Bandsaw gloat! Grizzly G0514X2

[Michael Heffernan]

I just took delivery today of a brand new Grizzly G0514X2 bandsaw. I'm very excited to get it set up and resawing!
I got a great deal on it through Ebay/Microsoft cashback. Grizzly price was $1395 and free shipping. I got a 14% rebate from Microsoft ($196) for buying it on the Grizzly eBay store.
UPS Freight delivered on a liftgate at the street and the driver was a great help. We got it off the truck no problem, and we wheeled it to my gargage woodshop on his pallet jack. Put it exactly where I wanted it.
I had read about the flimsy crating that Grizzly uses for shipping it's machinery and damage caused in transit. I got lucky; the crate (yes it is flimsy, especially for a 450 lb. machine) was in perfect condition. Upon uncrating the bandsaw, there was no damage whatsoever, not even a scratch.
I'll clean off the packing grease and assemble it tomorrow. Suprisingly, there is little assembly, other than the table top, fence and a couple of handwheels. Tuning it will take more time than assembly. I left it on the skid it came on until my Great Lakes leveling casters arrive. I'll put them on 1x2 steel tubing and mount the tubes to the existing holes in the bandsaw base.
Here are a couple of photos of it's arrival. I'll post my follow-up when I get the saw up and running.
Grizzly G0514X2-4_resize.jpg Grizzly G0514X2-1_resize.jpg
Grizzly G0514X2-5_resize.jpg Grizzly G0514X2-7_resize.jpg
Grizzly G0514X2-8_resize.jpg

[Steve Kohn]

Congratulations....I have the plain ole 514. No fancy X stuff.....

If your saw is like mine, there was almost no set up at all. I put the blade in (I sure hope you have something better than the piece of junk blade that Grizzly used to send with their bandsaws} adjusted the guides and started sawing.

I haven't resawn anything larger that 10 inch, but I have run several hundred feet of Ash through the saw. I already wore out one blade (Highland Woodslicer) and am on my second.

[Barry Vabeach]

Mike, nice score. When I see pictures of the stuff Grizzly sold in the 90's it is hard to believe it is the same co. that GO14 looks gorgeous.

[Michael Heffernan]

I purchased a set of new Timberwolf saw blades from Suffolk Machinery. Should be here Monday. They are having a special, buy three, get the fourth for free. So I got a 1/4", !/2", 3/4" and 1". I have a bunch of rough sawn 12/4 and 16/4 European beech and some 12/4 Mahogany that I can't wait to resaw. I'll probably just toss the 3/4" blade that came with the saw, as I hear that they are pretty much worthless.

[Jim Rimmer]

Nice saw. Glad it arrived it good shape and great for the UPS help. I just got a G0661 TS and didn't have the liftgate service but the driver was a big help anyway. Congratulations!

[Dave Lehnert]

Be sure to keep us up to date on likes/ dislikes and how well it re-saws.

[Jeff Willard]

Appears to be crated better than my Laguna was. It is a good bit larger than mine, but not much heavier. When I recieved mine, all I saw was a cardboard box -but there was a plywood frame inside of that to keep it from collapsing. I was a little surprised, as Laguna sent a DVD in advance of the saw showing what to expect and how to go about unpacking and setup. The example they used was in a OSB crate. No matter though, it made it coast-to-coast in fine shape. Enjoy.

[Stan Mitchell]

These are great saws - congrats. I have the 513X2 and it's amazing - so many nice features.

[Howard Boehm]

My first impression was this is one large and heavy piece of equipment. Assembly was a breeze. I purchased the mobile base the HTC3000 it works very well and the doors all open. Some bases that is a problem. I have a beam in my garage and I have a heavy duty hook that I put a come a long in and there is an eyelet on top of the saw for lifting. I was able to lift it quite easily to put the mobile base under it.

I went and got the Laguna resaw king 1.25 inch resaw blade. It wouldn't track so I called grizzly and he told me I had to check the Coplaneing of the wheels. I was not happy as that meant I had to remove that heavy table I just put on. Well I am not unhappy any more. that is by far the easiest saw I have ever aligned the wheels in. I am glad I had to do it. I put the table back on the blade was now tracking and I was able to resaw like a pro for the first time ever. I was cutting 1/8 inch pieces off a popular board and they were perfect. This is a great saw.

[Philip Johnson]

Micheal where did you find the timberwolf blades on sale do you have to call them

Phil

[Rich Neighbarger]

Originally Posted by Philip Johnson

Micheal where did you find the timberwolf blades on sale do you have to call them

Phil

Yes, give them a call. They will ask some questions and ship them out. It's painless and they are nice folks.

[Michael Heffernan]

Phil,
Call Suffolk Machinery (www.suffolkmachinery.com) at (800) 234-7297
Mention promo code SU09. If you buy three blades 1/8" to 1" wide, you get a 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2" wide blade free. Check out their website for sizes and TPI and specs for different sawing applications, then call them. They are very knowledgeable and will recommend what you need for the sawing you are doing. I got my four blades for $106 including shipping.

Michael

[Tom Mitz]

I have been looking at the 18 Rikon but after looking at this post - I just may order one of these....

[Michael Heffernan]

I spent a few hours today assembling and tuning my new Grizzly G0514X2 bandsaw. I thought that I'd follow up and share my experience of the process.
There are relatively few parts to assemble and it is pretty straight forward.
1. Degrease the table and fence.
2. Attach the table to the trunnions.
3. Attach the slider bar to the table tilt rack and pinion gear mechanism.
4. Attach the fence rails.
After that it is all tuning the saw.

I got everything assembled, with a few hiccups, due to poor quality control from Grizzly.
The slider bar that connect the table to the rack and pinion tilt gear (this tilts the table with relative ease) did not line up with the mount holes on the underside of the table. I had to loosen the rack and pinion gear mount and slide it toward the saw to get the holes to line up. Not a big deal, but there was no explanation of this in the manual.
The threaded holes on the front side of the table for mounting the main fence rail were not tapped properly. I wound up cross threading one of the enclosed bolts, even though I carefully tried to thread them before attaching the fence. Since the 6 mm. taps as slightly smaller than 1/4", I just tapped 1/4" holes and used my own 1/4-20 bolts. Good thing I have a tap and die set. Still not a big deal to me, but others may not have a tap to correct the problem.

Now on to the tuning. The manual is pretty clear (not crystal) and I started from the beginning of their tuning procedure.

Blade Tracking: this was almost dead on out of the crate. A small turn of the Tracking Knob and the blade rolled perfectly. I have not checked the Co-Planar of the wheels, but it purrs and tracks just fine, so I don't think it is an issue. When I get to resawing some stock will tell if it is really okay.

Positive Stop: this is for squaring the table top to the blade. The positive stop is a bolt and stop nut mounted into the frame under the table that returns the table to 0 degrees. They have you doing this before the rack and pinion gear is attached to the table, but I would suggest attaching the gear first. The table is quite heavy and difficult to zero out, looking at your square on the table, rotating the stop bolt and locking it down. I couldn't get it square until after, using the tilt mechanism with ease. This stop bolt is a little flimsy in my opinion for holding the table at zero. If you use the tilt on the table a lot, make sure that you check for squareness to the blade each time you return to zero. I wouldn't trust this stop bolt, even though it is locked into place. There is a little flex in the saw frame where it is inserted. If you leave the table locked at zero, it's no big deal.

Tensioning the blade: It's pretty easy, with quick release tension arm, the tensioning wheel and the indicator. I think I got it tensioned properly. They say to start the saw, slowly de-tension the blade until it starts to flutter, then slowly re-tension until the blade stabilized and add a quarter turn to the tension knob. I got a few flutters while de-tensioning, so I will have to check it again. It's nice to have the indicator window so you can make note of the setting for each respective blade you use. I will keep a cheat sheet on the saw for the tension of all my blades.

Adjusting the top/bottom support bearings: Not difficult, but a few saw design issues that make it a little more difficult. (NOTE: I would suggest that you first square the table top to the blade BEFORE you adjust the support bearings and the blade guide bearings.). My first issue is with the top support bearing. The red metal blade guard gets in the way of seeing and gauging this support bearing properly. The manual doesn't say anything about it. I wound up unscrewing the to cap screws holding the guard to the saw and spring clamping it out of the way. With it out of the way, you can clearly see and gauge the bearing. They should design a slide panel on the guard to easily access this bearing. Here is a photo of the guard obstruction and the cap screws that should be removed:
Upper Support bearing_resize.jpg Upper blade guard cap screws_resize.jpg
I got them perpendicular to the blade with the proper gap (.016") after a little time. The issue is that when tightening the adjustment cap screws, everything tends to move a little when the screw binds to the post that holds it all in place. I found this to be true with the guide bearings as well.

Blade guide bearings: the top bearings were easy to adjust, as well as the lower front bearing. However, the lower rear bearing has such little clearance under the table that it was difficult to get the allen wrench in to first loosen the cap screw and then to tighten it. I think that a hex head bolt would be better for this bearing, as a hex wrench is easier to maneuver in tight places. I may swap it out in the future. Here is a photo of that tight place:
Lower guide cap screw_resize.jpg
I gapped them properly (or close as I could), about .0004". I found that when you tighten bearing rotation adjustment cap screw, the bearing want to seat in a slightly different place.

Squaring the table to the blade: A straight forward procedure; just loosen the trunnion bolts, and square the front of the table to a straight edge resting against the blade. The table is heavy so it takes some finesse tapping the table to square it up.

Aligning the fence to the miter slot (and blade). Four bolts on the fence to loosen, parallel it to the miter slot, tighten and it's done. However, I found that my fence was not vertically square to the table top, so I had to add some paper shims under the rear bolts of the fence, realign it to the miter slot and tighten. Just a small quality control issue that irks me.

I haven't calibrated the miter gauge yet, those are easy.

After it was all tuned, I resawed a scrap piece of soft maple through. As others have said, the Grizzly blade that comes with the saw is only good for set-up and tuning the saw. It cut the wood okay, but not very smooth. I'm tuned okay, as it tracked perfectly straight through the resaw. This saw has a lot of power! A little pressure and it sawed right through. Can't wait to see what it does when I get my TimerWolf blades on Monday. Also, I like the footbrake on this saw. It cuts the power with a tap of the foot pedal, then with applied pressure to the pedal you can slow the blade to a stop. Nice feature. No need to reach over and push the off button when your hands are full of wood.

I am looking forward to using this for all my rough lumber sitting in my shop, and for curved cuts for some of my designs that I have not been able to make, until now.

So here it is:
G0514X2 assembled1_resize.jpgG0514X2 assembled_resize.jpg

[Eli Johnson]

Congratulations!!! That is a great looking saw. I will soon be buying a G0490 jointer and G0513X2B BS i think...cash permitting.

I am curious though about the Microsoft cash back deal. Right now it is only showing me 10% back on ebay.com stuff. Do you get more when you have been spending more?