G0555X vs. G0513X2 Grizzly bandsaw purchase

[Tom Hassad]

Thanks for the comments - I was being honest about the issues that had me debating what to get - I know I really want to get the G0513X2 - I now just need to go through the steps of getting my garage wired. I think the problems I have now look bigger than they really are and should not outweight the many years of usage I hope to get out of the machine - thank again - Tom

[Barry Vabeach]

Tom, good luck on your purchase, many of us have bought the 17 inch bandsaw, the GO513x2 and love it. I have made a few mods ( made thumbscrews for the bearing adjusters, and a few other minor things) No matter what saw you get, get some decent blades, the stock blade is garbage. I suggest you consider 1/2" width, do some searching here and while some suggest that wider is better, most agree 1/2 is plenty. TPI to suit your task. I just stole a dryer outlet to hook mine up, but I agree with the others that a couple of 220 lines can be helpful.

[Mr. Jeff Smith]

G0513X2 owner here. Great tool.
Run the 220 and get it over with.
Always get the most you can ever see yourself using. Don't talk yourself down as you will be annoyed later.
Goodluck.

[Art Bianconi]

Wiring is not that difficult. There are any number of How To books on the subject. Rural communities frequently allow a home owner to do his own wiring, provided the local inspector is called in to inspect the work and sign off on it. That costs you nothing.

I don't have 3 phase 220 in my current home shop. I do, however, have a 220 volt 4 prong dryer receptacle that mysteriously popped into existence one day, right next to my panel! Imagine that!

A HD extension cord with appropriate 4 prong plugs brings power into the shop where it feeds 220 single phase to a 3 phase inverter. I don't know how I got along without that unit.

I bought a 17 Grizzly last month and had two neighbors help me get it down the stairs into the basement. I mounted it by myself on my home made base which I discussed here when the Fox movable base turned out to be substandard. I don't advise your doing that solo. It's ripe with risk and potential for injury. I urge you to get some neighbors to help.

That saw can run on 110 or 220 and comes pre wired for 220. I simply ran 20 feet of Romex to the panel, pulled the main breakers and screwed the wires to the siamesed CB. It took me a half hour to snake the Romex, 10 minutes to remove the panel and finish the job there.

Granted, your garage is likely in a seperate building and that probably requires you to trench deep enough to satisfy local ordinances for buried power utilities. Or you can run an outdoor overhead line. I discourage that.

Typically a utility trench is about 18 inches deep. Romex designed for direct burial is called for here and just to be certain, I laid a few sections of 2" PVC and snaked the wire through that. I also took the time to lay in a half inch copper pipe to feed the gas fired heater in the shop, network cable and telephone wires. Several runners made from HD fishing line were blown through the pipe to assist any possible need to snake more lines at a later date.

A copper cold water supply was snaked through a seperate, dedicated PVC pipe next to the first one and then the whole shebang buried.

Connecting everything took a seperate weekend but the effort was immediately appreciated when I powered up the Oliver jointer and the Bridgeport milling machine simultaneously and the lights didn't flicker a bit!

220 is definitely the way to go and, if you can justify the extra expense for a 3 phase motor, I encourage you to buy the saw with one. The advantages to a variable speed band saw are endless and you can do it without having to change pulley's.

Art

[Will Hon]

save yourself the money and run the wire yourself... your looking at $5-15 for 25-50' of wire, $5-10 for the breaker, $2 for the wall mount, $5-15 for the female receptacle, and your labor. That adds up to what $17-35.... even in this economy thats cheap. I've ran two 220V runs to my shop and a couple of extra 20amps in the last month. Its really easy work, just run the wire to your garage (not hooked up to breaker yet) and cut it to rough length. Then install and hook up outlet to the wire in the garage. Now, (TO BE SAFE), and make yourself feel better, shut off the main breaker to the house, killing all the power, install the breaker and hook up the wire to the breaker. This eliminates the chance of blasting yourself... and Voillat! youy have 220 in your shop.

[Brian Kincaid]

I hired an electrician to run 3 easy 220V drops. Cost me $200 (cash) I sleep well at night knowing he did a good job and did it right.

I moved a 21" Grizzly band saw with a little help (keep it from tipping while I was rolling it)
1) Remove the table
2) Remove the wheels
3) Wanted to remove the motor, but could not get the pully wheels off
4) Tilt the saw back onto a furniture dolly (rides on its spine)
5) Roll the saw to its home
6) Tip it back up
7) Re-assemble
It went much better than I expected.

-Brian

[Jerry Casler]

I bought the GO555 when it was sale with a 6 in riser and have been total happy with my purchase. Saw runs great had fun putting it together by myself. Then I tackled the GO444z TS that was a bear doing it by yourself but I love the heavy cast iron tables on both. The motors on these two are pretty stout and run well and Grizzly's customer service is excellent when II had a slight problem on my Shop fox oscillating DP the gear had snap from shipping company and then shipped one right out. I love my GRIZZLY TOOLS!!!

[richard poitras]

Tom, Pm sent about a GO514X I am selling...

[Prashun Patel]

If you plan to resaw wider stock, then you really should be investing in a 17" saw built to do it. You can certainly get away with the G0555x, but a taller saw's frame will suffer less stress than a 14" with a riser block.

I respect if yr on a budget. But if you can at all afford the electrician and the better saw, you won't regret it; both are good investments.

All that being said, I have a G0555 (not even the X, and no riser block) and I am quite happy with it. I rarely have occasion to resaw thick stock. My saw @110v resaws stuff up to about 6" just fine. Ultimately, $$ drove my decision.

[Stephen Edwards]

I'm well pleased with my GO555X and riser block. I suppose it depends on how much resawing of wide stock one is going to do. I use mine for the occasional 12" board and it works fine, though it's not super fast when sawing something that wide. For boards 8" or less, it's a breeze. The saw works as advertised and suits my needs.

If I every buy another BS, I'll go with the larger one that you're considering and use it only for resawing. The G0555X will then be dedicated for curved sawing. Chances are that won't happen though 'cause I'm restoring an old Craftsman 12" that I've had since the late 60s for curved sawing. For my needs and uses, these two saws will likely suit me for the rest of my life.