Harbor Freight Sawmill - does it exist?

gemniii · Jan 7, 2010

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=97445

I've seen this discussed on at least 5 forums. Sometimes the threads run VERY long.

I've yet to read ANY first OR second hand reference to actual hands on experience.

Hundreds of posts dumping on it, hardly anyone mentions it's a Hud-Son knockoff, by Hud-Son.

Does ANYONE have one?

/edit - I'm surprised I could not find a thread where someone posted they had bought one and it was crap.

chuckwood · Jan 8, 2010

Horror Fright

Yeah, the welding forums *love* to talk about Harbor Freight. The quality of some of their stuff is surprisingly good. Then, there's the HF stuff that works very well if you are good with machines and you can modify or beef up the item in question to make it fully functional (often done by a bit of welding or drilling, etc.). The HF bandmill might be a good purchase if you're handy enough to keep it running. And if you're lucky, it may be something that is actually very well made, like my big HF drill press. HF will sell you parts for their products, and they will also happily accept a return and let you go get another one.

I always do my homework on the net first before buying anything major at HF. Some of the HF stuff is of dubious quality. If very many people in the US were buying these HF bandmills, the returns would eventually be showing up on ebay, being sold by ebay tool liquidator vendors real cheap. I think HF never sends any of that stuff back to China, it just gets sold here for pennies on the dollar to whoever wants to take a chance on it. What if it's a really good machine and people that buy one keep it and don't return it? I'm interested in this mill myself, didn't know until now that HF sold anything like that. I'd love to have a bandmill, but I really don't do enough milling to justify the cost so far.

Some guys in China or somewhere else in Asia are probably sawing with this HF bandmill right now! Except they'd have a Robin Subaru engine on it instead of the Briggs. Too bad they don't get online and join AS and then tell us first hand about the quality of the mill or of their experiences with it.

olyman · Jan 8, 2010

chuckwood said:
Yeah, the welding forums *love* to talk about Harbor Freight. The quality of some of their stuff is surprisingly good. Then, there's the HF stuff that works very well if you are good with machines and you can modify or beef up the item in question to make it fully functional (often done by a bit of welding or drilling, etc.). The HF bandmill might be a good purchase if you're handy enough to keep it running. And if you're lucky, it may be something that is actually very well made, like my big HF drill press. HF will sell you parts for their products, and they will also happily accept a return and let you go get another one.

I always do my homework on the net first before buying anything major at HF. Some of the HF stuff is of dubious quality. If very many people in the US were buying these HF bandmills, the returns would eventually be showing up on ebay, being sold by ebay tool liquidator vendors real cheap. I think HF never sends any of that stuff back to China, it just gets sold here for pennies on the dollar to whoever wants to take a chance on it. What if it's a really good machine and people that buy one keep it and don't return it? I'm interested in this mill myself, didn't know until now that HF sold anything like that. I'd love to have a bandmill, but I really don't do enough milling to justify the cost so far.

Some guys in China or somewhere else in Asia are probably sawing with this HF bandmill right now! Except they'd have a Robin Subaru engine on it instead of the Briggs. Too bad they don't get online and join AS and then tell us first hand about the quality of the mill or of their experiences with it.

yup--some of the hf stuff aint bad--you just have to look,and pay attention to what you are buying--i bought a aluminum car floor jack--as i didnt want to carry my heavy snap on three ton up to the house--its works VERY well

olyman · Jan 8, 2010

gemniii said:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=97445

I've seen this discussed on at least 5 forums. Sometimes the threads rum VERY long.

I've yet to read ANY first OR second hand reference to actual hands on experience.

Hundreds of posts dumping on it, hardly anyone mentions it's a Hud-Son knockoff, by Hud-Son.

Does ANYONE have one?

/edit - I'm surprised I could not find a thread where someone posted they had bought one and it was crap.

theres another brand?? that has the steel side rails--that are punched full of holes for weight reduction--and the price of them is only a bit more--but like you--thats good starter one--and ill have to check on that next time im at the hf store--thanks--

mtngun · Jan 8, 2010

gemniii said:
I've yet to read ANY first OR secon...I won't "need" a bandmill, but what the heck.

BlueRidgeMark · Jan 8, 2010

gemniii said:
/edit - I'm surprised I could not find a thread where someone posted they had bought one and it was crap.

Dunno for sure, but that's probably because nobody has been willing to dump that kind of money on something from HF.

Or if they did, they were ashamed to admit it! :dizzy:

olyman · Jan 8, 2010

BlueRidgeMark said:
Dunno for sure, but that's probably because nobody has been willing to dump that kind of money on something from HF.

Or if they did, they were ashamed to admit it!

mmmm,maybe--but some of their things are ok--aint much diff then people shopping at walmart--where theres lots of chinese things--

gemniii · Jan 8, 2010

Well I called the number on the manual, got thru to Hud-Son Forestry, I was told it's made in New York and to stop by and they could demo one.
Looks like it's not "cheap chinese junk." But still doesn't confirm the quality of it.

My big interest it to mill relatively small trees and cants. Similar to what woodshop does with the RipSaw. But I can put it all in my FEL and work down making trails and lumber at the same time while being relatively low impact.

Now is there anyone in that neck of the woods, near Utica NY, that wants to stop by and report back?

excess650 · Jan 10, 2010

You might want to do a bit more research and see IF you hear anything good about Hudson. I knew of Hudson prior to buying a Norwood.

gemniii · Jan 10, 2010

excess650 said:
You might want to do a bit more research and see IF you hear anything good about Hudson. I knew of Hudson prior to buying a Norwood.

Over on another forum there are a lot of posts about the Oscar 18, and except for a few, the users are positive about it. I'm coming to think their "red line" is a lighter weight mill than something like a Norwood, Woodmizer, TimberKing or a Cooks. Especially in the rails.
And their "yellow line" sold thru Harbor Freight, is even slightly less metal (the cage on the minimill is 2 post, on the Oscar 18 it's f our post) and a shorter warranty, for a slight reduction in price. The real bargain comes in IF you can find a 20% HF discount coupon from the Harborfreight.com site.

And that's the point of this thread and the threads I've got on other forums - I'm trying to research the quality of this mill. Has anyone used one?

As with almost all mills it's a LONG ways from Alexandria, Va to even see a mill in a store. In my case it's a 450 mile drive to look at the mill at the factory. And since this is for personal, not business use, it's not like I can charge a day or two off and the cost to travel 900 miles just to see one.

So far, on all the forums, I've only had one reply that someone actually saw one in person. However it wasn't even assembled and was in the store. Yet he was still able to tell the saw was so underpowered it would take a day to mill a log (even thought it's got the same engine as the Hud-Son Oscar 18).

olyman · Jan 10, 2010

funny--i went to hfs site--and no sawmill comes up--wonder whats with that??? and tho it only has a 6.5 briggs, at 2299--how long to pay for it--consider you have no problems??? not long--

DaltonPaull · Jan 10, 2010

I just noticed that you can get a the Hudson model that this is a copy of for less on eBay.

gemniii · Jan 10, 2010

DaltonPaull said:
I just noticed that you can get a the Hudson model that this is a copy of for less on eBay.

Be nice - post a link
/edit - and what price - this is not a "copy" of a Hud-Son mill, this is a slightly smaller version of the Hud-Son Oscar 18, and the only name I've seen for it is "Mini-Mill".
The manual doesn't even have the word Hud-Son in it.

gemniii · Jan 10, 2010

olyman said:
funny--i went to hfs site--and no sawmill comes up--wonder whats with that??? and tho it only has a 6.5 briggs, at 2299--how long to pay for it--consider you have no problems??? not long--

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=sawmill&Submit=Go
Should show 3 sawmills.

DaltonPaull · Jan 11, 2010

OK, maybe copy isn't the best term but this looks like the same mill to me:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PORTABLE-SAWMILL-BANDSAW-BANDMILL-CHAIN-SAW-MILL-WOOD_W0QQitemZ360224852823QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item53df130b57

The buy it now price is $2195. They've been putting these on eBay for a while now and I was thinking about buying one before I bought my ripsaw. At the time time I contacted the seller to see what the reserve price is and if I remember right it was just a little lower than the buy it now.

I decided on the Ripsaw for better portability but with the Ripsaw I spend a lot of time and effort getting cants lifted to a comfortable height and stabilized so there are some trade offs.

deeker · Jan 11, 2010

Harbor Freight does have small sawmills.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67162

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67161

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97445

I don't (yet) know much about them...not quite the NorwoodLM2000 that we own....but as a smaller mill............

chuckwood · Jan 11, 2010

deeker said:
Harbor Freight does have small sawmills.

I don't (yet) know much about them...not quite the NorwoodLM2000 that we own....but as a smaller mill............

The images on the HF site show the mill tracks sitting flat on a shop floor. My guess is that these mills only work properly when the tracks are supported by rock solid, level surface. Please, somebody out there buy one and then report back to us!

Or, here's an idea, if a hundred people on AS each contribute $25.00 to a test fund (the cost of a half tank of gas for a pickup truck), then somebody knowledgeable about band mills go out an buy one, run it, and give us a "consumer report" - I'd be glad to part with $25 just to know if these mills are a wise purchase. Maybe y'all could have a GTG somewhere to run the HF bandmill and see what it'll do. Me, I'm too much of a tightwad to take a chance on the full price of one, there's just not enough information out there right now.

gr8scott72 · Jan 11, 2010

chuckwood said:
Or, here's an idea, if a hundred people on AS each contribute $25.00 to a test fund (the cost of a half tank of gas for a pickup truck),

$100 didn't fill mine up last time. :jawdrop:

gemniii · Jan 11, 2010

DaltonPaull said:
OK, maybe copy isn't the best term but this looks like the same mill to me:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PORTABLE-SAWMILL-BANDSAW-BANDMILL-CHAIN-SAW-MILL-WOOD_W0QQitemZ360224852823QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item53df130b57

The buy it now price is $2195. They've been putting these on eBay for a while now and I was thinking about buying one before I bought my ripsaw. At the time time I contacted the seller to see what the reserve price is and if I remember right it was just a little lower than the buy it now.

I decided on the Ripsaw for better portability but with the Ripsaw I spend a lot of time and effort getting cants lifted to a comfortable height and stabilized so there are some trade offs.

Yes! Thank you! - I've seen that sometimes before. But when I got into this discussion on the other forum I couldn't find it.
I believe that is the exact thing that HF is selling with a different coat of paint. They even call it the Mini-Mill.

Prior to calling the company I thought this was a "copy" or ripoff of Hud-Son. Now it seems they are catering to a wider market but need some help in marketing.

I'm sure with anything you/we will have trouble lifting 16" cants. I just finished CSMing a 9 to 10 ft cant of maple and made one section about 4" thick, and it's about 18" wide. It was all I could do to drag it onto the pile (got to start working out).

I'm planning on a modified/bastardized Loglifter II (is that patented and trademarked yet Bob? Better get to it!!) and my Mark III, plus a yet to be purchased Stihl 660 from "thechainsawguy" (probably). Make my cants, mill my lumber. I'll probably basically build a deck for the rails with the first few cants.

But I'd REALLY like to find someone with actual experience with one.

gemniii · Jan 11, 2010

chuckwood said:
The images on the HF site show the mill tracks sitting flat on a shop floor. My guess is that these mills only work properly when the tracks are supported by rock solid, level surface. Please, somebody out there buy one and then report back to us!

Or, here's an idea, if a hundred people on AS each contribute $25.00 to a test fund (the cost of a half tank of gas for a pickup truck), then somebody knowledgeable about band mills go out an buy one, run it, and give us a "consumer report" - I'd be glad to part with $25 just to know if these mills are a wise purchase. Maybe y'all could have a GTG somewhere to run the HF bandmill and see what it'll do. Me, I'm too much of a tightwad to take a chance on the full price of one, there's just not enough information out there right now.

That's a good idea if you could organize it, but I think it's use is limited to low impact operations like what I want to do - haul it in on a trail and mill on the spot. Or set up in a suburban back yard and mill on the spot. Not with the idea of selling lumber.

Now if there are trustworthy people in the Northern Virginia area that want to go part on one I'm up to suggestions. For the next year or so I've only got about 20 trees that I've got to make into lumber or burn. We'd need some minimum ground rules but it's doable.

Harbor Freight Sawmill - does it exist?

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