8 or 12 inches?

[rocky brown]

i've done a lot of research here and on other forums for my first real bandsaw purchase and i'm trying to decide between a craftsman 22401 or grizzly g0555 w/riser block. the craftsman has 8" re-saw and, with the riser block, the grizzly has 12". cost wise the grizzly will be about $100 more. my question is how often will i re-saw more than 8" and is the grizzly worth the difference over the craftsman?



thanks for any and all help:)

rb

[John Gregory]

Only you can answer that. We do it quite often, if you make any of your own veeners, you may want wider pieces. What is the horsepower on each saw? More HP helps on resawing.

[Frederick Rowe]

I think John nailed your answer. The 22401 is rated at 1 HP at 11 Amps, the Grizzly 1 HP/10 Amps. I doubt you'd have much success resawing anything over 8" in height, let alone 12" with the Grizzly. Rikon's 10-325 is 1.5 HP/14 Amps, which is probably the appropriate amount of power you'd need for 8" resawing. These aren't hard facts, but anecdotal information.

[Art Mann]

I have resawn 5/4, 8 inch wide white oak on my 22401 and it worked well. The saw didn't seem underpowered at all. Two things are required. You need a good 1/2 or 3/4 inch resaw blade. I used the Timberwolf bought from Suffolk Machinery. You also need to buy or build a tall fence. The one that comes with the saw is next to worthless.