Grizzly is going to release a new 14" steel bandsaw. While they have been quiet on this front for a while letting their G0457/G0778 soldier on and still selling what must be a ton of their fleshed out high value cast clone line they seem poised to give the other big players in this niche (namely Rikon and Laguna) a run for their money.
The new Grizzly is the G0817 and is a 14" steel spined saw which I call a square saw, seeing it has 14" of resaw. (the term sqaure is stolen from the auto industry and used to describe a engine whose bore and stroke are equal). It is 76" tall which is garage door friendly even on a pallet and the shipping weight is 388 pounds, while I don't have the actual saw weight but given how bandsaws are generally crated I would GUESS the saw weight is in the 330-350 pound range. It has 2hp (wireable for 120/240), which is a little under what I prefer per inch of resaw it should be fine for most tall resawing and drops it right in the middle of the class in terms of hp per resaw inch. 21 3/4" x 16 1/2 inch table at 37" from the floor, maybe a touch high for heavy resawing but that depends on the users height and preference as much as anything, some people hate low BS tables. It also has a foot brake.
Now the "important" part, it will have an introductory price of $1295 so add in residential liftgate and it shoud be in your garage for roughly $1450. This lands it right in the middle of a crowded field. It also puts it in direct competion with the 513 series but time and time again Grizzly has shown it doesn't mind stepping on its own price point toes. I have long held the 513 series may hold the best bought new value propositon for the hobby woodworker so the 817 has some pretty big shoes to fill. That said the 14" steel saw market appears to be a thriving one.
As always I am keen to not only see one of these but actually run one. In the past new Grizzly models are the toughest thing for me to powered hands on with when they are new. I spend hours each year in their showrooms (sad to see the Muncy showroom go since there was family near there and it made the trip from DC or NYC worth the trip) but I really like to make sawdust with a saw. Most of the other brands are carried by a serious local dealer that doesn;t mind me coming in with a bag of instruments and making some sawdust in the back workshop. So what I am getting at is when someone gets one of these if they are willing to let me come by let me know. I travel all over the US regularly and if you draw a box from Miami to Boston to Seattle to San Diego and back to Miami thats where I roam. I'll pay for the pizza and beer or soft drinks if you prefer or maybe just bring you a blade since I prefer to have a fresh blade that I know well so I can be objective. If you need references I can provide Creeker's names who can verify I didn't break their saw nor cause any police call level debachery while at their home...