Grizzly G0513 17" Bandsaw - 2 HP

by Grizzly

Product Description

For those that need a respectable cutting capacity at a respectable price, Grizzly is proud to offer this full-featured 17" Heavy-duty Bandsaw. The 2 HP motor powers the blade through wood up to a maximum 12" cutting capacity & the 16-1/4" throat is plenty for most applications. Features like the deluxe fence, heavy-duty miter gauge, two 4" dust ports, micro adjusting geared table & European style blade guides are usually found on machines costing much more. And, the ISO 9001 factory designation assures high quality standards. Features: ? Deluxe extruded aluminum fence ? Miter gauge (with washer for T-slot table) ? 4" dust port x 2 ? Table tilt 10° left, 45° right ? Quick change blade release/tensioning ? Blade tensioner indicator ? Micro adjusting geared table ? Height scale measurement Specifications: ? Design type: Floor model ? Table size: 17" x 17" x 1-1/2" thick ? Height from floor to table: 37-1/2" ? Overall height: 74" ? Overall width: 32" ? Overall depth: 26" ? Cutting capacity left of blade: 16-1/4" ? Cutting capacity height: 12-1/8" ? Precision ground cast iron table ? Wheels are fully-balanced cast aluminum with rubber tires ? Deluxe extruded aluminum rip fence ? Pre-formed steel wheel covers ? Blade guides: Euro-style roller disc with full enclosure protection & ball bearing design

Product Details

Product Manual [2.57mb PDF]

• ASIN: B0000DD08V
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

142 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great bandsaw...and within a reasonable budget!, December 9, 2003

By 

Jeff Vier "boinger" (Redwood City, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grizzly G0513 17" Bandsaw - 2 HP (Misc.)

I've finally taken delivery of my new G0513!

I was very hesitant at first, as my first thoughts were along the lines of "how can a tool so relatively cheap compete with a more expensive brand"? Well, Grizzly manages.

The saw has to be shipped by freight - 342lbs shipped! - so be prepared to pay extra to have the freight company do more than pull up with a truck and say "okay, take it". (You can pay a little more for "curbside" delivery with a liftgate, or a little more than that for "inside delivery" (though, having no stairs to negotiate is a rule, as well!) - still very reasonable, though). Most people on the various woodworking forums say they have the freight company hold it for them and have a friend/brother/father with a pickup truck take them to retrieve it where it's loaded into the pickup bed with a forklift at no additional cost. If you have questions, ASK FIRST. Grizzly can tell you who the freight carrier will be for your zipcode - call them and ask all your questions about whens, ifs, and how much before you have a pretty new bandsaw that you have no way of getting into your shop!

Anyway, I had mine delivered fully inside.

It took about 20 minutes of careful prying to dismantle the crate entirely, de-plastic it, un bolt it and slowly "walk" it off the little skid and onto the Jet mobile base I picked up from my local WoodCraft. All of this went shockingly smoothly, considering I had no help (past the freight guy and I lugging it inside my house together with a hand truck). Maybe I was lucky. You probably don't want to move 300lb bandsaws around on your own as a matter of habit :)

So...it looks really slick - for all of the talk of 'questionable quality' surrounding Grizzly, I must say this thing seems really, really nice. I mean, it doesn't have that aura of greatness ala a Laguna or MiniMax, but it's also one half to one quarter the cost, and upon a check-for-damage inspection, I could find nothing that made me question its quality. At this point, I've put it through its paces, and I expect that this will not be my last Griz machine.

I have a few complaints, though:
My first complaint has to be that nasty, smelly yellow gunk they embalm the table with. I only started to get it out of the bag after pulling it from its box when I suddenly stopped in my tracks trying to figure out what died. Too late. it was all over my fingers. Ugh. Thank god for that orange hand cleaner stuff with pumice. I recommend you use some rubber gloves and carb cleaner. They recommend "citrus cleaner" in the manual. As far as I could tell, this had about the same effect as plain water. What's wrong with good ol' Cosmoline? It can't be that prohibitively expensive!

Second, the manual has some pretty glaring errors, though mostly very minor - lots of steps "1, 2, 3, 3, and 4" and such. The only "real" problem was an important picture relating to upper guide adjustment, but the online PDF has it properly.

Third, and I considered dropping the rating to 4 stars for this, the table was *drastically* crowned (straightedge across the 17" square table showed over 1/16" gap!)! They were really cool about sending out a new one right away, but the replacement is now only *somewhat* crowned (straightedge across the table shows a little less than a credit card of gap). Eventually, I'll have to get it milled flat or have their customer service deal with it again. Maybe I'll call after I'm done here. Now it's bugging me :)

All that said, there are some great features that you don't "expect" on such a reasonably priced bandsaw - Roller upper and lower guides, 12.125" resaw capacity, 2HP motor, included fence and rails (though not the *greatest*, they're fine for 99% of people, I'd think), quick-release tension, tension and tracking all adjusted with the wheel doors closed (little plastic windows show you what you need to see - *much* safer than the "old way"), very nice table tilt range with 90° stop, high quality handwheels (still plastic, but nice)...I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Moral of the story:
If you're looking for a really nice machine for your home shop, I can't see being unhappy with this saw. It's quite a deal for what you get, and I don't think I could be happier!

One last note! You have to supply your own plug. The saw's motor comes wired for 220V, so you can't just plug it right into your normal home sockets. The motor CAN be converted to 110V, but then you're looking at a 20A draw (so it would need its own circuit...At that point, you might as well run a 220V line and get more power with less heat!)

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great saw, awful fence., June 22, 2005

By 

My Privacy Policy (Chocoland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grizzly G0513 17" Bandsaw - 2 HP (Misc.)

This saw has plenty of power, the guides are pretty decent for the price, runs smoothly, is not too heavy to move around, and is in general a fine piece of equipment. The included fence is, for my purposes, a complete and utter piece of junk. I tried and tried to get used to it, enjoy it, whatever. However, it IS possible to upgrade the fence, though not with another Grizzly product (I asked their helpful customer service team... one insisted the fence was the greatest thing since sliced bread, the other admitted that the position of the release handle was less than ideal). The fence to upgrade to (don't even think about it, if you own one, just do it. and if thinking of buying this saw, order the fence at the same time) is the JET 708747 (asin B0002ZHF3S).

Basically, the grizzly fence is lightweight, doesn't move terribly smoothly, does not lock down tightly enough for me to be confident (though admittedly I have not actually slid the fence while locked), and worst of all (this is horrifying) to release the fence you must raise the handle, which is 2 inches to the RIGHT of the fence!!!! That means if you have wood more than 1.5 inches wide/thick along the fence, you must REMOVE the wood from the table before repositioning the fence (!!!!!). This is the most shockingly stupid design I could imagine.

The Jet fence is an astoundingly huge improvement. I had to wait a month to get mine from Amazon. It comes with an excellent resaw attachment. If you plan to resaw with this saw (and it is truly excellent as a resaw saw after upgrading the fence) do the fence upgrade. This saw would get 5 stars from me for value IF it came with a decent fence.

The nice thing about the Jet fence upgrade is that it bolts right on (keep your original screws from the Grizzly fence) and requires only one hole/notch drilled in the back of the fence to mount the rear skid guide, apparently the Grizzly table is about 3/4 inch deeper than the 16" Jet bandsaw table.

Using the 1" wide 3/4 varitooth carbide tipped blade offered by grizzly for this saw, resawing up to full capacity of the saw is a breeze. The blade is pricey but worth it. I believe the brand for the blade is Lenox.

******
Update, after using this saw for a couple years, my opinions stand: great saw, awful (stock) fence. The reason I'm updating the review is I noticed that Grizzly has introduced an improved model, the G0513X2, which has cast iron wheels, a bigger table, a cast iron trunnion, and a different fence. I haven't used it, but I'm guessing the fence is a big improvement (anything would be better than the stock fence, and I still enjoy using the Jet fence described above). I wish I could upgrade with parts, but apparently not possible. If I were buying a saw now, I'd pay the extra $200 for the G0513X2, also they have a 19" 3HP model for $550 more that looks really nice and fits a wider blade for resawing. But this saw is still a good one, which I use for most of my milling while the table saw gathers dust.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm happy., February 23, 2004

By 

"lnorman33" (Bastrop, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grizzly G0513 17" Bandsaw - 2 HP (Misc.)

I needed a band saw that can take 2 inch slices from a 10 inch diameter log with minimal sanding. Also, I wanted a saw that could resaw 8 inch 4/4 stock. In addition, I have the book, "Building Beautiful Boxes with Youir Band Saw" by Lois Ventura and wanted something to try out her designs. I first thought of buying a 14" and then adding to it. The Jet looks nice and people have a lot of good things to say about it. But after buying a fence, miter gauge and height attachment, the price started approaching that of the Grizzly G0513 so I bought the Grizzly. The two horsepower motor doesn't even strain cutting through a 10 inch air dried cedar log.

I bought directly from Grizzly but Amazon shouldn't mind as I have helped support them for several years now by buying a lot of books.

Other reviews I have seen mentioned problems with the table being bowed. Mine is not. The only problem I had was the plastic pointer on the miter gauge was broken and Grizzly shipped it the day following my e-mail.

The saw is extremely easy to set up and adjust. Even the blade that came with the saw runs very smooth. Grizzly customer service answered my e-mailed questions the same day they were sent. This is the first time I have bought anything from Grizzly and so far, so good. I will probably buy again from them should they have what I need. My other tools are Delta, Sears, Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) and an old Wards 10" radial arm that still works just fine after 30 years and a few parts.

If you buy one, get help moving it in because it is too heavy for one person.