Major upgrade- Grizzly 24” bandsaw has arrived

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I will do a video once we get the 3-phase wired up, but here is how big the 24” 7.5hp Grizzly bandsaw is. No photos I found online really showed the true size. For anyone wondering if it will fit in the shop- it is 83.5” tall. The crate adds about 6” (4” pallet and 2” additional crate height.). Our door is 93” high, so she squeezed right in. The large mobile base does fit with the extension rail kit added to one side.

I am really impressed so far with the build quality. The table is beautifully machined, as is the fence.

The saw next to it is the Rikon professional 14” 3hp, and that’s not forced perspective- the two saws are barely a foot apart. I stand 5’7” and my vertical arm reach is about 7 feet.

IMG_3086.jpg IMG_3084.jpg

ugh. The sideways bug strikes again. Tilt your head. I am on the phone and can’t rotate the pic.

Three strong men can slide it off the pallet without equipment. We used 2x4’s to elevate the saw and built the rolling base around it. Sorry- didn’t get a pic of it with the rolling base yet. After attaching the rolling base, I used a 2x4 to leverage the other 2x4’s out from under it. Worked like a charm.

The Rikon is a true champion, but after sawing yellow birch veneers for 14 doors, we said it was time to go big.

[John TenEyck]

That's going to be great addition to your shop, Malcolm. Looking forward to your review after you get a chance to use it some. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I am with my little G0636X.

John

[Jim Becker]

Congrats! That appears to be a workhorse beast and will be a nice addition to your growing enterprise.

[glenn bradley]

That's great. Congrats!

[Richard Coers]

Congratulations! I'd temper the excitement a little until you run it. Vibration in the cast wheels can be a real issue.

[Tom M King]

A 14" and a 24" may both be bandsaws, but it's really like two different categories of woodworking. Using the best resaw blades I had, the same cut that took a little over 20 seconds on the 14" took less than 2 on the 24" and that was before I started running the 24" 10% over blade speed.

[Nick Crivello]

A 14" and a 24" may both be bandsaws, but it's really like two different categories of woodworking. Using the best resaw blades I had, the same cut that took a little over 20 seconds on the 14" took less than 2 on the 24" and that was before I started running the 24" 10% over blade speed.

Wow. I wouldn't have expected that.

[Richard Coers]

A 14" and a 24" may both be bandsaws, but it's really like two different categories of woodworking. Using the best resaw blades I had, the same cut that took a little over 20 seconds on the 14" took less than 2 on the 24" and that was before I started running the 24" 10% over blade speed.

Less than 2 seconds to resaw something? I'd like to see a video.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Got it powered up. Some vibration- not much. The big disappointment is the blade that comes with the saw is just horrible. The 14” 3hp cut faster with a proper blade. Ordering a quality blade and will reserve comments until it arrives. It does track perfect and I can make a thin veneer in hard maple, but the blade is just as if it isn’t even sharpened, and has a lot of scratches all over it from either poor manufacturing or poor handling before being installed at the factory.

[John TenEyck]

Got it powered up. Some vibration- not much. The big disappointment is the blade that comes with the saw is just horrible. The 14” 3hp cut faster with a proper blade. Ordering a quality blade and will reserve comments until it arrives. It does track perfect and I can make a thin veneer in hard maple, but the blade is just as if it isn’t even sharpened, and has a lot of scratches all over it from either poor manufacturing or poor handling before being installed at the factory.

Stock blades are universally bad. Throw it out. If you want to resaw and cut veneer, get a Lennox Woodmaster CT. You will be amazed.

John

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Stock blades are universally bad. Throw it out. If you want to resaw and cut veneer, get a Lennox Woodmaster CT. You will be amazed.

John

That’s the one I have in my cart!

[Jared Sankovich]

That’s the one I have in my cart!

I have the 21" [shopfox] version of that saw running a 1" 1.3t woodmaster CT. I think you will be happy with that combination.

[Alex Zeller]

Got it powered up. Some vibration- not much. The big disappointment is the blade that comes with the saw is just horrible. The 14” 3hp cut faster with a proper blade. Ordering a quality blade and will reserve comments until it arrives. It does track perfect and I can make a thin veneer in hard maple, but the blade is just as if it isn’t even sharpened, and has a lot of scratches all over it from either poor manufacturing or poor handling before being installed at the factory.

When I got my 19" Grizzy BS it had a fair bit of vibration. It also had the throw away blade. What I found was the urethane tires on the wheels were causing the vibrations. I removed them and ran the saw with the junk blade and it was smooth as silk. I could have gotten replacements from Grizzly but I bought a set of Blue Max tires and the saw is so smooth I can stand a dime up on edge, start the saw, let it run, and shut it off. The dime doesn't fall over but does want to poll off the table. I think you'll be very happy with the saw.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Hello all: I finally got the new blade- The Woodmaster Carbon Tipped 2TPI. It took longer than expected to receive the blade, but I am very pleased with it. We made literally over 100 yellow birch veneers with it this week, and it took half the time it took with the Rikon 3hp. ** The Rikon is a gem, and I love it, and I am keeping it, but for what we do, we needed a bigger saw.

The saw cuts true, runs quiet, and has very little vibration- and I mean even for a smaller saw, but for a saw this large, I expected SOME vibration, but it is minimal. We do have it on a mobile base, and I think floor mounting it would make the vibration almost unnoticeable. I haven't tried balancing a quarter on it, but I suspect it would probably balance.

The dust collection works fairly well with a dedicated 2hp Grizzly dust collector attached. There was dust inside the machine below the wheels after running a number of 88" long veneers. That's to be expected. I did have a little "whoopsie" where I THOUGHT I had turned on the dust collector, but apparently didn't hit the button well, and I ran a few veneers with no dust collection. I quickly noticed that it was raining sawdust out of the top of the saw, and that caused me to look over at the deflated dust collector! *I have a remote wired switch for the dust collection, so when I hit it I am not standing right at the dust collector. I vacuumed all that up and ran the rest of the veneers- over 100 of them. At the end the majority of the dust was from where the dust stayed in the kerf and when I opened the veneer up from the piece I was sawing, dust would pour out, so that's not a fault of the dust collection. Inside the saw there was a handfull of dust near the port where the port meets the vertical of the saw, and so there is a ledge there (*hard to explain). There was also dust in the bottom of the saw where it travelled along the blade and dumped as it came around the lower wheel. Again- that's just normal bandsaw stuff. I feel like the dust collection worked fine.

The blade brake has an off-switch so you can turn the saw off just by hitting the blade brake and not the stop button. I like that. The blade brake rubs on the tire and it smells like someone just did a burnout in the shop when you use it. Not sure if that will dissipate over time. I don't like it, mainly because I associate burning rubber smells with electrical problems, so I kind of wish it didn't make that smell when you use the blade brake. Honestly, I almost never use blade brakes since it's just me and my shopmate in the shop. If my daughter is there, I will stop the blade to be sure she doesn't get curious while I'm not looking, but she's past the age where I have to worry with that.

I would give this saw the highest marks, except for the absolutely awful blade they send it with. That is my ONLY complaint. It's not a big complaint, as I had planned to get a better blade anyway, but I was very let down when I had waited so long to try the saw, and I had friends there waiting to see it work. I took a piece of wood and did a test cut, and everyone looked at me like, "Um- is that all she can do." With the new blade, however, it's a beast. It cuts through 12" wide birch with little effort, and didn't wander in the cut. We did make an auxiliary fence for doing tall pieces, but that's kind of something I would do with any saw.

Will try to get a video- we are hugely busy right now, and I have to be honest and let you know I may forget.

[Jim Becker]

I think that manufacturers "throw in a band" just so they can say it's ready to cut. I have not seen anyone declare that a band that comes with a bandsaw "cuts well". LOL

'Glad that hefty band worked out and worked fast for you. The saw with a proper band for the job sounds like the perfect solution for your work!