grizzly bandsaw comparison

[allen thunem]

ok i know this will open up a can of worms but. I am in the market for a new bandsaw and am looking for opinions about sizes. I just sold my delta 14 incher with riser. I want a new grizzly but not sure if the 19 incher i am drooling over is more saw than a turner needs..... and i know need has nothing to do with anything associated with woodturning. what do you all think.
and also i have noticed that while reading posts that most of you are from east of colorado. any western turners out there???
or are we just a quieter group west of the Mississippi

[Rick Cicciarelli]

I think with tools, as long as you go with quality, buy as big as you are willing to afford for that particular tool. Due to my constraints in ceiling height, as soon as I can afford it, I will be going with this:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/17-2-HP-Extreme-Series-Bandsaw-w-Cast-Iron-Trunnion-Brake-/G0513X2B
I would go bigger if I had the space for it. Of course, when you go bigger you also have to consider cost of blades. Just a consideration though.

[Stephen Saar]

One thing I'll say from owning my 18" bandsaw is that they bigger ones don't handle the smaller blades well. You can put a smaller blade on the bigger ones, but I find that it's somewhat impractical. So if you know you will be using smaller blades you might want to stick with a decent 14" with 12" resaw. Having said that, I still love my bandsaw. It's the Rikon 18" dual speed saw, and I know there are much nicer bandsaws out there, but I really enjoy mine. Just put a 1" 2-3 VTPI Timberwolf blade on it and it just cuts like a knife through butter.

-Stephen

[Roger Chandler]

I own 3 bandsaws, the largest being an 18" Jet. My jet has been a real good tool. Most of the time I have used a 1-1/4" x 1.5 tpi blade for resawing. Just a couple of weeks ago, I replaced with a 1/2 " 3 tpi blade, and it cuts bowl blanks like nobody's business. The secret to good cutting is a sharp blade and proper adjustments on the blade tension, and on the bearings that support the blade [thrust on the back, side bearings, or blocks on the underneath, and on the blade support arm overhead]

My 14" bandsaw and my 18" one both are very good for cutting blanks, but the added height capacity on the 18" saw really allows me to cut much larger logs into blanks. I have resawn a lot of boards on my 18" saw, and again proper blade tension and support bearing adjustments are what cause a saw to cut very well.

[Tony De Masi]

I have the G0514x2 Grizzly and love it. Is it more than a turner needs? Maybe. Maybe not. Of course I use it to cut all my blanks into circles but I also use it to slab cut the logs before I cut them into the bowl blanks. This saves some wood in that the kerf of the bandsaw blade is much smaller than the kerf of a chain saw. I'm also able to get a much more balanced and parallel blank by this method.

[Greg Just]

I purchased a Shop Fox 14 inch last summer and added the riser block. No complaints and it has done everything I have needed from a band saw. Shop Fox is the same as Grizzly except that you can buy them locally rather than having to buy from Grizzly.

[Jeff Nicol]

Like most tools of this caliber, it comes down to a few things that make them user friendly. I would like to get a bigger "NEW" saw but I have a 14" jet with riser that I use every day to cut blanks and to resaw when needed. I do have the big beast 26" that I still have to get in place and cleaned up and ready to use. The 14" will cut most every thing and the big one is best for re-sawing and possibly larger round tables etc. But when I get in a big jam I use my "BIG, BIG" band saw.....The Woodmizer LT30 sawmill to tackle the larger bandsaw needs. I am spoiled that way, but the 19" will have some nice things like a brake and the larger table and re-saw height. So if you like the color the Grizzly saws are very nice with the Jet, Rikon, Shopfox being very comparable but the Griz and the Jet will have better fit and finish in my experience.

Buy 2 there small!

Jeff

[Reed Gray]

A band saw that is more than a woodturner needs????? Well, considering some I have seen in the lumber mills, some of them would be more than I need (don't have to saw through 5 ft. logs too often), but I have two. One is an industrial PM with a 1 hp motor, cast iron wheels and frame, and 6 inch cutting height. I use it for cutting blanks round. I have a Laguna 16HD with a 4.5 hp Baldor motor, 1 1/4 inch blade with teeth at about 3/4 inches apart, and it cuts 16 inches high. I use it to cut blanks to proper thickness, and parallel. Much better than a chainsaw. I maybe could on a few occasions use some thing that cuts a bit higher, but it works for 98% of what I cut. If I have a blank that is more than 6 inches thick, I can nibble off the corners on the big saw.

Where out west are you? Just about everything is east of me except for Alaska and Hawaii.

robo hippy