Another Grizzly G0566 21" Bandsaw ?

[Chris Rosenberger]

I did a search here of this saw & found alot of information on how it handles resawing. The question I haave is.
How does it do with 1/4" blades for curve cutting?

[tod evans]

chris, it`s been my experience that a bandsaws faults show up when resawing. if this saw will resaw acceptably for you it should have no problem doing curves.......02 tod

[Brad Knabel]

Chris -
I've got this saw. I haven't done a ton of curved work with it but I've been happy with the results I've gotten. I'm using an Olson 1/4" blade that I got from woodcraftbands.com. The blade tracks very well and the guides don't have any problems with a blade this size. I also haven't had any problesm with the guides or guards getting in the way of the cut. That should cover all the bases - let me know if you have any more questions.

Brad

[Chris Rosenberger]

Thanks Tod & Brad. My main concern was the guides handling a small blade.

Brad,
What do you think of the rack & pinion table tilt.

Chris

[Clint Malone]

I recently got this saw also, but I am keeping my 14" for curve cutting. I have not tried any curved cutting on it yet, but it resaws like a dream. I put a 1" lenox Trimaster carbiide on it and the Grizzly powerfeeder for resawing and it just slices through stuff without any saw marks at all.

I did order a 1/4" blade Lenox Bimetal 6 TPI for it just to see if it cut curves considerably better than the 14", in which case I will get rid of the little one, but I haven't put it on yet.

[Brad Knabel]

I really like the rack and pinion tilt mechanism of the table. It's very smooth and effortless. I suppose it would be nice if it tilted slightly more to the left, but I haven't had a need for that and I don't think it's much worse than any of its competitors.

The only real complaint I have with the saw in daily use is that the fence is not adjustable for blade drift. That's easy to correct with a clamped down resaw fence, but it seems like that should be a given for a saw that is mostly geared towards resaw work.

I had a problem while setting up the saw with excessive vibration. I tracked down to overly tight belts. I don't have any other Grizzly machines but they are high on my list for future purchases. Using this saw just puts a smile on my face.

Please feel free to ask again if more questions come to you.

Brd

[Clint Malone]

You can sort of adjust the fence for drift. All you have to do is loosen the four bolts under the table and move the whole table. The other thing you can do is adjust the fence guide, but you may have to elongate the holes where it clamps to the table a bit .

[Brad Knabel]

Clint - you are absolutely right. That is a workable solution. I just think Grizzly could have come up with a better solution. This is a small nit against an otherwise excellent saw as far as I'm concerned.

[Clint Malone]

Well, as you can see, I have a resaw fence on mine that is very easily adjustable for blade drift, but I see your point. Let Shiraz know, he would probably appreciate the feedback and likely make that small change.

[Brad Olson]

FWIW

I have a slightly older 20" Grizzly bandsaw and have no problem using blades down to 1/8". On the bottom guides I use the guide setup mentioned in a recent thread. Search my old posts for info.

Second, rotating the table is MUCH prefereable to rotating the fence. Why? The miter slot then become useful, if the table rather than the fence alone is adjusted for drift. This makes jigging up your bandsaw much easier and allows you to use a miterguage on your bandsaw. Setup for adjusting the table is slightly more complex than adjusting the fence alone.