Customer Reviews

Hitachi CB6Y 10-inch Tilting Head Bandsaw with Dust Collection

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This saw seems to be designed around the desire for marketing to have something "different," and that feature is the tilting head. When I read about the saw I thought, yeah, that is a nice feature to have and smartly done.

However, in use it is far less appealing than it seems on paper.

The first problem is that the fit and finish of this saw seems like typical cheap Chinese junk. A lot of the time with tools you get what you pay for... a cheaply sold tool tends to be cheaply made. I thought a Japanese company would avoid this but I was wrong.

The fit and finish shows itself when you attempt to square up the blade to the table. The first problem I encountered after squaring it up was that all my cuts were slightly off 90 degrees. I couldn't understand it, until I got around to checking the angle of the blade on either side. The table is either warped or milled poorly, meaning that there is roughly 1 degree bend in it centered around the slot cut for the blade. So if you are square on one side, you are not square on the other side. You can work around this by letting the kerf get the "bad" side, but it's just poor craftsmanship.

The second problem is that the head will shift with the vibration of the saw. So you have to really crank it down to lock it into place. And unfortunately, the way the clamp interfaces with the head, cranking it down causes the head to slightly shift. So even after you get it perfectly square, tightening the head can give you a half a degree change.

I spend so much time checking for the blade being square, adjusting the head, and tightening/loosening the thing that the saw is a net time waster for me. I can cut more accurately and quicker with just a hand miter saw, without ruining any cuts.

This for me is the biggest problem with the saw, if you can't rely on the accuracy of the tool it's hard to justify owning it.

The dust collection is not bad but not great. A lot of dust ejects out the back of the saw rather than gets pulled into the dust bag. I hook up a vacuum underneath the saw as a result, still can't catch it all but it does better than using the dust port for a vacuum.

I echo the comments of the other reviewer about the lamp. First, it is battery powered because this was cheaper than running a wire and running the lamp off of A/C power. It seems to do nothing much as well, the brightest point of the lamp when everything is adjusted correctly falls about one inch to the right of the cut. Just sloppy implementation, which means it is a feature for the marketing checklist and nobody cared about getting it right for the people actually using the saw.

The lack of a fence is one way of keeping the price point cheap, but not putting any mounting holes in place so you can add a third party fence I find has no excuse. Again, it shows that the saw is not really planned out for serious use.

Overall I would have to say avoid this tool. The money is better spent on something that has a better design, that is accurate, and has useful features (a fence) instead of silly features (tilting head).

Saw works well, and the tilting head (vice table) works really well. BUT - can't find any blades for it!!! 63.5 inch blade is on nobody's list and local stores (Home Despot and Lowes) don't have anything close. Light for blade seems like an after thought as it does not shine on the cutting area, and there is no provision for attaching a fence to the table. Other than that it works and the dust collection works pretty good, but I'm going to hook it up to my big dust collector.

It's a good saw for the money. You have to shop around for blades and keep spares on hand because you're not going to find them at the Big Box.

Even though it's a "bench top" saw it's heavy. Mine is mounted on a fixed base. It tracks straight and has decent power. The cast iron table is a nice thing to have one a budget saw. It is a three wheel saw but I don't think it'll be a problem. The blade tensioner is a nice touch, too.

The tilting head feature is great. I never cared for tilting the table on a band saw because it just seemed awkward. I would like the saw to tilt maybe 15 degrees in the opposite direction so I could cut dove tails.

I purchased the Hitachi CB6Y 10" Tilt Head Band Saw from Amazon because I thought they had a good deal and I liked the idea of the tilt head rather than the table tilting as on most others. The saw arrived OK and the setup went fine. But after making all the adjustments as instructed and then turning it on, there were some strange noises coming from the upper compartment. After further inspection it appeared there was a problem with the upper blade wheel. The instructions with the saw said not to return the saw to the retailer from whom you purchased it but to call the Hitachi technical support 800 number if there were any problems. So this I did. Guess what the tech rep told me? He said that if I had bought it at Lowes I could return it for a replacement but since I bought it from Amazon, the problem was between Amazon and me. I asked if there was any guarantee or warranty on the saw and he again stated I could either return it or take it to a service center for repair. I asked if he had any knowledge of any problems of this type with the saw but he had no answer. Of course, he would not say if any repairs would be covered under a waranty. And he also implied that I should have bought it at Lowes since the saws Amazon sells may not be of the same quality.
And now I have an 80 pound package to get to a shipping center and pay to ship back to Amazon and then wait for reimbursement, which is what an Amazon customer rep explained to me.
I recently bought a Rikon jointer and discovered it had a very slight bow in the cast iron fence. One call to Rikon and they are shipping out another fence. That is what customer service and standing behind a product is all about. Apparently Hitachi knows nothing about this.
Let the buyer beware!

I got this on sale at Lowes for $96.00 last week! And while I agree with some of the other reviews about the saw's shortcomings, for the price it is perfect for my casual garage workshop. The table casting on mine was flat and true and I have no problems squaring up and locking in the blade. I frankly love the tilt head feature as opposed to a tilting table, which is what really sold it for me. Overall, it is certainly not a "Grizzly" bandsaw, but I paid about the cost of a tank of gas for it and I can live with the weak work light and the plastic construction. The only other bandsaw I found that was close to it was for sale at Sears for 100.00 and it was smaller and not as well put together.

I recently purchased this item from Amazon. Outside of the fact that it looked like FedEx had simply kicked it off the back of the truck on delivery to my home, the packaging did manage to minimize any damage. It did have a broken closure for the upper housing which I have been able to locate and order. There is also a crack in the upper blade door but it does not seem too bad and I can't say if it was damaged on delivery or if it came from the factory that way.

As for the unit, it went together OK and seems to work properly, but Hitachi should pay more attention to the products it has made in China. Of all the Hitachi tools I own this is definitely the lowest in quality and least well thought out.

The LED light is OK (although I will reserve judgement until I know how long the battery lasts) but the method of adjusting the height of the upper blade guide is a simple manual locking knob and hand adjustment (I purchased this unit to replace an older Ryobi unit I've had for a number of years and this unit has a gear rack adjustment for the upper blade guide). The blade tensioning is also not as simple as my older Ryobi but not all that bad. This Hitachi also does not have any provision for a rip fence while my older Ryobi came with a rudimentary fence.
I do like the tilt head but the angle scale is not very convenient and I doubt that it is all that accurate.
I do hope that someone at Amazon (re the delivery issue) and Hitachi (for the general level of quality) take a hard look at this review so that some of these issues can be corrected.
Stay tuned.
Regards,
Gerry

I have used Hitachi's CB6Y Bandsaw, B13F Drill Press and SB10Y Belt Sander for the last year. Yes, as others have said, the 'fit and finish' is crude on all of them - but I still give them 4-stars simply because of 'value for money'.

For what I do with them, they are great. I use them only with 5/4 western red cedar decking (for Adirondack chairs, etc.) and 4/4 white pine (bookcases, etc.). They are part of my temporary 'outdoor workshop' here at my summer camp in Upstate NY. I haul them out of the mower shed and set them up in the driveway.

During the winter I have access to top-flight equipment in our Zellwood Station FL retirement village woodshop - so I do know what 1st rate equipment is like.

You are not going to resaw white oak on the CB6Y, for sure. But for soft woods - its quite useable. The tilting feature is great for cutting the 27 degree curved top back support on an Adirondack chair - much easier than than using the Zellwood 15" Grizzly and tilting the table.

I've had no problem squaring the CB6Y table with the blade - again as someone else mentioned. (Perhaps this 'problem' is because the 'zero degree stop' is actually a degree or so the other direction from the tilt. No problem - just get out your engineer's square, square the table with the blade - and lock it down just a tad before hitting the stop.)

The SB10Y sands softwoods just fine, the B13F drills them fine - though the quill travel is limited.

My Summer shop is completed with a 10" Royobi mitre saw, a 10" $99 Royobi Table Saw, a 12.5" Sunhill Planer (seems almost identical to a Grizzly model) and an inexpensive Chinese Hitachi-knockoff table router.

For about $1,000 - its a perfectly useable setup for softwoods. No 'fine furniture' - but perfect for informal stuff.

This is not a bad band saw, I picked one up for around $150.00 with shipping. It is not the kind of saw which will resaw hardwood, but with the 1/4" hardwood blade I ordered (Hitachi part number 726046) It does a pretty nice job of cutting out 1 1/2 inch thick profiles for the carousel animals I work on. For bigger jobs, a full size band saw like the Grizzly 14" would probably do much better.

I got this saw in October, 2008 for $88.40 with shipping, so one of the stars is definitely for value. I like bandsaws generally, because of safety (no kickback), frugality (narrow kerf = less waste) and versatility. I have another 14-inch saw which I use for resawing and ripping larger pieces of wood, and I use the Hitachi for smaller stuff.
-The build quality is generally good. One of the clips for holding the case shut was broken when I got the saw, and Hitachi sent a replacement quickly and at no cost.
-The most unusual feature of this saw is the tilting head, which I haven't used a great deal, but it is very nice to have a level working surface. The cast iron table on my saw is very flat, and I have had no difficulty adjusting it perpendicular to the blade.
-There is no fence with this saw, and no provision for attaching one (but again, I do my ripping and resawing on my other saw).
-The built-in LED light is attached to the upper blade guide, and it has no independent adjustment other than up and down. This introduces parallax issues, so you have to adjust the blade guide to just the right height for the light to shine on the cut line. It could be better, but it's much better than no light.
-It also has an impeller-driven dust collection system which is pretty marginal, but again better than nothing and perfectly fine if hooked up to a shop vac.
-The blade tension on this saw is designed so that the spring is always under pressure. It has a quick-release lever for changing blades, but this works by compressing the spring rather than by relieving pressure on the spring. It may be possible to adjust the tension higher for resawing, etc., but it is not a straightforward adjustment like on my 14-in saw.
-It is a 3-wheel saw, which theoretically might lead to more blade breakage because the blade has to bend more to go around the smaller top wheel, but I don't think there is enough tension for this to be a problem.
-Blades are a little hard to find, but not too bad. I found a re-seller on e-bay who had a nice variety of good quality blades for $9.00 each.
-The blade guides are adequate but doubtful whether they are upgradeable.

In short: Nice for a second saw if you can get it at the low end of the price swing. Although the build quality is good, the design of the tool cuts a few corners, probably to hold the price down. In comparison with other low-end bandsaws, though, I think the cast-iron table on this one makes it stand out.

Sears sells 63-1/2 blades, they use to sell the same saw but it was marked as a Sears brand.