Customer Reviews

Grizzly G0513 17" Bandsaw - 2 HP

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!)

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.

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.

As with another poster, I was looking at 14" machines and the G0513 was only a little more expensive, so I took the plunge. It was my first Grizzly tool, so I was a little nervous.
The machine arrived with no damage or any other problem.

My only compaints, and thus the 4 stars are: 1) the plastic handwheels (tension and cutting height) look and feel cheap. 2) the blade guides are somewhat chinsey. After getting them properly adjusted, I find the thumbscrews will work loose. If I overtighten the thumbscrews, the guides do not rotate properly. This has become a recurring problem, and I may contact Grizzly to resolve. Other competetive machines, such as the Jet 16" have a better adjustment system with jam nuts. 3) the table brackets (trunnions) are stamped steel. I expected a little beefier cast iron construction.

Overall the saw cuts very well and has plenty of power.

After carefully evaluating 14" to 20" bandsaws I decided to purchase the Grizzly G0513 17" bandsaw. Prior to purchase I obtained a copy of Lonny Bird's "The Bandsaw Book" which helped me determine the size saw I needed and will serve as a shop reference for the bandsaw. Next I downloaded the Grizzly manual for this saw. This allows the opportunity to understand the saw and set up procedures prior to purchase and to prewire a dedicated 120 or 220 volt circuit and obtain the proper plug prior to delivery. I also bought a mobile base before the saw was delivered. I left the base assemble in two pieces.
The saw was delivered in a skeleton-type wood crate. I used a battery powered trim saw to carefully cut the slats and in five minutes the saw was uncrated. I left it on the pallet to remove the blade and assemble the table. I used three 17" long 2X4's on edge as my wife helped me slide the saw off the pallet and onto the 2X4's. I removed the pallet and assembled the mobile base around the base of the saw, then dropped the 2X4's flat, which slid out from under the base when it was moved. From this point on you need to take your time and not be in a hurry to set up the saw. I felt the manual was written for people with little experience with bandsaws and explains the set up and fine tuning in great detail, plus there are helpful tips in The Bandsaw Book. If you can't find where a part belongs from the description in the assembly dirstions, refer to the schematic drawings in the manual. I encountered no problems during assembly. Be sure to square the blade to the miter slot, then the fence to the miter slot. This way I was able to get it right the first try.
Once fine tuned and the blade properly tensioned, I found the saw to be free of vibration, quiet and very capable. The fit and finish on my saw is excellent and assembly and fine tuning very easy. After using the saw I am very pleased with the results, whether cutting freehand or using the fence. You will need to purchase other blades for resawing and other types of cutting as the included blade is for general purpose cutting. Overall I am very pleased with my purchase.

My son and I drove over 2 hours to Springfield to the Grizzly showroom to purchase our new bandsaw and another Grizzly planer for our production shop. After careful consideration of some 20-25 different bandsaw models we selected the Grizzly G0513 17" machine as the very best resaw tool for the money on the market today. The only issue we've found so far with this model is the less than desirable fence which came with the machine.

We have many Grizzly machines in our shop already and know of their ability to take a lot of abuse. Sure, Grizzly tools are not the top-of-the-line for refinement, especially when compared to some of the other more-expensive tools. However, when one considers price AND ability together, a Grizzly machine rallies well against any other brands on the market.

So far I am very happy with the saw. I will say that I agree with the gentleman who says that the fence leaves a lot to be desired. If I were Grizzly I'd fix that deficiency even if I had to charge a little more for the package. I may purchase a Kreg fence but for now I'll try and live with the one supplied.
I run the saw at the recommended 220v. which I believe make a big difference in performance. I chose this saw because it will take a 1" blade and I plan to use it (95% of the time) for resawing. My resaw efforts so far have been very sucessful.
I see this machine as a very good value.

I spent SO much time debating over which bandsaw to purchase... Like most home woodworkers, when I decided I wanted a bandsaw, I started looking at 14" models. And I looked. And I looked. And I read the reviews. And I googled and I read the message boards on the woodworking sites.

A lot of people said that the Rikon 14" was the best saw for the money, as far as resaw capacity and horsepower. It is one of those things that for $100 more you can get this but for $100 more you can get THIS! I finally decided that the Grizzly had the best options for the money so I clicked order. I still think that the Grizzly is better all around than the Rikon and less money.

The saw is awesome. It is a beast of a machine at about 6' tall and you won't move it without a mobile base. It LOOKS like it cost a lot more than it did. I like most everything about it. It has more resaw capacity than any saw for the price and has a lot more going for it than a lot of saws that cost a lot more. Again, if I could have spent $100 more, I would have got the model with the cast iron wheels instead of this one with aluminum but for $100 more... I haven't yet had any problems with the wheels. Hopefully they will hold up or maybe you can order them as an option somewhere. It does have roller guides which will save you $150 not having to buy Carter guides. They might not be quite as good, but better than what comees on most 14" saws. The fence could go either way. It is a good fence as long as you don't need to adjust it with a piece against it because the fence clamp is on the right side. Kind of dumb design but it is a nice fence and a shame to throw it out. The motor will run on 110 or 220 and since I don't have 220 where I have the saw, it is wired for 110 and I have had no problems even resawing oak.

Do yourself a favor if you haven't had much experience with bandsaws. Throw the blade that comes with it out and don't try to make due with it. If this saw is a major investment for you, you may tend to think you will make due because you are spending so much money, but then you get frustrated because the blade wanders all over the place and burns your workpiece and so on. Call Timberwolf and tell them what you do and they will tell you the most affordable means to do it, then cut you some very nice blades and send them to you for very little money. It will make it a totally different machine and you will shiver just thinking about how sharp those blades are...

If you have had bandsaws you may know all this or know more and better ways but if you are making the leap into one for the first time (like me) and don't know a lot from experience, maybe you can benefit from the hours and hours I spent researching and using this bandsaw. I would still choose this one over all the others in this general price range if I had to do it again.

Never had a band saw before, but followed the instrucions and it worked perfectly the first time. I had to reseat the table because it was about a quarter inch too far to the left, but when I put it back, it resawed one of the boards it was shipped in without any blade wander at all, with just the fence it came with. I'm so happy with it, I just ordered a Grizzly planer.