New Sears 9" Band Saw?

[JoeyGee]

I stopped by Sears today, and they had a 9" band saw on display. It looks like someone took the 10" and put it in a dryer for an hour or so.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...yword=band+saw

This is probably old news to most, but I'm sure this means the end of the 10" for $100 on sale. Man, I am sure glad I got mine already. LOML bought mine for Christmas last year. If she were to buy it this year, I am sure I would have ended up with the 9"--which still looks good, and I am sure it's as good, just smaller.

[Hoakie]

I think it has been around for a while (at least while the last 10" sale) I think it was marked down to $89 tho

[eccentrictinkerer]

I just stopped at Sears today and the 10" BS is on sale for $99! I got mine during the sale and I haven't even got it unpacked yet.

[steve-u]

It may look the same but so far the 9" version has three 1 star reviews so it would appear it does not work near as well. Below are the reviews to date.

Steve

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http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...yword=band+saw

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"The toothed plastic drive pulley on the end of the motor shaft has no keyway or set screw. After cutting about 7" of 2 1/4" mahogany, the motor was spinning freely and the plastic pulley was beginning to melt. The saw was useless. I returned it after wasting most of a day. I'm amazed: how did it get through design, production, and distribution without someone realizing that its useful service life is about 7 minutes?"

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After 15 minutes of cutting, the blade stopped moving. The motor was spinning and getting hot, and I smelled burning plastic. I opened the lower door and saw that the drive belt was not moving. Further exploration revealed that the gear wheel that drives the belt was completely loose at the motor shaft. It was completely worn out and flopping around. Also, the blade supplied with the saw was no good, as if the teeth were set only on one side. Its straight-line track was about 35 degrees off, and it was impossible to control. A bad deal all around."

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The tracking adjustment does not offer the latitude to get it right. The blade provided nearly ran off the back of the tension wheel on top.
The tension adjustment did not allow me to get the blade tight enough to ride properly, and when I switched to a different blade (also proper length as stated on the package) it was so loose that it could be slipped off without loosening the tightening handle.
Overall, this is a disappointing unit. I couldn't run it long enough to see if anything else was wrong."