Douglas Clark
04-09-2011, 6:13 PM
I kinda curious how many times the "Bandsaw Gloat" title has been used around here, but not enough to stop me from having my turn with it!
So it's just a 14" G0555x and not some big fancy Italian jobber, but it's mine. In my shop and I have one of my own. YEAH!
Just a quick couple of notes. For those of you who caught my last couple of posts and are disappointed I didn't stick it out for the 513X2B, I assure you I had some solid reasons. First, I was able to take the $400 I ended up saving and putting it into getting a thickness planer (DW734 $300-new) and some MJ Grippers and Splitters for my table saw. So my little starter shop is finally starting to feel more rounded out. Second, I know that eventually I gonna want much bigger resaw capabilities, so I'm positioning my self for a second and bigger saw later. It occurred to me that if I got the 17" saw first, that it might be difficult to convince my wife (and thus myself) to spend the money on a second saw in a couple of years. I'd have been stuck in that dreaded middle-space where my existing saw would have looked just big enough that my wife would had trouble believing I really needed a bigger saw but just small enough that I knew better. So you can bet that going this route will make it more likely that I end up with two saws in the future!
I also wanted to make note of the fact that assembling and setting up this saw was far easier than I anticipated. I had been sweating it a bit because this is my first bandsaw, but it turned out to be easier than anticipated, which says a lot to me about the quality of Grizzly's product. I didn't even really end up needing assistance. Since I got the riser block with it, I separated the top and bottom half of the saw before I even took it out of the box and I assembled it in two-halves. The threads on the long connector bolt were good enough that I was able to hold the top half up with one hand and thread the nut onto the bolt with the other with no assistance. The only real adjustment I had to make during assembly was to flatten the bottom of the riser a bit. I think there was a little build of extra paint on one corner that was causing a little bit of rocking between opposite corners. However, I just laid down a sheet of 80 grit sandpaper on my flat tablesaw top and lapped the bottom of the riser block flat fairly quickly. The only other real challenge I had was figuring out how to re-tension the saw to be able to get the new longer blade on. But once I got it on, I got it to track dead center, top and bottom. Now as green as I am at bandsaws, again, much credit probably needs to go to Grizzly for producing a machine that has good fit out of the box. Dialing in the guides wasn't as difficult as I expected either. Although I notice that by putting the riser on the saw, you do have to pay more attention to the position of the blade guides as you adjust the post up and down. But considering the cost, of the saw, I wasn't expecting perfection.
Once I got everything dialed in last night (I stayed up until 3:00am doing it, I was so excited) I saved any operational testing for this morning since I didn't want to wake anyone. And I figured that I needed to re-check everything when I was a more alert and less fatigued. But first thing this morning I did some minor tests including some light re-saw and found that it's true what everyone says about the included blades being worthless. But luckily I've got some Timberwolf blades on the way and I'll probably get a couple Lenox blades before the summer is up. For now I couldn't be happier to just have a bandsaw!
Also, my 5-yr-old son was so excited for his dad that he agreed to take a picture using dad's iPhone. His framing is good but in his excitement he had trouble getting a clean shot. Still I include it here because "no pictures, no gloat" right!? :D
In the meantime, I hope everyone is having as good a weekend as I have so far.
190841 190842
So it's just a 14" G0555x and not some big fancy Italian jobber, but it's mine. In my shop and I have one of my own. YEAH!
Just a quick couple of notes. For those of you who caught my last couple of posts and are disappointed I didn't stick it out for the 513X2B, I assure you I had some solid reasons. First, I was able to take the $400 I ended up saving and putting it into getting a thickness planer (DW734 $300-new) and some MJ Grippers and Splitters for my table saw. So my little starter shop is finally starting to feel more rounded out. Second, I know that eventually I gonna want much bigger resaw capabilities, so I'm positioning my self for a second and bigger saw later. It occurred to me that if I got the 17" saw first, that it might be difficult to convince my wife (and thus myself) to spend the money on a second saw in a couple of years. I'd have been stuck in that dreaded middle-space where my existing saw would have looked just big enough that my wife would had trouble believing I really needed a bigger saw but just small enough that I knew better. So you can bet that going this route will make it more likely that I end up with two saws in the future!
I also wanted to make note of the fact that assembling and setting up this saw was far easier than I anticipated. I had been sweating it a bit because this is my first bandsaw, but it turned out to be easier than anticipated, which says a lot to me about the quality of Grizzly's product. I didn't even really end up needing assistance. Since I got the riser block with it, I separated the top and bottom half of the saw before I even took it out of the box and I assembled it in two-halves. The threads on the long connector bolt were good enough that I was able to hold the top half up with one hand and thread the nut onto the bolt with the other with no assistance. The only real adjustment I had to make during assembly was to flatten the bottom of the riser a bit. I think there was a little build of extra paint on one corner that was causing a little bit of rocking between opposite corners. However, I just laid down a sheet of 80 grit sandpaper on my flat tablesaw top and lapped the bottom of the riser block flat fairly quickly. The only other real challenge I had was figuring out how to re-tension the saw to be able to get the new longer blade on. But once I got it on, I got it to track dead center, top and bottom. Now as green as I am at bandsaws, again, much credit probably needs to go to Grizzly for producing a machine that has good fit out of the box. Dialing in the guides wasn't as difficult as I expected either. Although I notice that by putting the riser on the saw, you do have to pay more attention to the position of the blade guides as you adjust the post up and down. But considering the cost, of the saw, I wasn't expecting perfection.
Once I got everything dialed in last night (I stayed up until 3:00am doing it, I was so excited) I saved any operational testing for this morning since I didn't want to wake anyone. And I figured that I needed to re-check everything when I was a more alert and less fatigued. But first thing this morning I did some minor tests including some light re-saw and found that it's true what everyone says about the included blades being worthless. But luckily I've got some Timberwolf blades on the way and I'll probably get a couple Lenox blades before the summer is up. For now I couldn't be happier to just have a bandsaw!
Also, my 5-yr-old son was so excited for his dad that he agreed to take a picture using dad's iPhone. His framing is good but in his excitement he had trouble getting a clean shot. Still I include it here because "no pictures, no gloat" right!? :D
In the meantime, I hope everyone is having as good a weekend as I have so far.
190841 190842