Harvey Alpha 15” Bandsaw HW615P

[JohnG]

I just got a Harvey Alpha 15” Bandsaw HW615P. This is not the TiN coated table version. This post is to give a review from an “average guy” not trying to get views, subscriptions, or tool sponsorships, and to address any questions people might have about it.

Ordering, Pricing, and Timeline

I ordered the saw on 12/23/21 and at the time it stated shipment in February 2022. It gave an exact date but I don't remember exactly what day in Feb it stated. It may have been 2/10 but certainly was not before the 2/10, I remember thinking I would receive it mid-late Feb. The saw shipped on 2/10/22 from California and arrived at my house in North Carolina on 2/16/21. Points to Harvey for hitting their estimated shipping date, especially these days! I did not receive any order update information between the order date and the shipment date. Not a problem for me since it shipped as expected

If anyone isn’t familiar, Harvey’s prices fluctuate quite a bit. If you’re able, watch the price for a week or a month to get a feel for the price range. I bought it at the lowest price I have personally seen it at- $2,399.00 plus $359 shipping and $186 tax. Today it is at $2,529 and the “list” price is $2,999.

Packaging and Shipping

Gross weight is 490lb, so make sure you have a way to move the pallet. Harvey shipped the saw from CA to NC via DotLine transportation. They provide very little tracking information and the “send me shipping updates” option does not work. The “last mile” delivery was completed by Averitt and that’s the only nice thing I have to say about them. Not Harvey’s fault but hopefully they don’t use them for all deliveries.

The saw was packaged well, bolted to a mini pallet which later got strapped to a standard pallet. Heavy duty corrugate on all sides and top and rigid corner pieces. Inside the table was supported by a mini plywood “box” and the fence base was securely nestled under the table box. All shrink wrapped thoroughly.

Some additional parts were stored inside the lower wheel cabinet, just sort of floating around in there. No issue with mine but seems like room for improvement.

The table is pretty heavy and is large. 20”x20” cast iron. I was able to handle it on my own but you may want to use a dolly or get a friend to help depending on your own abilities/preferences. I got a dolly under the left side (so the spine of the bandsaw was on the dolly) and was able to move it inside. Again, it wouldn’t take too much for things to go south trying to move a 400lb bandsaw on your own. Be smart.

[Coop]

Thanks John. Did they include a throw down blade or too early to tell? Hope to hear more on this machine. 

[sjeff70]

John,

You mean one of these:

 

 

[JohnG]

Assembly

The instruction booklet isn't terrible, but is a far cry from Sawstop. There isn't much assembly required-

1. Install the leveling feet (or place on a mobile base)
2. Install the table
3. Install the tilt assist spring
4. Install the fence base and fence
5. Install the tool holder
6. Install the blade (blade included, but I have a resawking coming in the mail tomorrow so I probably won't install the included blade).

The assembly instructions take up three pages including pictures. The hardest part is tightening the trunnion bolts. The locking handles have the nice feature of adjusting the handle orientation without turning the nut, but the downside is that they are placed such that you cannot rotate them 360*, so you are required to use the reorientation feature every partial turn of the nut. It's tricky starting the threads 180* at a time when the upper bolt is flopping around in the trunnion recess.

Interestingly, the instructions only tell you to turn the power safety lock before installing the blade, tells you to unplug the machine to adjust the blade tension, doesn't say to do either of those for blade changes, and again says to unplug the machine to adjust blade tracking .

 

[JohnG]

On 2/18/2022 at 2:31 AM, Coop said:

Thanks John. Did they include a throw down blade or too early to tell? Hope to hear more on this machine. 

They did include a blade. I have a resaw king coming tomorrow so I probably won't install the stock blade until I need to cut some questionable material or my RSK is out for sharpening. More coming, but feel free to ask any questions.

On 2/18/2022 at 2:42 AM, sjeff70 said:

John,

You mean one of these:

[pic removed]

 

Yes, that's what I used to get it to the final location in my basement shop, once I had the saw out of the shipping packaging.

[justaguy]

An example of going south.

While living in WA, I got my Laguna HD 18 dropped off in my shop/detached garage while I was at work.  Nice driver and great wife.  Anyways, the saw was on top of two pallets, like yours.  The angel on my left shoulder said wait until you have help.  The devil on my right shoulder said you have waited long enough, get it down and setup.  The devil won. I started walking the bandsaw off the double pallet stack when the upper pallet collapsed, which immediately transferred all the weight to me - which I was not ready for.  I tried valiantly to stabilize things, but gravity was clearly winning.  There was no way I was letting go of the bandsaw, and the next thing I knew I was laying on my back with the saw on top of me.  First thing I did was take inventory of my body parts.  Nothing was hurting terribly so I knew nothing was broken.  Abdomen was not tender, so probably no internal bleeding.  After the inventory of my body parts, I realized I might have a problem.  The bandsaw, which weighed 550 lbs, had me pinned to the floor.  The top of the saw was just under my chin level and covered my abdomen and all of my right leg, and most of my left leg.  I tried getting out from under the saw, but no progress.  Then I realized that my wife has strict instructions about leaving me alone in the shop, so there would be no one to come and check how things were going.  After a short period of panic, I was able to to extract myself from under the bandsaw.  Took inventory of the saw and found a couple of small things broken.  I called Lagunas CS, told them exactly what had happened.  When they stopped laughing, they sent out the parts free of charge.  I inquired as to how they were able to do that, they said they had authorization to cover things damaged in shipment.  After I stopped laughing, I thanked them.

Got the saw up and running.  Shortly after, it retaliated by trying to take part of my right thumb as I was doing something stupid.  We have now been together for 3 years, and I love that saw.

[JohnG]

Yikes, glad you were okay and the saw wasn’t ruined!

I should have mentioned that before unbolting the bandsaw from the mini pallet, I again used my tractor to lift it up, moved the pallets out from under it, then placed it down. I was able to place the dolly such that as I tipped the bandsaw to the balance point, the dolly wheels were on the ground so there were no sudden shifts or jolts.

[JohnG]

I just replaced the plug on it last night and fired it up for the first time. Post on fit & finish and setup/calibration coming this weekend. 

[JohnG]

Overall fit and finish of the saw is pretty good. Welds are decent, the panels fit nicely, the machined and anodized aluminum parts are very nice, and the cabinet knobs are nice. All of the locking arm knobs (I’m sure there’s a better name for these) can have the arm location adjusted without tightening/loosening, which is nice. I like that the blade insert plate has leveling screws in the corners to make it flush. The doors have rubbery seals on them.

 

The heavy cast iron wheels turn very smoothly and seem to be very well balanced. Instead of using a bicycle disc brake, there is an additional ring on the lower wheel (I believe also cast iron, though I haven’t looked closely) that adds mass to the wheel and also serves as the surface for a brake shoe to engage. It works very well, not sure if it is faster/slower than the disc brake that others use.

The blade change slot had a pretty sharp/rough edge, so I did use my diamond cards to ease them. The blade enclosure that moves up/down with the guides is listed on their site as “upgraded to steel” but they leave much to be desired. Many of the product pics on their site are 3d models instead of actual photos, and they all suggest that this guard was to be anodized aluminum, but I’m guessing they made the change to save a bit on their cost. The surface and paint are mediocre. Not essential to its function, but could be better.

 

[Coop]

On 2/19/2022 at 12:54 AM, justaguy said:

An example of going south.

While living in WA, I got my Laguna HD 18 dropped off in my shop/detached garage while I was at work.  Nice driver and great wife.  Anyways, the saw was on top of two pallets, like yours.  The angel on my left shoulder said wait until you have help.  The devil on my right shoulder said you have waited long enough, get it down and setup.  The devil won. I started walking the bandsaw off the double pallet stack when the upper pallet collapsed, which immediately transferred all the weight to me - which I was not ready for.  I tried valiantly to stabilize things, but gravity was clearly winning.  There was no way I was letting go of the bandsaw, and the next thing I knew I was laying on my back with the saw on top of me.  First thing I did was take inventory of my body parts.  Nothing was hurting terribly so I knew nothing was broken.  Abdomen was not tender, so probably no internal bleeding.  After the inventory of my body parts, I realized I might have a problem.  The bandsaw, which weighed 550 lbs, had me pinned to the floor.  The top of the saw was just under my chin level and covered my abdomen and all of my right leg, and most of my left leg.  I tried getting out from under the saw, but no progress.  Then I realized that my wife has strict instructions about leaving me alone in the shop, so there would be no one to come and check how things were going.  After a short period of panic, I was able to to extract myself from under the bandsaw.  Took inventory of the saw and found a couple of small things broken.  I called Lagunas CS, told them exactly what had happened.  When they stopped laughing, they sent out the parts free of charge.  I inquired as to how they were able to do that, they said they had authorization to cover things damaged in shipment.  After I stopped laughing, I thanked them.

Got the saw up and running.  Shortly after, it retaliated by trying to take part of my right thumb as I was doing something stupid.  We have now been together for 3 years, and I love that saw.

Great story and excellent ending.

[Mark J]

How is the table for flat and does the workpiece cross the blade change slot smoothly?

[JohnG]

On 2/20/2022 at 9:24 AM, Mark J said:

How is the table for flat and does the workpiece cross the blade change slot smoothly?

Good question. Mine is very good. It’s a large table, 20x20. 

The blade change slot is a hair higher on the infeed side. Feeding will not snag. Checking with a metal ruler with sharp corners, you can feel the slot coming back toward the infeed side but it does not snag. The throat plate has adjusting screws so no issue there either.

I have two 24” machined straight edges (woodriver and groz) that I checked it with in several places and directions. The only place I can get the corner of a sheet of paper under the straight edges is in the front right corner, due to the slightly higher edge of the blade change slot acting as a fulcrum. I can’t fit two sheets under it. If I put the straight edge only on the infeed side or only on the outfeed side, the paper won’t go under.

If I can dig up my feeler gauges I’ll try to measure it, but I don’t think it’s enough to cause any noticeable error for any woodworking application.

[Mark J]

Sounds flat enough to me.

I used a triangular file laying in the blade change slot to ease the in- & outfeed corners.  

[JohnG]

I wish I could say that everything came from the factory calibrated and square, but I wouldn’t expect that from any saw that does not ship fully assembled.

The fence needed a bit of squaring to be parallel to the miter slot and perpendicular to the table. These adjustments are made with a single hex key on a long set screw with a knurled locking nut. It works fairly well, but I did need to use pliers to loosen a couple of the locking nuts initially.

Last night I adjusted the table to make the miter slots parallel with the blade. It wasn’t too far out but the slight adjustment made a big difference in cut surface. The table alignment is held in place with 3 bolts toward the center of the table, they were fairly easy to access and loosen/tighten. With them being near the center of the table, you certainly don’t want to move the saw around on its feet using the table (not that you should do this with any bandsaw).

I resawed a piece of cherry from my scrap bin. I think I could fine tune it a bit more, but the results were pretty good, and I haven’t fine tuned the guides yet. 

[Magoo]

I know this is an older post but thought it might get picked up.

John, you have had your saw for almost a year, would you buy it again? Issues or victories? 

I’ve had a small Grizzly saw for about 2 years, a learner saw as it were. Overall, for the price it is okay but the fence, top wheel adjustment and the fact that even after bands and wheel changes, it still shakes more than I like. This leaves me wary of dropping $3000 on another one of their saws even though the support, overall has been okay.

I don’t like the yo-yo pricing on the Harvey’s but that would not stop me from buying one and they seem to be, for the most part, well designed. There is just not a good history in the US.
 

Rikon’s just seem to be more flash than substance with some appearing to have major design issues.

Laguna appears to be a crap shoot. If you get a good one, it’s wonderful, if not, a total headache. The trunnion supports also appear to be problematic. Also, I’m looking at the 18BX, they are nowhere to be found.

[JohnG]

I’m still happy with it, and would buy it again at the lower end of their price range. Not sure what I’d get if they didn’t run discounts, would need to do more research. It was well worth the time to get the miter slot parallel to the blade, table perpendicular to the blade, and fence square and parallel. 

I haven’t worked it super hard, but it always does what I need and hasn’t needed any fussing around after the initial setup and calibration.