So frustrated with my new HF 4x6 band saw

I have one of these saws too. The original blade, as you found out, is absolutely and completely worthless. It might cut butter, but probably not straight.
There are some excellent videos out there on how to adjust the wheels for straight cuts. It takes a lot of fiddling with it, but that is true with almost any saw like these, whether it is a small one or a large 7x12.
Also, as your blade wears, you find that the tracking may change a little. I much prefer the Lenox blades over anything else. I get mine from Mars Supply.
 
I bought one of these a few months ago. Guess I got lucky, because it has worked pretty much flawlessly since day one. It has done straight cuts through 2" round 4140 stock several times. The original blade is likely needing replacement after that, but I haven't ordered one as yet.
 
Maplehead said:
Lastly, do all these machines make that cyclic noise per every revolution because of the blades weld joint? Mine is pretty loud.
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Mine is a late 70’s HF that was made in Taiwan. It has been a great saw and the only thing I’ve ever had to replace was the guide bearings. It does need some tweaking to set up properly.

The cycling noise is from a broken tooth on the blade. This usually happens when cutting something on edge like a piece of angle iron or channel with a blade that the distance between the saw teeth are more than the thickness of what you’re cutting.

As my blades age and get more tooth gaps the blade pulls and the cuts get off. New blade and all is well.

I cut angle with the angle up, edges down, like a pyramid.I do this by loosening the vise bolt enough that I can hook the base of the vise jaw over the angle then tighten the vise. That way the angle can’t pop out during the cut. I love the 4x6 because it’s cheap, so like all HF stuff I don’t have a problem modding it. And even though I’ve run a ton of different saws in my days mine with its mods is just good as anything 2-3x’s it’s price IMHO. YMMV.
 
I only run Lenox blades on my saws. Anything else and it’s a fight to get accurate cuts.
Glad you sorted it out.
 
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Check if the blade moves down square to the table. I had one that required shimming of the pivot so that it would cut square.
 
DavidR8 said:
I only run Lenox blades on my saws. Anything else and it’s a fight to get accurate cuts.
Glad to sorted it out.
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interesting, I had terrible luck with Lenox brand bandsaw blades, my Rockwell/Delta vertical bandsaw, my Wilton/Jet 7 x 12 horizontal bandsaw and my Milwaukee portabands, they cut like crap, wandered all over, could not keep an edge, I eventually ended up with Morse bandsaw blades, the best I’ve use (so far). I never really understood this because the Lenox step drill and hole saws are some of the best I’ve ever used.
 
Glad that you got it sorted out. Just a bit of advice on blades. Before you try to cut a piece of metal of unknown alloy, try a file on it first. It doesn't take much to knock the good off the teeth of a good blade. My experience has been that by the time you realize the metal is too hard to cut, the blade is trash.
 
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