Hammer n4400 review

[johnnyb]

Just a quick review of my new(used) saw.
It's not silly heavy. Take the table off and it can be maneuvered about. Two brush stails and it's mobile. I spent a few hours wiring it up as it's three phase. I brought a spare 16 a isolator from the other side of the workshop through the roof space. Turns out this had had the neutral converted to an earth. And the hammer needs a neutral(for the brake maybe?) Otherwise the starter just hums a bit!
What I ended up doing was putting it back as a neutral and removing the sleeving ( connecting to the neutral bar as well!) And putting a new earth alongside the wire armour cable.
It worked beautifully apart from the saw ran backwards. The cure is to swap any 2 phases.

 

[johnnyb]

After swapping the lives around I fired the saw up and....bingo it going the right way!
I initially (and impatiently) tried the blade that was on it. Oh dear more disappointment it was cutting all over the place. Right I thought I'll try a new blade I chose a 20mm trucut. It's a really easy job to change blades. Took about 5 mins. And then a new thing I didn't have to change the tracking! On my small startrite I always had to adjust the tracking when I put a fresh blade in. I'm guessing the hammer hadn't been adjusted for a long time as I had to get water pump pliers on 2 of the side bearing lock rings!
It was simple to adjust I wound them in and waggled the blade until most of the movement was gone adjusted up until the bearings were just behind the teeth then adjusted up the thrust. Worked fine.im guessing the top bearings are worn as they allow the blade to move a bit at the front but I'm guessing the previous owner was less than super fussy. Anyway I grabbed a 2by4 and deep ripped. Fantastic perfect cut straight off!After much ripping it soon became obvious I needed some dust extraction as the floor(and saw) was full of fine dust.

 

[johnnyb]

Anyway my summing up of this machine is it's not a massive industrial behemoth(like a felder) but it is well made in the right places. I'm suspicious this may be made from components made in Taiwan to hammer specs then assembled in the hammer factory. But I suggest it's better finished than records new sabre range and axminsters equivalents up to the biggest (which is a behemoth).
But this system means it's competitively priced(not new though)on the used market and importantly in the market it's aimed at not stupidly heavy. I took the table off stuck 3 broom handles under and it was easy to manoeuvre. For me that's a real bonus. I like the motor brake but suspect it will cause trouble in the end!
The manufacture in Taiwan and assemble in Europe approach is being used more and more even altendorf admit to having a factory in the far East. I bet that wa6 is completely made there and many components of the full size machines. At least they admit to having a factory!

 

[RogerS]

.....
The manufacture in Taiwan and assemble in Europe approach is being used more and more even altendorf admit to having a factory in the far East. I bet that wa6 is completely made there and many components of the full size machines. At least they admit to having a factory!

Far Eastern manufacture is not necessarily bad. It all comes down to (a) the original spec and (b) good and consistent QA.

There is a smallGerman spectacle frame supplier who used to manufacture in Germany but couldn't compete on price. The owner now uses a factory in China but spends 10 months of the year there ensuring quality.

 

[johnnyb]

Absolutely Roger. Taiwan is a real centre for quality manufacture but germa/Austrian quality brands don't like to dirty there reputations with admitting to Asian manufacture.
For instance I was chatting to a used machinery dealer on the back wall at Harrogate he said alts aren't what they were Chinese c@#p now.
It not saying that's ridiculous. Even the name "hammer" is slightly ridiculous to me! But better than Electra beckum

 

[deema]

I’m not sure any of the ‘Big’ brands make their bandsaws. SCM / MiniMax don’t and their equivalent machine look identical to my Felder. The Centurum also looks identical when I had the opportunity to have a good look at it. Different colours and some superficial changes to make the ‘unique’, but all the gubbins where exactly the same by eye.