Replacement bandsaw

[Stephen L King]

I am looking to replace my 20 yr old joke of a bandsaw (Delta benchtop). There is a Grizzly 30th model up for auction close to me. The bid is at 300.00 right now. Any pros or cons on these, and is that ball park about top for the value. It is on mobile base and is a 14 inch with 6 depth of cut. It isnt great but a long step up from what Ive got. Just wondering if anyone has one or has used one.

[Steve Eure]

Depends on what model you are talking about. If it's the 555 model, they generally started out around $66 new. I wouldn't even think about paying more than $300 for that particular saw. It is a reputable saw though. See what model number it is before committing would be my advise.

[Forrest Forschmiedt]

I have Grizzly G0555LX, which is the same basic saw. The 30th anniversary version has a different paint job.

Overall a decent saw for the price but I agree with Steve. I might pay a bit more with the base but, if much more than $300, you might want to just get a new one. They are on sale and/or have free freight offers fairly regularly. I see right now there's a 10% off deal on their website.

The only issue I have had with my saw, besides a rather feeble dust collection port, is the blade guides. The roller guides it came with failed pretty quick. I have not had any other issues since changing to solid guides.

[Stephen L King]

Well it went way to high so I guess I will keep looking.

[Alex Zeller]

Grizzly also had/ has a 30th anniversary 17" bandsaw that Grizzly was selling for under $1000. Over the last couple years I've bought several tools for dirt cheap at auction but it looks like since the age of covid people are driving the price up. Not that this is related to woodworking but earlier this month a 16' equipment trailer was in an auction close by. I looked at it (since the pictures didn't show much) and found it had hydraulic surge drum brakes, not electric and mobile home style wheels. Someone had added stake pockets and weakened the frame. It started to crack so they repaired it. I was thinking for a few hundred it would be fine for around the house but it sold for almost $1500. For not much more I can buy a used much newer trailer that I would feel much safer towing.

My advice is to just wait. Life will return to normal and something will come your way. In the meantime try to save some money. I was using a 14" cast iron Delta clone and upgraded to a 19" Grizzly. Even though the resaw capacity is the same it's day and night different. Cutting blanks with it is actually fun now. Before I had to be careful not to push the motor too hard. If sap started building up on the blade it would drag the motor down to the point I was going so slow that I just wanted it to be over on some of the thicker stuff. Now I can breeze through the wood. Before I would process two bowl blanks (cutting with the chainsaw and then the band saw) in an afternoon and really didn't have time to do much with the blanks. Now I have time to rough turn them too. I've even made a jig to hold the blanks so I can cut the rough cut (chainsaw) end of the blank making it much easier to mount on the lathe. I would keep my eyes out, if you have the room, for something in the 18" to 20" range with at least 2hp (3hp would be better).