Customer Reviews

DELTA 28-276 Professional 14-Inch 3/4-Horsepower Open Stand Woodworking Band Saw, 120-Volt 1-Phase

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

My wife bought me this saw for Christmas and I was very excited. A Delta bandsaw! Great! Wrong, wrong, wrong.

After hauling the 240 pound box (weight is good right?) into my shop I realized that the saw was made in China! That's too bad, but hey, I thought, those are the times. They can make good tools in China, right? Of course, my Dad tells me that Lowe's was proudly displaying this saw as "Made in the USA" but that's a whole different story.

As I assembled the saw I found three different serious manufacturing defects. The first two I overcame using an anvil, hammer, grinder, files, and time. The last one defeated me.

1) One of the legs for the base was not bent close enough to a right angle to fit the base. Normally you can fiddle around with a part like this, get the bolts through, and then tighten the bolts down to line things up, but this was so off that I could not even got two bolts through the holes in the base. Hammer. Anvil. Messed up paint, but hey at least I don't have to haul that 240# back to Lowe's, right?

2) The tack welded nut on the base that holds the engine stop bolt in place was welded off-center to the hole in the base. This made it impossible to thread the engine stop bolt into place. Grinder. Files. Gouged base and messed up paint, but hey at least I don't have to haul that 240# back to Lowe's, right?

3) The hole in the front cast iron saddle that supports the table was mis-drilled. The vertical bolt that drops out of the bottom of the table is supposed to fit through this hole. Unfortunately, the shaft for the bottom blade bearing adjuster passes about 1/8" too close to the hole and the bolt can't pass through. After much scratching of my head and thoughts of "why won't the bolt just drop through the hole" I realized that it is just poor casting or machining. This one I couldn't really figure out a way to fix, so I guess I'll have to haul that 240# back to Lowe's.

I'm going to buy a band-saw from some other manufacturer. It will probably be made in China, because I want to spend around $400 for it, but it will be from a manufacturer that can perform QA/QC at Chinese factories, a skill that Delta seems to lack.

I bought one of these. My wife and I managed to haul all 240 pounds of it down into the basement, where I spend most of a day setting it and a mobile base up. Then I tried to use it. I spent a lot of time adjusting, because nothing was remotely right in the setting. Then I fired it up. It ran for a few seconds, than made a lot of noise. It threw the top tire. I got it back on and got everything running again, but it continued to throw that top tire, either gluing to the back of the saw or jumping off the front. After much fiddling, Mary and I hauled all 240 pounds back up stairs and I returned it and bought the Jet JWBS-14CS instead, which is a far superior saw.

The 28-276 (and the 28-206, which is basically the same saw) is of very poor quality. The castings have lots of slag on them. There is massive slop in the adjustments. The top guide can be easily deflected. Some adjustments are very difficult to reach. The belt caused massive vibration. The lower wheel had 0.035" wobble and the upper wheel had 0.020" of warp. Delta should seriously reconsider importing this saw.

I bought this saw as a Christmas present for myself from Lowe's.

I did have a problem with assembling the legs, but only because it seemed that they should be bolted to the inside of the frame; after enough inspection, I realized they went on the outside of the frame. After that, everything went smoothly.

On startup, there was a lot of vibration. But, I let the saw run a while and the vibration settled down. It turned out to be that the belt needed to lose its curled shape in order to run smooth. Again, after 10 or 15 minutes of running, it settled down.

Instructions were clear for assembly as well as set up.

You will immediately want to purchase one high-quality blade for re-saw, and one high-quality blade for tight radius cuts.

The saw does not come with a fence or miter gauge. I don't see that as a negative:

- there is such a wide range in the quality and price of fences that I would rather decide for myself if I want a simple, low dollar version or one of the more expensive ones.

- I already have two miter gauges, and don't need another one. When they include one, the cost has to come from somewhere.

After a couple of hours of test driving the saw in a variety of cuts, I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. I honestly believe that in the next year or two I will wish I had spent an extra hundred dollars or so to get the next model up, though, because I don't think the 3/4 horsepower motor is going to satisfy all of my requirements.

I received this saw for Christmas and I am gravely disappointed with the Chinese way of craftsmanship. I have used the saw for approximately 15 hours. During this time it usually does not work longer that 15 minutes without something going wrong. The upper tire comes off every few minutes and both wheels are out of balance. The machine vibrates uncontrollably and is horrible to use. Save yourself a lot of heart ache and buy something else, preferably made with pride in the United States.

Worked right out of the box. Didn't have the problems others described. Followed instructions to the letter. Bit of a problem with resawing. The 3/4 hp motor bogs down easily, must take it really slow. Overall a fine tool for the bucks.

First off, there is no arguing the fit and finish of the castings aren't great but my table is flat and for me that is what is important.

As for others with run-out problems etc. it just isn't the case for me. Both wheels have less than .004" of run-out and their castings are good and flat. The wheels on mine were easily set-up to be co-planer. No shims nothing. The motor pulley is true and the wheel pulley is close within .008" (which is the worse measurement my machine has). With all that being said my machine passes the nickel test after start-up over and over even out on the outer table edges, in other words very little vibration after start-up.

The only thing negative things to say are that the table sometimes slips on the trunnion if it isn't totally cranked down to the cast iron trunnion. That is the problem with the large table, lots of leverage. However, if you tighten it down it doesn't slip. In addition, the guide blocks and their adjustments are a little sloppy but again if you take your time adjusting them they work fine.

I added a Kreg fence, riser block, some decent blades and link belt. It resaws satisfactory however it is underpowered which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone at 3/4HP. Just control your feed-rate and with a good 1/2" resaw blade it does the job. All in all I can't complain for the price however I may have been just lucky getting a decent machine.

I bought this saw sat.12/10/05. saw was damaged right out of the box,got back to the store,they opened up a new box and that one was damaged,they gave me yet another saw, took that saw home,roller bearing guides were loose,doors rattle and it won't keep a blade or a belt on it for more than thirty seconds.Spent tuesday night with delta tech support, spent 45 minutes wednesday night with delta tech to no availe(lovely people but no solution.Today I called the store where I purchased the item and they are going to contact delta to see if I am entitled to a return, store credit or "up the creak" Saw weighs a ton would probably make a good mooring if you have a boat.

Took me about 2 hours to assemble the saw, all the holes were drilled in the right places and the welds were good. Bolts were hard enough so they didn't strip out when tightened. Bought a Mobile base from Sears right away because of limited space in my little shop. When properly adjusted the saw ran fine, vibration occured at first because of incorrect adjustments on my part, but after that it was quite and ran very nicely. Although you can get a better saw, and ofcourse pay alot more money, this band saw will satisfy me very nicely as I'm retired and on a fixed income. I'd recommend this saw highly, inspect the product very closely before you assemble it to make sure all parts are properly machined and align right, this is something you need to do with any product you have to assemble.
Happy Band Sawing!!

I just purchased this saw and I am pleased. However, there are a few flaws that I did not expect from Delta.

I wasn't aware that this particular saw was not manufactured in the US. This is not uncommon. Other manufacturers do this as well, but they do have their own quality control people there (Delta included). Even so, I still think that there is a compromise in quality.

When I unpacked the box, everything was there and in good condition. The instructions were clear and I was cutting wood in about 45 minutes. Cutting was clean and effortless.

The band saw, aside from the base, is mostly assembled out of the box. I did have to fine tune the factory settings, but this is not uncommon. The positive stop for setting the table at 90 degrees to the blade needed adjustment and the tracking on the upper wheel was out. The blade guides needed adjusting, but these are not set at the factory because the adjustment changes with each type of blade.

Now for the negative stuff. The knob for the upper access door was stripped out when it came out of the box and the lower access door did not line up with the catch that holds the door shut. The on/off switch is attached to the saw via a bracket that is screwed to the main casting of the saw. This bracket, which is factory attached, did not line up with the holes in the casting at all and the switch was very crooked. I removed the switch and elongated the holes in the bracket so that they would align properly. The last thing that bothered me was the lower blade guide assembly. The fit to the machine is sloppy and allows movement after you make adjustments. These flaws may seem trivial, but I would expect anything from Delta to be flawless.

Overall, this is a good saw and I would recommend it to anyone with previous experience with bandsaws. Some of the set-up may be tricky for a novice, but not impossible with some patience.

I have owned this for a year and I am very happy with it. I just upgraded my saw with the riser block and Carter bearing guides. I also purchased the Kreg fence and the movable base about the same time I bought the saw. All told, I have about $700 in this saw and it works really well. It is the most veratile tool in my shop.