There's a $750 Powermatic 141 that I've been eyeing for a couple of weeks on CL... seems to be a pretty nice looking machine. I spent a half hour talking to the guy selling it; he's been running a commercial woodshop for 35 years, and says the saw has always been a tank for him, but he's got too many band saws, so he's looking to maybe make some floor space.
I've never owned a band saw before, and while the ability to resaw sounds intriguing, I'm guessing I probably won't utilize that feature a lot in the near future. I do have ready access to a guy with a band saw mill, who can resaw anything with a width greater than the 6" these saws can handle, so maybe it isn't a big deal.
The Powermatic has the Leeson 3/4HP motor, and the guy said he's run it all day doing resaws without it ever choking on him. He freely admitted I might not need such a heavy saw, and was not willing to budge on the price more than 50 bucks.
The way I look at is, if I'm primarily wanting a saw to do curves and dovetail cleanouts, and have the shop space to invest in a larger resaw machine in the future, even something old I can build/refurb to my taste, then I could invest in the brand new Grizzly now, put some Carter blade guides on it, add some quality blades, and still come out ahead in price from what he wants for the used machine. But part of me is still really hung up on the 141, and wonder if I'm being foolish not buy something which is known to be pretty bulletproof.
Any advice you all have would be appreciated.
It doesn't help that I'm wading through the entire history of Fine Woodworking Magazine, and I'm currently reading all their stuff from when Grizzly was a relative newbie on the tool market, and not that well thought off. I still realize they are on the low end, but it might be a good starter saw for what I am, which is a serious hobbyist.