Grizzy G0513 Bandsaw (and clones) info

[John Bailey]

Can any of you folks tell me what type of blade you usually use to resaw with a Grizzly G0513 or General, Jet, Delta clones (or others). I'll be using it to resaw some white oak up to 10", fairly long boards. Do you feel you have enough tension? I'd like to use at least a 3/4 in. blade or better yet a 1". Anything else about these saws that I might need to know? How about how small a blade you can use?

Thanks for any info.

John

[Scott Coffelt]

I use a Timberwolf blade I got from Suffolk. I think it is a 3/4" 3tpi. After talking with them, they recommended a couple of blades for me to use. I also know many folks use Lennox blades. I plan to add a carbide blade at some point, but they are obviously much more expensive. I just resawed 12" cherry with little effort.

[JayStPeter]

Like Scott, I use a 3/4" Timberwolf. It works well, but I will buy a carbide blade of some sort sometime soon.

Jay

[Paul Comi]

I've got that bandsaw and have used Timberwolf regular blades including 3/8" 1/2" and 1". Recently I had to resaw some 6" wide paduk which is very hard and dense wood. The 1" blade wouldn't cut through it. It was like trying to push the wood through a wall. The 3/8" did a nice job the first time through and then snapped on the second cut. I'm sure I had too much tension because they're low tension blades and I had it tighter than they recommend, but after talking with several people at Suffolk, they recommended that I get a 1/2" or 3/4" 3-4 variable tooth or 3 tooth carbide bit for doing that kind of sawing. I looked at the Lennox blades because Timberwolf only sells a 1" carbide blade and after seeing that the Lennox blade is about $130 for what I wanted, I hesitated to place an order at this time and ordered a 1/2" woodslicer which is yet to arrive. Luckily, while I was asking people's opinions a guy I know who snapped a fairly new longer 1" Lennox carbide blade offered to have it cut to the right size for my saw and sell it to me for $75 which I agreed to. I hope I get some cash for Christmas. I have a bill waiting for me.

To make a long story short, I'd get a 3/4" carbide tipped blade based on what I learned from talking to Suffolk and others. The furniture companies buy 1/2" or 3/4" variable tooth blades to use for everything and they don't expect the bandsaw to give totally finished surfaces. I think that makes a lot of sense especially if you're cutting domestic and exotic hardwood on that saw.

ps I have a friend with a General 18" and he uses 1/4" blades to resaw and does it freehand without a fence. Just marks a line down the stock and makes his cut.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Don like the rest I use a 3/4" 3 tpi Timberwolf or I have found that the 1/2" woodslicer does a nice smooth job on resawing lumber. I just got done resawing some 9 1/2" X 8 ft. 8/4 ash. I tried them both since I just got my G0555 just to see what each would cut like. Both cut extremely well with no strain at all but I like the woodslicer a little better than TW because it does give a smoother finish on the cut.

[John Bailey]

Scott, Jay,

What saws do you guys have?

John

[Andy Howard]

I own a G0513, and have used a Timberwolf 1" 2 or 3tpi blade, 1/2" 3tpi AS blade, and 1/4" 6 or 8tpi blade so far. It will handle any of those blades well, and the timberwolfs are much better than the stock 1/2" blade.

If you are going to resaw a 10" board, I think I would go with the 1" or 3/4". The 1/2" AS blade is good for cutting turning blanks out of green wood, and can also do some nice resawing, but if you want a dedicated resaw blade go for the 3/4 or 1".

If you are getting a new saw, or just need some more blades, suffolk machinery (makers of timberwolf) has been running a "special" of buy 3 blades get 1 free. This special has been going for at least 6 months, so I dont know if it is really a "special" or just their normal deal. I ended up getting 4 blades for my G0513 shipped to my house for right around 80 bucks.

Andy

[John Bailey]

I haven't bought a saw yet. The Grizzly G0513 (and clones) is the smallest saw I am considering. For most of what I'm going to use it for, it will be plenty big, even overkill. But there will be a few times I'm going to use it on some big long timbers for boat building. For those times, I want it to handle the job. At this point I think I'll be running oak timbers that are 8"x12"x13' through the saw to shape the timbers. Have any of you guys done similar size timbers? If so, how did it work?

Thanks, John

[JayStPeter]

Scott, Jay,

What saws do you guys have?

John

I have the G0513.

Jay