Beginning of the Grizzly G0513 BS review.....

[Terry Hatfield]

Hello everyone,

Got the new Grizzly G0513 Band Saw put together and setup today. The process took me an hour and a half or so. I took time to get pics of every feature and every step in the assembly and setup of the machine. I will have a full review on my site as soon as I can get it written.

Here are my inital thoughts.

This is one great machine!!!! I was amazed at the features and power of this BS!!!! It's on sale right now for $730 if you pick it up at
Grizzly, or they offer $20 off shipping if you are not near a showroom.

Here are some of the features.

12" resaw capability

Geared rack and pinion stlye adjustment for the table and the guard/guide assy. The table has micro adjust and the guard has a height indicator. Nice touch.

Blade tracking window in the upper cabinet.

Quick change tension release lever. This feature is new to me too, but I am gonna like it!!!

2 - 4" DC ports and the lower cabinet has brushes for the blade and the lower wheel.

Urethane tires. The catalog says they are rubber, but they are bright yellow and the manual says they are urethane. Definitely not rubber anyway.

2 hp. motor. TEFC

Shipping weight is 321 lbs. The crate can not weigh more that 20, so the saw should weigh in around 300.

Euro roller disk guides both upper and lower. I really like these alot already. Easy to adjust and they performed fantastic.

Fence is standard. Not a super heavy duty, but it locks down tight and has a nice magnified cursor. The fence lifts off at any point on the rails.

About the nicest factory miter guage I've seen. Not comparable to the good aftermarkets, but still nice.

Handwheel blade tensioning with nice big guage and the window in the upper door allows you to see the gauge perfectly.

Table is 17" X 17". Perfectly flat and nicely ground. I had read that Grizz had had some tables that were not flat, but this one sure is.

All in all I am impressed. I had a G1019Z prior to buying the G0513. There is no comparison. It is a similar step up as when I went from the 6" jointer to the new Grizz 8". That's a big step!!!!!

I did some test cuts with the factory 1/2" 6 tpi blade. It is not very good. I'll have an assortment of Timberwolves on the way tomorrow. I did resaw some 3 1/2" red oak and you can see from the pic that even the factory blade did a nice job. I pushed hard and the machine never even slowed down. I will need to test further of course, but I don't think power will be a problem at all.

I began the duct for the saw today as well. The 2 4" posts are very well placed and the blade brush is in a little compartment that goes right to the port on the front of the saw. I believe that dust collection will be fantastic. I will have the ductwork complete and tested before I post the full review on my site.

So far so good for the G0513. It seems to be a fantasic piece of equipment at a unbelieveable price. I feel at this price range I could not have done any better.

Terry

[Brad Hammond]

Way to go Terry!.................that's a great looking shop too!

i think you'll be even more impressed when you get a couple of good blades! i'm a TW fan myself, and i had the 1" blade cut to 131 1/2" to help with tensioning and it saws like a hot knife.

cya
brad

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks Brad,

I had read about the 131 1/2" blade deal, but was not sure if that's what I needed or not. I'm calling TW in a bit. I used their blades on my old saw and was totally impressed.

I had also read that a 3/4" blade worked fine for resaw on the 0513. Did you try that by any chance or did you just go to the 1"??

Terry

[Brad Hammond]

no terry..........havent tried the 3/4 blade. i ordered the 1"4tpi 3/8"4tpi (bowl blanks) and a 1/4" 6tpi...........i'm about to order the 1/8" blade for bandsaw boxes and finer work.

however...........i have (being lazy) accomplished some light resawing with the 1/4" blade without any problems.

cya
brad

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks again Brad,

I'm going to try the 3/4". I'll post the results in the review.

Terry

[Ken Wright]

for all that info .... I've been searching around all morning for a band saw that will resaw 12" boards .... I had found a really nice, I think, Shop Fox that fit the needs .... 18" with 12" resaw .. 2hp/220v for what I thought was a great price at $890..... but your price on this machine is even better. Odd but suspicion that the Shop Fox may be a clone of your machine ...

May change direction after this...... freight will be the key ... local dealer on the Fox may be less with no freight........

[David Rose]

Terry, I think you got way too much for what you paid. I would send that one back and try again. If you get all the good Griz stuff what's left for everyone else? :rolleyes: If you really get into veneering or a lot of resawing, that sounds like a candidate for a good Lenox carbide blade.

Congrats!

David

[Kevin Murdock]

I've been looking at either the model G0555 and the G0513 for awhile now.

I'd love to pickup the G0513 but I don't have electrical juice in the garage to run the 2HP motor.

Am I crazy, or could this saw run with a 1.5 HP motor? Sure, you'd lose a little bit of grunt, but the G0555 with a riser kit can resaw 12" with a 1HP motor.

When my situation changes and I have more amps, I could always jump back to a 2HP. Also, I don't mind paying more now for the G0513.

Money's not the problem, amps are.

Kevin

[Dan Smith]

Thanks for the review of the Saw. I have the same model on its way, hopefully to be at my door by the end of the week.

Kevin....
From the documentation that I have read, you can re wire the saw to 110, but probably need a 30 amp breaker. I have the 2hp 110 G1023 Table saw, and that is my current configuration for it. Hopefully, for the short term I will be using the same breaker for the band saw, until I get my Sub Panel done.

-dan

[Kevin Murdock]

Kevin....
From the documentation that I have read, you can re wire the saw to 110, but probably need a 30 amp breaker.

-dan

Hey Dan,

That's my problem. I'm renting a house and I'm not allowed to upgrade the circuit. I'd need a 1.5hp to make it ok.

/Kevin

[Terry Hatfield]

Ken,

The christmas special at Grizzly makes the G0513 $805 including shipping.
Here is the link.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=G0513

Terry

[Terry Hatfield]

David,

They have plenty more. :D

I really don't plan to do a huge amount of resawing, but I needed the extra capacity and power to do some 11 3/8" wide book matched door panels for Cheryl's entertainment center. Seemed like a good excuse to get a new tool. :D

Terry

[Terry Hatfield]

Dan and Kevin,

The manual says to use a 20 amp breaker for the 110 configuration on the G0513. The spec tag on the motor itself says 10 amps for 220 and 20 amps for 110. The Grizzly specs on their site say 12/6. Go figure. I left mine 220.

Terry

[Terry Hatfield]

BTW...I did hear from Bill Croufitt today on a misprint on blade length. The manual and the website say the blade should be 132". It should actually be 131 1/2". Apparently the 132" will work with narrower blades, but getting enough travel in the tension mechanism to properly tension a wide blade is a problem if you are using the 132" blades.

Thanks for the heads up Brad!!!

Terry

[John Miliunas]

Terry, thanks loads for the initial review! I'm looking, but still undecided. Please let us know when you have the complete review done on your site, especially if it includes results with the Timberwolf! I'm especially interested on your feelings and performance of the European guides. :cool:

[JayStPeter]

Terry,

No matter what the width, you will have to remove the pointer on the blade tension indicator to tension a 132" blade. If you measure the blade that comes with the machine, it is somewhere around 131.25". And, if you measure carefully and do the math you get somewhere just under that as the correct blade length. After posting the first review of this machine to the Pond, I got a reply from one person who said that a 1" blade wouldn't tension even at 131.5" without removing the pointer. Unfortunately, I was in the process of moving into storage when my resized t'wolves arrived. I just got my equipment out of storage and into my new place last week. I'll try to put one of my resized blades (I went 131.25") on and see how it goes this week. I'm surprised that this is still a problem, Grizzly should definitely include some sort of indication with the machine. I know they changed the online manual to 131.5, but I guess the saw must still say 132.

[Terry Hatfield]

Jay,

Your review is what made me decide to get this saw. Thanks.

I agree, Grizz should get this documentation deal worked out. It's confusing for sure.

Thanks again,

Terry

[Chuck Wintle]

What are euro style blade guides and how do they differ from normal blade guides?

[Terry Hatfield]

Charles,

The euro style guides are roller discs. The discs are mounted parallel to the blade. Regular roller guides are mounted perpendicular to the blade.

The euro style guides seem to outperform the regular roller guides by a bunch. They are super easy to adjust and support the blade very well. The contact point is much larger on the euros than on the regular rollers.

Here is a shot of the upper guides on the G0513.

Terry