First things first... For those of you who own this saw already, somebody wrote in a review of it that it's a pain to have to tilt the table for the lower inner blade guide bearing adjustments. I found an extra allen wrench that fit, and ground the short end off with a bench grinder, down to about a quarter inch. It's still a pain, but you can just fit it in there to loosen the setscrew without having to tilt the table.
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br /PS: Amazon.com ROCKS!
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br /Now on to my review...
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br /I have a few real problems with this saw. First the blade size is practically unavailable, whereas it would have been easy for Delta to make this saw in some very common blade sizes quite close to the 136" that it requires.
br /Second, The guides flat out SUCK. Everything on the upper end of this saw is weak. The guide adjustments are pointless in almost every fashion, because poor quality machining on cast iron parts that don't fit well make setting the guides an exercise in futility. COME ON DELTA!!! This is the most important part!
br /I have an old 14 inch wood and metal cutting saw that has a SUPER lowering arm. It's about a 1 inch steel bar that fits perfectly in a 1 inch steel track, with a couple of straps holding it in place. How SIMPLE. It's perfectly accurate. Delta's wind up and down guide arm, AND the bearing holder castings are JUNK JUNK JUNK! I'm considering buying the material to make an arm that is like my old saw. It doesn't wind up and down, but hey, if it stays put on the vertical plane, (which Delta's definitely DOES NOT, then who cares.
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br /Third this saw has a fairly weak table and trunnion setup for a saw of it's size. I would NOT recommend this saw to anyone....Except maybe my old landlord ;-)
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br /The power, frame, and wheels are good on this saw. It's a SHAME Delta has let the junky guides get through on these. I think Delta, Powermatic, just to name a couple, are riding on the name these days. There are much nicer sturdier products available from other importers, like Grizzly, and Bridgewood, that kick these old faithful American names butts!
br /Too bad it has to be that way.
br /If I could get anything close to what I paid for this saw, I'd sell it in a blink of an eye, and buy some old beater machine thats twice or three times as heavy and needs rebuilt. In the long run that would be a much better investment. I would suggest Bridgewood or Grizzly for the re-saw bandsaw category over, either Delta or Jet's 18 in. saws. You can get more there for your money, if you really want a NEW saw. Grizzly has some pretty junky equipment, BUT they also make some really good stuff. I think after seeing their showroom, I would definitely buy a mid to upper size bandsaw from them. Bridgewood has great bandsaws, for a new import.
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br /The Good...
br /This saw has a tension LEVER. Very good idea.
br /The cast iron wheels are nicely made, and run very smooth.
br /Good power.
br /Saw frame is FAIRLY sturdy, but could be a little beefier.
br /Nice fence
br /Switch is magnetic, and located well.
br /Dust collection design is good, but needs an upper wheel brush added for best results.
br /Table is pretty flat.
br /Motor pulley and speed adjustments are easy.
br /Neat inboard table extension idea. (For those companies just too cheap to actually throw a big cast iron table on their saw.)
br /REGARDLESS... DON'T buy this saw.
br /The crappy guide parts and lowering arm overrule all the goods listed.

Bought this saw a couple months ago before Amazon was carrying them. Did much comparison shopping between brands and decided that this saw had all others in its class beat by far, at least on specifications. Now that I've had the time to get familiar with the beast, I'm happy to say that my expectations have been exceeded!A concern I had before buying was the blade sizes Delta says the saw will accomodate....1/2 to 1 1/4.... this worried me since I wanted a saw that would cut a tighter radius than a 1/2" blade will allow. Spoke to my blade dealer and he thought I should have no problem with 1/4.... He was right! The thinner blade tracks as easily as the 1/2 and with no deflection. Advantages versus closest competion? Two full horsepower with dual capacitor motor which draws only an amazing 8.6 amps, 12" resaw capacity, very comfortable working height, 400 lbs with heavy cast iron wheels and quality tires, dual dust ports make for a very clean machine, quick tension release and easy to use tension adjustment, carter style bearings, useful table extender, pre-wired for 230.Saw runs smooth as silk with plenty of resaw power. Plus it's just a beautiful beast to look at! Could not be more pleased two months into the game!

I got this saw the other day. Very beefy saw. Fit and finish are good. Agree with other reviewer that lower blade guide is tough to adjust since you have to tilt up the table just to be able to access it. First the bad parts:
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br / I will go further and state that I think for a saw of this quality, Delta should have put much better upper and lower blade guides that what was included with the saw. The castings for the mounts are cast iron and are not very high quality. Not smooth finished and the upper guide bearings that ride on either side of the blade do not even ride parallel to each other. The bearings ride on eccentric shafts that are held in place with a setscrew to adjust the distance to the blade. The rear upper guide bearing sits on a cast iron piece that is held inplace with a set screw. It is adjusted for distance to the blade by moving it by hand in and out. No screw adjustment or any fine tuning available. Also it and the lower rear bearing adjustment have plenty of slop in them. So much that the bearings can droop down (not parallel with the blade) by about 1/8th of an inch or more. Given the fact that this is one of the more expensive Taiwanese 18" saws on the market, this lack of quality is unacceptable. Other competitors saws have much better QC and designs for their blade guides. Unfortunately Carter does not yet have a retrofit blade guide kit for this saw. So far I have not been able to get the saw to cut strait when trying to resaw a 3" piece of hardwood.
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br / The good: As I said, fit and finish is good. Power is good and I think the overall design of the saw is good. Comes with a magnetic starter, table extension and a good solid fence. I have ordered some replacement parts from Delta and their response was very good. Unfortunatley, the design of the blade guides is critical to the working of the saw and these will probably get replaced when Carter comes out with a replacement kit.
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br /UPDATE: Since I posted the review I have been able to retrofit a set of carter guides on to the saw. Delta should have fitted the saw with guides of this quality to start with, but with their current state of affairs (buyout by BD), who is to say what will become of the company. I noticed another reviewer that had issues with the blade length. Frankly, saws of this size are not that common yet (not like the 14" standard, 93.5" blades) and you will have to get your blades custom made. Not a big deal nor a costly option either. Several places on the internet sell them and all you do is tell them the specific size and they make them up. No real price difference that I can tell.
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br /Also, I dont think the table trunions are all that bad. Table is plenty sturdy and they use an additional support in the back. Now if you want to see cheesy, look at the wheel bearing assembles on a Rikon 18". They use four bolts to hold the shaft and adjust it into plane.
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br /Still feel that with the current cost difference between the delta and the other brands (grizzly for one) you would be better off with something else till delta fixes this machines shortcomings or drops the price a few hundred (yeah right).

I've had this bandsaw (delta 18", 2hp industrial) for years now. And I love it.
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br /Mostly, I use 1/2" woodslicer blades (thin kerf) -- with excellent results. I've also resawn 200 year old chestnut beams, using a 1" blade.
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br /The guide, which some reviewers have complained about, is better than some custom ones i've ordered and returned.
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br /Disclosure: I don't work for Delta, nor own stock in the company or have any financial interest. Nor am I affiliated with any competitor of Delta. I am offering this disclosure because sometimes competitors use reviews for marketing purposes.

Got a great deal at Amazon for about half off. Not really in the market for another bandsaw at the time but couldn't resist at $649.00. This appears to be made in Taiwan which is fine with me. In my experience Taiwanese equipment is better quality than Chinese and even American (lackluster experience with Powermatic Model 72 Shaper). I had a problem with broken motor mounts that required replacement parts. A call to the number in the manual got me in touch with a very nice lady that got the parts sent out pronto. She had a grandmotherly southern accent so I know I wasn't connected to an overseas call center.
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br /I have been quite satisfied with the performance and can't think of anything else I would ask of this saw. I read the reviews here and was a little concerned about the guides. I can say that after some good use that the guides are fine. I took a look at the Carter site for aftermarket guides and they don't carry any. That tells me that there is either not enough of these out there for Carter to make the RD investment or there simply is not a need for aftermarket guides because the stockers are fine.
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br /I would have given this 5 stars if not for the broken elastomeric motor mounts delivered with the new saw.

I purchased this saw after reading reviews on several different 18" saws. From the reviews all the saws had some negative points to them, so in the end I decided to go with the delta due to past experiences with there tools.
br / First off the saw came and did not have a flaw anywhere that I could see, fit and finish were very good and assembly went very quick. Upon starting to make final adjustments, I did find that the blade guides took some time to get them set, but after getting them adjusted right the saw performed beautifully.
br / I read the other reviews on this saw and I don't Know why some people gave the saw such a low ratting. If you are in the market for a good saw that can handle what ever you throw at it this is it.
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I've owned this band saw for a little over three years. If I had 20/20 hindsight it would still be sitting in the tool showroom. I was going to purchase an 18 inch Jet but Jet was having trouble with their new 18 inch model at the time so the dealer didn't want to sell it until Jet had the problems in check. So it was between this Delta or the Rikon. I do a lot of wood turning and I require something that would help me shape the rather large bowl blanks so I didn't have to turn so much wood off. I had been using a 14 inch Sears professional but that couldn't take the size or the types of woods that I was cutting nor did it enough power.
br /I bought the Delta and the very first problem I had was it wouldn't cut any wood of any size. After scratching my head for a while it turned out to be the rubber isolators used to mount the motor. Several of these rubber mounts had pulled apart during shipping and when I put tension on the belt these rubber mounts would separate and the only weight on the belt was that of the motor. The dealer swapped several of these for me off of another saw so that corrected the first problem.
br /Secondly I went to buy some 1 1/4 blades for resawing and they were not to be found except by special order on the internet. I think Delta has one blade for this machine and it's the one that comes with it. Then comes the fun of trying to get a 1 1/4 inch blade on this machine. At least Rikno does it right and has the table cut so that the blade comes out of the front. Try bending a 1 1/4 blade inside the blade knockout and getting it in on the wheels. Wear a good pair of leather gloves or you won't have a pair of hands left. It's almost impossible.
br /Then comes Deltas pride in it's blade guide design. It may be great to have two ball bearing guides to run a blade between but it sure doesn't help if the upper guide is so poorly made that there is no way to line up the blade between the two bearings and not have it either hit one of the front or rear bearings. The cheap cast iron blade guide that holds the bearings cannot be adjusted to have the blade run parallel between them or at least a blade of the size I am using. I won't even go into adjusting the lower guide. Delta should make a replacement whole upper guide assembly, go through their records and send everyone who owns one of these saws a replacement.
br /This saw has kept me from buying anything else with a Delta name on it no matter what the rating someone has given it. Your loss Delta. The only thing this saw has in its favor is I haven't stalled the 2 hp motor yet, but then again either has my friend on his 18 inch Jet with a smaller motor on it.
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I came to this site to order a Delta 28-262. My main reason is that I own lots of Delta equipment and have always been pleased. After reading the reviews I have changed my mind. I guess I'll go to Grizzly. If I'm going to buy overseas products there is no sense paying top dollar for it.

I researched buying a 18 in bandsaw for several weeks before ordering a Delta. I chose Delta because I have several pieces of their equipment now and am well pleased with them, they are Made in the U.S.A. as their history indicates.pWhat a surprise when I was looking for blades which are special made, to find the word IMPORT in a dealers description; this is after I had placed my order. It is hard to find that this bandsaw is foreign made. Even Delta takes 4 working days to tell you it is imported. I have worked in woodworking 40+ years and run some American made equipment that is 74 years old that produces as good as the first day. My experience with foreign is it looks good but it does not last. I could have saved $200 by buying another better equiped foreign bandsaw.