the harbor freight 14 in saw has the same frame as the delta, Rockwell, Powermatic, jet, shop fox, and any other 14 inch saw of the same cast C-frame design sold today. the foundries that make them sell them to anyone who produces a 14 inch saw and uses the same frame design. it has been this way about 1970 . have a look at the frames,....you will see all the bungs and flat spots in the castings for all the other manufacturers to put their preferred brand specific parts on. to be honest, from brand to brand, these 14 inch c-framed saws are all pretty much identical. it's just too expensive to differentiate designs and still compete against the other brands for the same few hundred bucks. it comes down to whether you like green, grey, white, orange, or gold paint and how much you want to pay for the color of paint you like.
if you are breaking guide brackets, you don't have the saw set up right or you are taking the edge off your blade by setting the guides too deep into the blade and then horsing a piece of stock into a dull blade with the set taken out because the teeth are dulled on the outside of the blade. this will make the blade not want to track around a curve, because the set is what gives the cut the clearance needed to cut around a curve, or you are using too wide a band for the radii you want to cut around and binding the blade which puts undue stress on the guide brackets. if you are wearing out bottom bearings, you have the blade tension set way too high, or the drive belt tension set way too high. the HF saw is perfectly capable of handling any job any that the other so-called "better brands" can handle. I have had one far too long to be convinced otherwise. it all boils down to what you know about setting up a band saw to do the job you want it to do and how tolerant you are to dull blades.
