examining a used bandsaw

[Allen Prell]

There's a used Grizzly G0555 bandsaw in my area up for sale that I may try to purchase. What should I look for when checking out the saw? The first obvious thing would be to make sure it runs smoothly. What other components should I look at? Having never owned a bandsaw, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Bill Stoffels]

It all depends on how in depth you would like to go, easiest would be to run it and cut with it.
If that is not possible you could do the following
Visual for any damage
Flatness of the table
inspect the tensioning mechanism to endure it works.
rotate the wheels for interferance or rough spots
inspect the guides for wear or damage upper and lower
inspect the tires for damage or wear.
if you have machinist tools I would :
perform a runout check of the wheels
Axial
Radial

Hope this helps

[Travis Johnson]

Allen,

As an owner of a smaller bandsaw, Machinist and a woodworker who just purchased another used bandsaw last month, perhaps I can help you a little bit here.

The first thing I would do is ask two very important question:

A. When was the last time the current owner used it?
B. Why is he selling it.

In my case the answers were "earlier today" and for "bigger saw for resawing." Since both were credible answers, I then drove down to see the man. The saw was already plugged in and he made a test cut. No obnoxious noise, some vibration and it tracked straight.

My visual inspection included what the other woodworker stated. I checked the table for flatness, tires, motor, belt, and tension. I also dropped the tension mechanism and rotated the wheels to check the bearings. It kind of takes a feel, but if you feel even the slightest of "hitching" and I do mean slighest, you want to pass on the machine. Replacing bearings is not impossible, but it is a fair amount of work and replacement bearings can be difficult to find.

In my case everything was good except for the wheels and a slight vibration. The rubber that surrounds the bottom wheel was cracked, but the man had a spare set on hand which came with the saw. The vibration came from the light construction of the Gilliom Bandsaw.

In the end I wrote out a check very confident in my purchase. Not only was the machine in pretty good shape, the purchase price was 150 bucks and I figured the 1-1/2 hp motor was worth darn near that.

Since its been in the shop, it has be upgraded this last month. I mention these items only so that you can make the desion of whether or not YOU want to be bothered by these slight defeciencies if your machine lacks them. Myself, I enjoy working on old woodworking machines so none of these were real issues for me. If they are for you, then you might pass on the machine.

In any case, it came with no ripping fence so I fabricated one for this machine. It also lacked a dust collection port, which I also fabricated. The throat of the machine was pretty chewed up so I fabricated a new replaceable throat insert as well. And finally to fix the slight vibration, I made a bottom box for the saw and filled it with 200 pounds of sand which fixed the slight vibration.

All in all I am very happy with my Bandsaw. Hopefully with some of these pointers, you will be as well. Just be careful, used woodworking tools can be very addicting!

[Allen Prell]

Thanks for the advice but I was too slow by about 1 hour. Someone beat me to the saw. I guess I'll have to keep looking.