Harvey 18 inch Bandsaw HW618E

[stevepay]

Some of you may have seen my thread in the Bandsaw section (upgrading my bandsaw to a ???) about my journey over the last year or so researching and finally deciding what machine to purchase only to have to wait for so long that I have given up and taken a chance on a similar machine .... and to sum up my recent purchase of a Harvey 18 inch bandsaw HW618E.

Ok first thing first ...Disclaimer: I do not have a direct or indirect financial or other interest in the product or the provider (including friendship).

Down to business , I know that a lot of people are looking at the Harvey brand machinery and wondering how it compares to the very similar looking Laguna machines.... well spoiler alert I can't tell you as I have never seen a Laguna 18inch bandsaw in the flesh and the closest thing I have seen and been able to check out in person is the 14/12 which looked pretty good but unless someone has a lot more money than me and can purchase 2 larger machines to compare I can only tell you how the Harvey performs, its good points and bad.

I also need to point out that I am in Perth WA so a lot of what I decided to do is based on being on the West Coast and what is available here (within reason).

I have now had the machine for about 3 days so this is an initial opinion only and I will report back in the future to let you know how things are going long term. The machine is an 18inch model and I won't bore everyone with too many specs, these are all on Harvey's website if you are interested. Please note there are 2 different models of the bandsaw an 18 and a 18E which has a few differences. this is a report on the 18E.

I purchased the machine from PTMS in Bayswater, Perth. It was $2290 including GST delivered to my workshop and was assembled by the supplier and had a once over to check it out before I received it. below is how the machine looked in my workshop after delivery.

Bandsaw 1.jpg


The Machine appears to be well made and well finished, and below are some close ups.

Bandsaw 3.jpgBandsaw 4.jpgBandsaw 5.jpgBandsaw 6.jpg

[stevepay]

Further points,

The ceramic guides are something that I have never used before and so far they seem to work well in securing the blade but are a little fussy to set the gap properly but nothing too difficult. The motor is a 3 hp unit and provides ample power for what I do, I have re-sawn a sheoak log which was about 15cm in diameter using my carter re-saw sled and it performed well even considering the cheap factory blade that came on the machine. This will be the first thing I will replace and I am already in the process of ordering a couple new blades.

There are small yellow metal brackets that are attached to the ceramic guide holders that are not very useful as they block your view of the blade while cutting and I have removed these ( they are held on by 2 small pins) these would be better if they were clear plastic or something similar.

The machine runs smoothly will a little vibration and I believe that a good blade and some decent levelling feet will go a long way to helping with this ( I am using wedges at the moment). When you look at the bandsaw on the web it shows levelling feet but my machine did not have them. the small table insert is a resin / plastic material not metal as was on the Laguna and there appears to be a few more areas on the machine where plastic parts are used instead of metal such as the door handles and adjustment wheels however these appear solid and should be fine over the long haul.

The fence is a solid piece of kit and works well with no movement when its locked in, I was able to do some basic cuts and all was fine. There was no problem with setting the tension on the blade and although the tensioning guide has a red lever and a yellow backdrop there is no numbering to give you any indication of level of tension so you will have to make marks on the inside and use these for future adjustments. The tension release lever works fine and is an excellent feature on any saw as its so much quicker to simply lift the lever than to use a wheel adjuster.

Basically I am happy with the machine so far, my only gripes are
[*]lack of levelling feet

• The basic blade cover which is clumsy
• rubber on wheels is black and difficult to see blade tracking
• height adjustment wheel is too small and a PITA to move quickly

The good points that I like are

• huge resaw capacity 380mm
• plenty of power 3hp
• large work table at lower height than other saws
• quiet running
• good dust collection
• easy blade tension and de-tension
  
  
  I will report back soon to give more feedback over the next few months but so far I am pretty happy with the machine and I would feel comfortable with my purchase.
  
  Steve

[Superbunny]

Nice to hear Steve, this one is on my list along with the Laguna, hope to hear more later.

SB

[stevepay]

ok a bit of an update on the Harvey,

I have now had the opportunity to use the bandsaw with a decent blade and what a difference a good sharp blade makes

I purchased a couple Excision bi metal blades (13mm x 4TPI) and these were a huge improvement, they eliminated the slight vibration and cut a lot smoother and quicker. I will probably try a few different blades in the coming months to see what results I get, thinking of trying a larger skip tooth blade to see what difference it makes resawing however the results of the current set-up is very good so no urgent need to change.

I have also made some minor changes to the guides, in one of the previous pictures you can see the yellow safety covers which look very safe but block your view completely of the guides and there is also a lower safety shield for lack of a better word and this also obstructs your view of the lower set up and I have now removed them as well. see the before and after pictures below.

I can report that the machine is quiet, runs very smooth (with new blade) and has very little vibration when levelled properly, I am currently getting some levelling feet from the supplier as these should have come with the machine but this was a not a major issue for me and not a reflection on the machine itself.

My impressions so far are of a well built machine that appears to be very similar to the laguna with some obvious cost saving measures to keep the price down but overall a solid performing machine with a few quirks but nothing that would be a deal breaker and I am very happy so far.

As others have discussed here on the forum there is almost no machine out there within reason that does not need some setup tweaking when you get it home and this would be a good learning curve for the new owner to get a feel for the machine and its set-up and operation.

so the bad points.....

ok the guides are different and so far with me the jury is still out. some would like them and some wouldn't this is a personnel thing but for me if I had to choose I still prefer the bearing type guides but this is not a fault of the saw but something to consider.

the fence is quite good in function but the design if the fence makes for some small castings around the area where the fence attaches to the rail and this is a weakness with the design as it creates 2 small fingers that are not well supported and if the casting is not done well this can crack (as mine did) and will need to be replaced. it will still function without the little end piece but obviously this is a design flaw. (by the way the laguna has the exact same design so you cannot escape this flaw). unless you buy the more expensive drift master fence $$$$. see the pictures below showing the fence design and where it cracked and how it relates to the overall function of the fence.

I mentioned this before that the hand wheel to move the guard / guides up and down is too small and I am currently sourcing a new hand wheel.

apart from these few issues I am happy with the saw and if performs very well, the main question that most will want to know is wether this saw is as good as the Laguna... well in my opinion and as I said earlier I have never used a Laguna I would say its probably quite close if not the same in the performance with a possible mark against it for fit and finish and perhaps a slightly cheaper "feel" with the extra plastic instead of metal.

would I buy it again? yes no question I would it is definitely a good solid saw which performs well and even if I was able to get a Laguna in Perth for a reasonable price..... which I can't...... this Harvey saw would be a good alternative.

Steve

[BobL]

If you think the dust collection is good then it should be much better if you remove the grill in front of the dust port. On the taiwanese clone BSs the dust port grill restricts the flow by around 20% and has about half the cross section are restriction of the harvey port so I imagine removing the guard on the harvey will make a big difference.

The manufactures put these guards in to protect the clients dust extractors but the sorts of stuff that gets thru the throat plate of a BS is easily handled by most dust extractors.

[stevepay]

Hello Bob,

those grills were the first thing I removed

Steve

[shanesmith80]

G'day Steve,

just wondering if you have a 6 month update. Is it still as good as your previous posts? Any other little niggles?

cheers
shane