How is Grizzly overall as a brand?

[Ronald Blue]

The bottom line is Grizzly sells a lot of wood working tools to those who don't have unlimited amounts of cash available. What they sold in 1995 bares little resemblance to what they offer today. But many want to hold their feet to the fire for those products which are long gone. They continue to work at bringing new and improved products to the market. I stopped by the Springfield store just this past week because there is no better place to go dream IMHO. I don't have any nagging or specific needs of anything at this time but they will be the first place I look when I do. I am not in the minority here either. You can buy whatever you choose and I hope you do. This has become a Grizzly bash but for some. Most if not all have hit on a key point. Their customer service is first rate. Not all can say that. Good luck in whatever you buy.

[Cary Falk]

So far I've bought a Jet 6" jointer used and a new Ridgid table saw which I got for 25% off, and I've been satisfied with them.
I'm simply looking for opinions from the woodworkers on Sawmill Creek on Grizzly as a brand before I go out and buy.

To get this post back on track, I quoted the original question.
The answer is:

If you are satisfied with Jet and Ridgid you will be more than satisfied with Grizzly. If you care to spend 2-10X $$$$ I am sure you will be happy with that choice also.

[Jim Andrew]

I have a Grizzly Go453px, and if your planer has issues, it needs to be re-adjusted. Mine works great. It is well designed for dust collection too. IMO one of the better pieces of equipment that Grizzly offers. And I have had 3 Toyota pickups. They were all the best vehicles I've had in my life. Oh, and I'm crazy about my open end widebelt sander from Grizzly, G9983. Takes a little time, but I can grind panels down flat and smooth, just need to hit them with a ROS.

[scott vroom]

I too am growing weary of the Grizzly bashing. When I first outfitted my shop I sought advice, did some research and concluded that for what I had to invest, Grizzly was the most bang for the buck. For less than I'd have had to pay for a single Euro machine, I got a 15" planner, 8" jointer, and a 10" table saw. In the 5 years I've owned my tools, I've had minimal mechanical issues and have been delighted with their performance. Would I like to have had $50,000 to invest in tools? Of course. But I didn't. It's like the other poster said: Don't tell me that I need your Rolls Royce when all I can afford is a Toyota. Grizzly bashing is doing a disservice to prospective new hobbyists on limit budgets who would likely be satisfied with the value Grizzly has to offer. If you're a euro fanatic, good on you.....just don't demean those of us who have opted for a different entry point.

[Shiraz Balolia]

I too am growing weary of the Grizzly bashing. When I first outfitted my shop I sought advice, did some research and concluded that for what I had to invest, Grizzly was the most bang for the buck. For less than I'd have had to pay for a single Euro machine, I got a 15" planner, 8" jointer, and a 10" table saw. In the 5 years I've owned my tools, I've had minimal mechanical issues and have been delighted with their performance. Would I like to have had $50,000 to invest in tools? Of course. But I didn't. It's like the other poster said: Don't tell me that I need your Rolls Royce when all I can afford is a Toyota. Grizzly bashing is doing a disservice to prospective new hobbyists on limit budgets who would likely be satisfied with the value Grizzly has to offer. If you're a euro fanatic, good on you.....just don't demean those of us who have opted for a different entry point.

Thank you!

We have been responsible for keeping the prices low for the majority of this industry because there are no middlemen. Our Grizzly brand is sold directly to the end users at very tight margins, while the Jet, Powermatic, General Int., etc are sold through dealers that also have to have margins for running their businesses. Nothing wrong with that, and there is a place in commerce for that, but don't mistake a lower price for lower quality.

We probably sell more machines than all three of the above brands combined. Obviously when you ship tens of thousands of pounds of machines a day, you are going to have freight damage (which we promptly get blamed for), you get some issues that can slip by, even though we have strict quality control at source with about a dozen QC engineers on our staff overseas. We also have the largest parts department in the industry and it IS a fact that owners of other brand machines come looking to us for parts for "similar" machines because they could not get parts from that company. We have a 30,000 sq feet parts facility and have parts in stock for machines up to 31 years old, which is how old Grizzly is. In fact most of our parts are on the web and can be ordered with a few clicks on the keyboard. We have spent millions of dollars on writing technical manuals and creating a good long term after service for our customers. In fact, from time to time, some brands have attempted to copy our manuals (not a happy ending for them).

Threads like this bring out the naysayers that for some reason cannot let it go, even though we probably fixed their problem. I remember a thread where a jointer/planer got damaged in shipping. The whole thing played out on this forum. Of course the bashers came out "if you bought such and such Italian machine this would never have happened" type of comments. We sent him another machine, completely checked out and crated better, which was also destroyed by the shipping company. Again - more blame to us on the forum. Then we completed tested and crated a third machine with reinforcements, and that got destroyed by the shipping company. We refused to ship another machine because there obviously was a problem within the freight route at one of the terminals. We lost money, he got a full refund. The fact that we get full compensation for freight damage from freight companies is a myth! At the urging of some members of this forum he bought an Italian jointer/planer for much more money. It came in a cardboard covered pallet and the factory had stapled the cardboard through on to the aluminum "fingers" next to the cutterhead.

Errors happen with any brand, but we have sold and continue to sell hundreds of thousands of machines at affordable prices with great after service. If something does go wrong, we are there for you! Oh, and the spiral cutters heads - we were the first company to offer them on jointers and the first to make them commercially affordable for the 15" and 20" planers. It all comes down to the fact that we know woodworking and almost every person in management, including myself, uses and knows woodworking machinery. You can see some of my work here - made with Grizzly machines, of course.

http://www.grizzly.com/the-presidents-guitars

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Following Shiraz's post is a little intimidating, but I'll offer my .02. I'm a euro machine user and fan, however, I think that Grizzly does more good for the woodworking hobby then Felder, Minimax and Martin combined. There is a need for good usable tools in the price range that they sell, and Griz fills that void nicely with perfectly adequate options. As the other old standby brands like Delta and Porter Cable fade, Grizzly has improved their offerings. To me, it looks like Grizzly is not racing to the bottom like the rest, and I applaud that.

[Michael Yadfar]

People keep getting labelled as Grizzly "bashers", but IMO there hasn't been any of that. People are giving honest opinions that I would get better results out of a MiniMax than a Grizzly, and that's completely true, I've known that before starting the forum. There are obviously people here that are associated with Grizzly, so there is some bias going around in that way. But the most consistent advice I get on here is that "you get what you pay for" and I definitely agree with that and it definitely points out that I do have some thinking to do. I guess what I'm more looking for at this point is the "value" factor. If Grizzly is consistent in price to value, I may go with it. I obviously wouldn't expect it to be anywhere close to the good old Cassadei I used, but if it's workable I may go with it. Only thing I hate doing is buying outside the US, but unfortunately that's the approach I have to take if I want any new machine within a reasonable budget

[Shiraz Balolia]

There are obviously people here that are associated with Grizzly, so there is some bias going around in that way.

Allow me to clarify that. Of all the posters on this thread, there is only ONE person that is associated with Grizzly and that is me. Almost everyone on this board knows my association to Grizzly.

[Ed Loudermilk]

Hello all!
I'm more of a reader than a poster but I couldn't resist. I own half a dozen or more Grizzly tools, all purchased new, between the last 8 -15 years.
A table saw, 6" jointer, 12" swing wood lathe with a reeves drive, dust collector, 16 speed bench top drill press, 1" belt 9" disc sander. Other than normal maintenance, a belt replacement and annual tune-ups, they have all worked flawlessly. For reference, when I was in the USAF the "Carpenter Shop" was outfitted with nothing but Powermatic tools , all of what I would refer to as industrial size. The disc sander was a 36" monster as one example. My bang for the buck Grizzly tools have done every thing I've asked of them just as the Powermatics did back then. I also have a few Delta tools as well, a 14" band saw and 16" scroll saw, no problems with them either.

At one time in my life the only battery powered tools I would purchase were Milwaukee. Why? I sipped the koolaid! I now have a fairly large variety of Ryobi + one tools, they are great tools for the price. My point? The best tools for anybody are the ones that fit your needs, wants or possibly your pocket book.

I drive a fully loaded Ford F150, Lariat Crew cab, leather, 4x4, twin turbo charged V-6 that I bought new......could of bought a Toyota!!!

Have a great day!
Ed

[Charles Coolidge]

Relax Shiraz Grizzly's quality, value, and customer service stands out in many machine categories and price points.

[Ed Loudermilk]

"For reference, when I was in the USAF the "Carpenter Shop" was outfitted with nothing but Powermatic tools , all of what I would refer to as industrial size."

A quick follow-up!
A very good friend of mine still works in the "Carpenter Shop". All of the Powermatic tools have been replaced...............
With Grizzly!

I have also threatened to upgrade my lathe to a G0733! That will happen, some day, soon! I'm going to drive an 11 hour round trip to the Springfield Mo. Store to pick it up so I can look at all of the other GREEN eye candy. It would be so cool to talk to the Pres. of Grizzly while there!!!

[Jak Kelly]

Through the last 10 years I have purchased 5 Grizzly machines; table-saw, drill press, band-saw, dust collector, midi lathe. Been impressed with each and everyone of them! They are good machines with a great value for the money spent.
The only one I have been somewhat disappointed in was my drill press. The reason for that being I was given a Walker Turner drill press, beleived to be on its last leg, spent numerous hours bringing it back into condition, research............ then gave it to my father to keep in his barn at the farm. Which it will probably belong to me again, someday. But, as stated before, that machine was a huge heavy cast piece of assembly line production type machinery, no comparison!!!!!

Are there better machines out there, absolutely! But finding a better machine, in the same price range, is going to be a difficult task.

[Andrew Joiner]

People are giving honest opinions that I would get better results out of a MiniMax than a Grizzly, and that's completely true, I've known that before starting the forum.

My experience as a cabinetmaker has been different. I would say the machine is 20% of the equation, Blades,knives or bits 30% and the operator 50%.

Here's an example. Take 3 cabinet saws. An Asian, Italian and old iron USA made. All have similar specs and hp. Any of the saws with a good blade and set-up will glue line rip thick hardwood. Any of the saws can be used to make the finest of furniture.

If you wanted me to make a fine piece and I had to use either a $5000 Italian saw or a $2000 Asian saw I'd choose the one with the best blade.

[Michael Yadfar]

My experience as a cabinetmaker has been different. I would say the machine is 20% of the equation, Blades,knives or bits 30% and the operator 50%.

Here's an example. Take 3 cabinet saws. An Asian, Italian and old iron USA made. All have similar specs and hp. Any of the saws with a good blade and set-up will glue line rip thick hardwood. Any of the saws can be used to make the finest of furniture.

If you wanted me to make a fine piece and I had to use either a $5000 Italian saw or a $2000 Asian saw I'd choose the one with the best blade.

Kind of like you got the old school guys who build everything with hand tools. I've never met any of these guys and there are few out there, but boy do I have respect for them. There's some cool stuff they make too. There's a guy I know who took an internship with some guy who is well known, he builds houses with all hand tools starting with a tree. He cuts the trees down with an axe, squares the tree with a hatchet, and eventually builds houses with only hand tools, even sharpens his blades with a rock. He also has a philosophy that the persons house who he's building has to help, I believe it was Bill Murray who was a celebrity to help him.

[Frank Martin]

I have not purchased a Jet or Powermatic recently and based on comments here looked for their prices. It does seem like they raised them a ton. Given this, despite my less than great experience in the past in it's price range Grizzly is indeed a great value. Just be ready to replace / repair parts if something goes wrong. Given a lot of other people's no hassle experience seems like there is a fair chance many won't have to address mechanical issues. I have very limited time for my hobby and have no interest in repairing machines, so not my top choice. But, for many with a limited budget, I do think that Grizzly is a great choice. I have seen threads about Delta parts availability issues, at least Grizzly is a far safer choice than other Asian made brands given stable ownership. If you want not marginal but much higher quality euro machines are still the right choice but you will pay for it.