On 23/08/2019 21:21, Bob La Londe wrote:
On 8/14/2019 3:09 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
I got suckered in by some SPAM from Grizzly and ordered a G0621X
variable speed vertical wood/metal bandsaw.Â* Of course it seems to
only come with a wood blade, and I will probably only ever use it for
metal cutting.Â* (I already have a decent Rigid mid/small woodcutting
upright bandsaw.)

I think I know why they had them on sale.Â* The title of the listing
says its 3 phase.Â* You have to read down into the description to see
they sell it with a VFD control for speed control and its wires to
plug into a single phase outlet.Â* I think most small shop and home
shop people saw "3 phase" and just skipped onto the next listing.

I'm getting ready to order a metal cutting blade for it.Â* I like the
way the M42 blades hold up on my 7x10 bandsaw so I figured I'd just
get those for the upright.Â* The saw spec says blade width from 1/8 to
1 inch, but I doubt I'll be doing any scroll cutting with it.Â* I'm
kinda looking for the most useful pitch and width so to speak.Â* Is
there a big difference between a 3/4 inch wide blade and a 1 inch
wide blade.Â* I suspect I'll be doing 99.9% straight cutting stuff
that isn't practical to fit in the horizontal.Â* Cost difference is
only about $10-15 dollars depending on the source, but still $10 is a
premium six pack of beer or a couple shots of top grade Canadian rye
for after work.

Then there is pitch.Â* The blade on my 7x10 horizontal seems to do
just fine for most things.Â* I use it on aluminum most of the time,
but it will severe 1-5/8 4140QT round without much thought, and of
course it severs easy machining stress proof almost as fast as it
chops aluminum. Looks like about 12 pitch. I can't recall, but it
might be variable pitch 12/14 or something like that.Â* I don't want
to have a bunch of different blades hanging on the wall.Â* Just one
spare that will allow me to keep going if I break one while I order
another spare.Â* It will get used most of the time to cut 6061 or 7075
aluminum from 1/2" thick to 2 inch thick.Â* It will occasionally need
to cut some 4140HT or some A36 from 1/4 inch to 1-1/2 inch.Â* Rarely I
may need to cut some pieces of aluminum sheet in either 5052 or
3003.Â* Now I usually cut those with a circular saw on the wood deck
of my equipment trailer.

I'm leaning towards a 12-14TPI or 10-12TPI 3/4 inch blade since
that's what I am running on the horizontal, but I'm open to changing
my mind.


Well it finally arrived a day late while the blades arrived several
days early.

First impressions are good. All the sheet metal is heavier than I
expected and much heavier than my wood only vertical saw. The saw
itself is a lot heavier. I will not be dead lifting it onto the stand.
One thing in the version of the manual I found online that concerned
me is that it appeared to have friction block type blade guides. My
wood cutting bandsaw has friction block and they work fine.
Particularly since I changed them out for "Cool Blocks" (tm), but both
of my horizontal metal cutting saws have bearing roller guides. One of
the first things I noticed when I pried the saw out of the Styrofoam
packing (more on that in a minute) is that top and bottom had decent
size bearing roller blade guides. Making sure it wasn't a very recent
upgrade I opened the manual that actually came with the saw and it
shows the bearing roller guides. It could be another reason the saw
was on sale. Another item that represented the saw as less than it
actually was.

About that Styrofoam packing. Its a very thick excellent sandwich foam
custom molded for the saw. Did I say thick. The box itself looked like
it had been burst partly open and retaped in transit. The box was
damaged on two sides and the whole box was "bent" a foot from the end
and the end dipped more than an inch hanging off the pallet. I have
fully unpacked and unwrapped the saw, and the stand. I went out of my
way looking for any signs of damaged from bent sheet metal to a door
that might not open or close perfectly. There are still parts (table,
fence, trunnion, wheel, etc) embedded in the packing foam, but I could
find zero hints of damage despite the obvious abuse the packaging
received in transit.

I have a lot of work to do so the saw might just sit where it is for a
couple days, but I'll let you know how it does ripping aluminum and
steel soon enough.

The motor is a little lighter than I would have liked at 1.25 HP
according to the data plate, but it is a 4 pole motor so it should
still have decent torque at modest RPM.

Good to hear it arrived OK, I saw the blades guides were shown as pads
and thought bearings would have been better so good to hear you've got
the improved version. I have seen loads on delivery trucks which were
already smashed but apparently they have to deliver the item so the
receiving person can refuse to accept it due to damage in transit. I was
recently given a British made Startrite Bandit 12" vertical bandsaw and
base for free, I couldn't turn it down as too nice a machine so have had
to reorganise the workshop a bit to fit it in. 3 phase but I have a
converter which runs my BP and Harrison M300 lathe so the Startrite is a
small load at IIRC 3/4hp. I know 2 people that have offered to buy it if
I don't want it, small chance.