be interesting to see if their attitude to their customers has changed over the years. Please let us know how you get on with them if you choose to go this way.

Grahame

Unfortunately Grahame,,I bought it secondhand, so it is my problem, not theirs.
The previous owner hardly used it, so probably was unaware of these issues.
I just wanted confirmation that the shaft float was not designed to be there, before I fashion a spacer to remedy it.
The motor is rated as 0.5hp but is bigger around than the 1hp on my lathe for some reason, which is why it fouls on the frame, but there will be a way to fix it.
It seems like a reasonable machine for what I paid, but comes with a few annoyances, as stated, not the least of which is the total lack of support for short workpieces, an issue that I believe has been solved in a few different ways, just need to track down the threads.

Originally Posted by BaronJ

Hi Phill,

I would say no to both questions !

As requested John

IMG_20200215_180919.jpgIMG_20200215_180910.jpg

Hi Phill, Guys,

Thanks for the pictures.

As you say an easy fix ! Some spacers or spacing plate under the motor and a spacer on the hinge pin.

My bandsaw has had the motor replaced at some time in its life with a 1Hp Brooks motor which is double the power of the original one and over twice the weight. I made a new mounting plate to replace the bent bit of tin that was the original motor mount with a piece of plate and moved the motor back about an inch, which solved the same problem on mine.

It also had the side effect of counterbalancing the weight of the cutting arm. I started to make a hydraulic down feed damper for mine from an old car shock absorber, but never fitted it, because I found that the spring tension adjuster was capable of balancing the arm weight due to the extra weight of the motor assembly. The net result is that I can easily set the arm down force to what ever value I need. I'm currently using about 4 to 5 Lbs.

As far as cutting short or thin pieces, I made a block to fit in the blade gap ! See the pictures in my bandsaw post.

Heres a link from the WW side back in 2013

There are pics of a bandsaw clamp which can be used on the BS-5 if I have read it correctly.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/love-bandsaw-178845

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

... Hafco ...
It will be interesting to see if their attitude to their customers has changed over the years. Please let us know how you get on with them if you choose to go this way.
Grahame

Hello Grahame,
I though I might provide an update on HAFCO (I have no interest or relationship to them other than as a customer).

I have recently purchased a few items from HAFCO and a couple of them had quality issues which a lot of people wouldn't even notice, it's just that I check everything I receive against specified tolerances before I put it into service. One of them was the heel on a vertical mill slide which was not exactly perpendicular.
I emailed a photo in the morning, had a phone call back from Steve (the "fixer") by lunchtime, he went through their stock to find one which was pretty good (spot on with a paper shim), rang me back in the afternoon to see if I was happy with that solution. They shipped it the next day and Steve emailed a return authorisation with their Startrack account number to return the other heel.
The service was prompt, replacement item and shipping was at their cost.

I have since had a couple of other small issues and HAFCO have always come to the party without hesitation, so it appears their customer service has changed for the better.

The quality issues are not surprising since most of the equipment comes from China where quality varies widely and is totally unpredictable, however, buying Chinese equipment from HAFCO I can at least return it if it's faulty.
I guess if HAFCO don't provide that level of service their customers might as well buy from Chinese resellers direct (e.g. aliexpress) where it's cheap but you have no consumer rights whatsoever.

I am quite happy to hear that I am wrong about the current situation and things have changed for the better.

Its very re assuring to see that Hafco back the products that they sell.

It still means we all need to follow your lead and check all similar products that we receive right at the first opportunity to do so.

I would cheerfully pay more to own Chinese manufactured products that I did not have to modify to get them to work as a fit for purpose application.

Grahame

I had a look at my generic 6 x 4 Hafpos bandsaw, it has a spacer where yours has a gap. Presumably your saw slipped through the final assembly check without the missing spacer being noticed.

Originally Posted by BaronJ

.................
As far as cutting short or thin pieces, I made a block to fit in the blade gap ! See the pictures in my bandsaw post.

Oh how lucky you are to have a gap John,....all I have is an angled drop-off to the base of the saw, and to top it off, the blade is 30mm from the edge of the vice.
Not a lot of thought went into this, so I will have to not only extend the jaws, I will also have to fabricate a solid base at the same level as the vice base.

IMG_20200216_121637.jpgIMG_20200216_121714.jpg

Originally Posted by bob ward

I had a look at my generic 6 x 4 Hafpos bandsaw, it has a spacer where yours has a gap. Presumably your saw slipped through the final assembly check without the missing spacer being noticed.

Thanks Bob, I will get that remedied a.s.a.p. now I know it isn't right the way it is

Originally Posted by ptrott

Can someone who has this model Hafco bandsaw tell me if the power head is supposed to have 10-12mm of shaft float where it attaches to the swivel bracket on the baseplate?
Also is it normal for the plastic cover on the motor fan to get crushed by the saw base in the vertical position?

I have the same bandsaw and it exhibits the same characteristics as you mention.. I also find it hard to get it to make a straight cut..

Flo

I just checked mine (B5-5S about 2 years old) and as Bob has indicated it looks like there is a spacer on that end - see item 24 on the parts list below (that isn't drawn to scale going by mine).

ux2l7R.png


This is a shot of mine in that area - the diameter of the spacer is not that much bigger than the shaft so not really that obvious.
BDfamP.jpg


The bottom of the motor comes pretty close to the casting but on mine has a flat on the motor end cover at that point.
BDpSsg.jpg

Happy to take any measurements, pull things apart etc that might help you.
Ray

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

..........I would cheerfully pay more to own Chinese manufactured products that I did not have to modify to get them to work as a fit for purpose application.

Grahame

Yes indeed. The manufacturing cost difference between a product that is excellent, and one which is in need of modification is negligible usually, often a case of just changing the way they do it, or replacing Chinesium cheese bolts, washers, springs etc with real ones.