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Yeah, I know harbor freight tools can suck at times, but sometime their tools just fit the bill perfectly, or should i say imperfectly. Most of the time they simply need a tweak like most of us have done. I bought the five inch horizontal/ vertical band saw about a week ago in order to cut heavy stock solid rounds of about 3 inches. I know it is not very fast but I can set it and forget it while I do other things, and when I come back the part is cut nice and straight, and the machine has shut itself down. Great if you like to multi task, and in my shop I have to do a lot of that. So what irritated me about the saw besides all the cumbersome guards that simply got in the way (yes i removed them ), was the way you had to reach under the machine in order to loosen the rear vice plate in order the change the angle of the cut, and again to tighten it. Not at all convenient and easily fixable so I did. Here is a picture looking at the underside of the band saw.
I simply welded a small 3/16 rod to the the nut and then another piece sticking up so that it now self tightens the bottom nut without having to give it a reach around.... er I mean under... the nice thing is that it works in the full range of the vice and interferes with nothing. One wrench from the top and easy peasey you are done. I hope this helps some one. It's no tool of the week but it is damn nice to have. Saves time, scraped knuckles, and puts less money in the curse jar. The long rod is about three inches and the one sticking up is only about a half inch. Just enough to catch that ridge of iron but not long enough to scrape against the bottom of the saw casting.
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