More Bandsaw Questions

[Vaughn McMillan]

Man, you folks are gonna be glad when a few of us Creekers get our new bandsaws, so we can stop with all the danged questions...

I'm having serious internal debate between the new Craftsman 12" and the Grizzly G0555. I'm certain both will suit my present needs, and should have me covered well into the future. I've seen the Craftsman in person, and was impressed. There are enough happy Grizzly owners here that I'm confident I'd also be impressed with it, too. The Griz has more power and a great reputation, and the C-Man has less (but apparently ample) power and more features for less money, and virtually no track record. Some of these features seem useful to me, thus my questions, largely to Grizzly owners:

How do you gauge blade tension? The C-Man has a gauge on the back, but I can't tell if the Griz does or not. I'm guessing that once you get the tension set on the Griz, you don't have to mess with it much more, since there's a quick-release for the blade tension, but how to you set the initial tension? (Heck, I can tune a guitar...B flat below middle C? ;))

How do you check your tracking adjustment? The Sears saw has a little plastic window through which you can see the upper wheel and blade as you tweak the tracking knob. Is this useful, or a bell and/or whistle?

How often do you use the miter slot on the table? Would you find a second one to be useful?

Is the Griz fence easily adjustable for drift?

Since I don't appear to be the only person comparing these saws, any input from those of you who've been down this road will likely help more people than just pesky ol' me. :)

Thanks -

- Vaughn

[Don Baer]

Vaughn;
You are in the same situation I was in. What ever you choose I don't think you can go wrong. I stated previously what I based my decision on but your needs/wants may be differant. Good luck buddey.

BTW If you want to try out the C man PM me and I'll be glad to let you take her for a test drive.

Don

[John Cavanaugh]

Vaughn if you were closer I would invite you by to see my Grizzly, but I sort of doubt you would want to trek all the way to San Diego...

Ill share a few of my thoughts on your questions but keep in mind thet are from a relatively inexperienced perspective. ;-)

re: tracking adjustment & window. Well I just made sure when I tuned up my saw that the wheels were perfectly coplaner & in alignment, havent touched the tracking adjustment since.

re: blade tension gauge. The grizzly has one, but Ive found I prefer to use the technique described at http://www.woodcraft.com/articles.aspx?articleid=391 to get the tension set, then just use the quick release to detension.

re: miter slot. Im still on the fence as to value here. I dont tend to do a lot of cross cuts with my bandsaw, so I guess I would put it in the category of nice feature when I use it, but not a deal breaker.

--
John Cavanaugh

[Don Baer]

There you go Vaughn,
Just a little Gas. Take a test drive and meet some creekers in the process. You can have the best of both worlds.

Thats why the creek is such a great place to hang out.

[Norman Hitt]

Vaughn, IMHO, the higher Hp is the most significant item you have mentioned, and it is important. Most bandsaws, (if not all), have some kind of a tensioning guage, Buuuuuut........they are basically only good to use as a reference for returning to tension after detensioning, and all this after you have used one of the other methods for tensioning that particular blade, ie; for low tension blades like the Timberwolf, use the flutter test, but on the other regular steel blades, use the deflection method OR, a tension guage. As to the window, I can't see where it would be useful, as you normally set the tracking with the doors open, and make an adjustment and then turn the wheel by hand and then adjust again and turn the wheel by hand again, until you're satisfied with the tracking. You NEVER turn the power on, until you're relatively satisfied with the tracking, and then turn on the power and watch it. If it is still to your liking, you then shut off the machine, close the doors, unplug the machine, and continue to check the other tuneup items.

Maybe someone else will have a different opinion on the additional mitre slot, but for me, I'd rather not have it, as it would just be something else for things to possibly get caught on.

In short, I'd prefer the highest power, and a riser kit and the longer blades right from the start, then you don't have all those Short blades to get rid of when you later decide to try your hand at resawing or making your own veneer. (You know, we woodworkers can only go so long doing the same type projects before getting that insatiable urge to try something new and expand our skills),:D so you might as well gear up for that urge right from the start.;)

[Gregg Mason]

Vaughn,

Have you looked at the Grizzley G0580 ? 14" with a 3/4hp, looks like they have a riser for it too. It's on sale for $310.00 right now. Could that be a compromise between the C-man 12" and the G0555 ?

I don't know anymore about it than what I saw on the Griz site, but I thought you might want to take a look at it. Maybe some others here have more info on it.

[Vaughn McMillan]

John and Don, I really appreciate the offer for test drives, but time is even shorter than money for me lately, and I honestly don't know when I'd have a day for a road trip in the next month or two.

Norman, thanks for the suggestions and opinions. If I go with the Griz, I'd like to figure a way to afford the riser kit from the get-go, but that puts it another notch above what I was budgeting to spend. (Like you say, regardless of what I feel I need for capacity now, some project will come up where 11" or 12" capacity would be useful.)

Unfortunately, my means are about midway between my needs and wants. I can get the C-Man set up on a mobile base for about $350 without too much pain to the checkbook, but to fully deck out the Griz (riser and MB) I'm getting awful close to $600, which is starting to sting the bank. Just gotta figure out if I (we) can swing it. Maybe the basic Griz now, and the riser and MB later. (There's always Valentine's Day, huh?) :D I realize it's somewhat wasteful of blades to buy the riser later, but it might be more feasible nonetheless.

Thanks again -

- Vaughn

[John Bailey]

Vaughn,

You do realize what a nasty slippery slope you're going down. A little over a year ago, when I joined the "Creek," I was asking similar questions. I'm still in the market for a bandsaw, and have upgraded my "needs" by many lbs. of machinery and, of course, the dollars that go with it. For me, since I'm still working on my shop, I wasn't in a hurry. If I had been in a hurry, I would have bought the best I could that was adequate for whatever the job that was causing the expediency. 14"er's seem to be the saw of choice for most woodworkers, so I would go that route, but that all depends on the woodworker and their plans. At my age, I can only afford to buy one time, so I'm waiting and saving.

John

[Jim Becker]

Vaughn, the "guages" on the machines are, umm...not something to be concerned with 'cause they don't show you anything useful nor perform consistantly over time. The only true way to know what your blade tension is is via a tension meter. Ching Ching. That said, you learn what works with your saw and a particular blade relatively easily. Suffolk recommends the "flutter method" for the Timberwolf blades which is a nice starting point, although I personally prefer more tension on the blade.

[tod evans]

horse power, horse power, horse power!! .02 tod

[Cecil Arnold]

Norman, Jim and Tod got it right. Horsepower. Most of the remainder of your concerns are eye candy. Tension gages are just indicators as already stated, tracking doesn't require a window, etc.