I recently purchased the Grizzly G0513 17" Bandsaw. It is a 2HP bandsaw with 12" resaw capability. I just set it up and ran it; however, I have not had an opportunity to cut anything with it yet. I cannot compare it with any of the other mentioned saws as I have not used them. I will say that I am impressed with what I see and am pleased with the purchase. A review of this saw can be seen at:
http://patriot.net/~stpeter/woodwork...3%20Review.htm.
-Mike
"Stephen M" wrote in message ...
I am in the process of researching a bandsaw purchase. Having never owned a
a real bandsaw (there was the well-intentioned gift of a really cheap
benchtop which was used twice and promptly discarded) I'm could use some
help assessing features. I'm looking at the $1k price point but the I can go
higher if there is a truly compelling argument.
I will use this saw for curved cuts, stopped cuts and resawing. Currently, I
am mostly involved in furniture making. (no bowl turning, or green wood
stuff to date). 220V is NOT a problem ( I have a 10ga 110V circuit with an
adjacent slot in the panel for just this purpose).
1. I would like 6" resaw capacity. By intuition tells me that a 14" saw
with a riser kit is an engineering kludge. If the structure could handle it
w/o undue flex, why not just put that extra bit of metal in the base line
design? Isn't that stretching motor capacity too?
2. How much resaw capacity is really required. Once again, intuition
suggests to me that extra resaw capacity, unused is a bad thing. That is, is
a larger structure is more dificult to make ridged. The Laguna 14 has a
capacity of 8.5"... (this would allow me to bookmatch a 17" pannel which is
more than enough for my aesthetic preference) How often would 8.5 that not
be enough?
3.Of what benefit is a rack and pinion blade guide?
4. I would also like to keep the weight below 350lbs. I have an upstairs
shop. I assume that removing the motor and table is fairly simple, the
moving a 200lb thing is pretty managable with 2 guys. Am I correct in
assuming that removing the motor and table is easy and removing the wheels
is a bad idea?
5. I got the Laguna free video. It spends some time explaining why their
proprietary giudes are superior. (In short, the guides come in direct
contact with the blade, and are located above AND below the thrust point to
eliminate twist, in addition the "in-contact" design eliminates
micro-flutter). This makes sense, but it IS marketing. Anyone care to
comment on if they are truely superior in a significant way?
6. How important/useful is a quick-release blade tension feature? how bad is
it if I forget to detension the blade andnot happen to use the saw to 2
weeks?
My short list looks like:
Bridgewood BW-17WBS
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W27912627 (Cheezy fence, but otherwise a nice
capacity/feqature set)
Laguna 14LT
http://www.lagunatools.com/lt14.asp (less capacity but I feel pretty
confident about the quality)
Griz
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...emNumber=G1012 (Can you really
get quality at this price point?)
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...emNumber=G1073 (Can you really
get quality at this price point?)
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...emNumber=G0513 (aluminum
wheels!?!)
7. 1st hand comments on any of these models would be appreciated
8. One of my beefs about magazine reviews of tools is that I think all
reviews of, say, contractor saws, should have a side bar on "when does it
make NOT sense to buy a contractor saw because what you really need is a
cabinet saw". There is no doubt that the 2K machines such as the Laguna
16SE, MiniMax 16 and the BridgeWood PBS, are all the BS I could ever want,
but my gut tells me that this is overkill. Is there a compelling reason why
I would really regret going up-market? By the same token, should I give the
Delta/Jet etc... 14"-ers a closer look.