Grizzly G0555 The Ultimate 14" Bandsaw
by Grizzly
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Our Price: $525.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Grizzly G0555 The Ultimate 14" Bandsaw
Customer Review: Very impressive
Summary: 5 Stars
I searched and searched and finally came to the conclusion that for the average home woodworker's budget, there are three types of bandsaws. Cheap ones that you will wish you didn't buy (think 12" saws made in China and sold at the big box stores), medium priced saws that are ok but have some serious shortcomings (think of the Delta and Jet low-medium priced models), and saws that are good but expensive (Powermatic and Delta X5). After reading absolutely everything written on the subject in the past 5 years (I am a librarian after all) I decided that this Grizzly saw deserves a category of its own. Though it is priced closer to the "cheap" category than the other two, it sports features and performance that are much closer to the "expensive" saw category.
Now that I own this saw I can say that my experience supports my research and vica-versa. Once it was properly set up, this saw has minimal vibration and I quickly came to appreciate features such as a great stand, excellent blade guides, a decent sized table (ground to a nice finish), blade quick-detentioner, a smooth running powerful motor, and a lightweight yet strong and accurate fence and rail system. Did I mention the stand? I am almost embarrased to go on about it, but from the pictures I was expecting a cheapo thin sheet metal stand that I would replace asap. Boy was I wrong. This stand is HEAVY gauge metal and bolts together quickly and perfectly to form a rock solid platform for this saw. I will never bother to change it. I am also well pleased with the power of the 1hp motor. I almost spent hundreds more for the Jet 1.25hp model and am really glad I didn't. With the 6" riser block and an average quality Olson resaw blade installed I have been able to resaw some HARD, 12" wide old growth pine into beautiful bookmatched pieces without so much as a stutter. I wasn't terribly gentle with the feed rate either. It has also handled resawing 6" white oak and walnut with ease.
Overall I can't say enough good things about this saw. The power is excellent, the features all exceed the hype, and the price is outstanding compared to the competition. I highly recommend this product and give Grizzly an A+ for offering high quality at such a great price.
Customer Review: MUST READ
Summary: 5 Stars
The G0555 took me about 3 hours to assemble, and to get it finely tuned. I am not one to buy anything based on the price, I care more about how it works and how the product is built for my needs. I did my due diligence and researched online for about 3 months for a bandsaw, I never heard of Grizzly before and I read a lot of great reviews and this sold me. I read many bad things about other bandsaws, and issues people where having seemed to be all common complaints in my price range. It seemed that in life when you buy cheap you buy twice. This was, and is not the case for the G0555. In fact I had a very hard time to find anyone with a complaint about the unit. The only thing I read, was the unit comes with a very cheap blade, and I would agree and when I changed the blade to a Timber-Wolf blade the bandsaw went up 10 more levels of WOW. I paid 450.00 and my budget was between 350.00 to 600.00 for the same specs the G0555 offered. I looked at units from Sears, Delta, Jet and many more, and in the end I know I bought the best unit out there for the money. If your on the fence about spending another 100.00 dollars, or you're not sure, do some research and go for it.
The whole unit is built from heavy duty cast-iron, and you will need someone to help you take the unit out of the box, as the motor is attached to the upper part of the unit, it must be at least 160 LBS. This bandsaw is so smooth and quite when cutting hardwoods or softwoods. I love the fact that this unit can be upgraded and you can install the H3051 6" Extension block kit, that allows the bandsaw's cutting capacity to go from 6" to now 12". Every other bandsaw I looked at was how you see it, is how you get it, NO upgrades available. Therefore if your needs change your stuck with that bandsaw. I currently use the G0555 in my commercial shop, all my employees really enjoy the unit. I bought the G0555 because I needed a backup unit, to my surprise the old Delta unit became the backup bandsaw, I wish I would have know that before I spent 1,600.00 for it five years ago.
Happy hunting, I hope this helps you
Customer Review: Bad quality assurance
Summary: 2 Stars
I just bought the Tiawan built Grizzly G0555 about a month ago.
The main problem was that it came from factory with the wheels out of plane. The upper wheel was set back about 1/4 inch from the bottom wheel. When I shimmed the wheel out to be coplanar with bottom, the upper wheel axle only caught 1/2 the thread on the holding nut. That of course is totally unacceptable. After many conversations with the US support (nice guys but lacking the facilities to fix the problem) I realized that I had to fix it myself or send it back. I took the chance and using a grinder cut off the matching pins in the bottom casting that were holding the top casting out of plane. Then I feather gound just enough to clean the surfaces of each casting. This is where the riser goes if you were to buy one. I can't imagine how out of whack this bandsaw would be if you used a riser. Then I used putty epoxy on each surface and put the big bolt with nut to hold the two castings together. With slow drying time, I used two large c-clamps to pull the upper casting so that the upper wheel was perfectly in plane with the bottom wheel. Since the large bolt without the pins would otherwise allow the upper casting to swing to any angle, it was important to lock the position with epoxy since I no longer had the pins (which were in the wrong place from the factory). Miracle of miracles, it worked. My saw is now perfectly coplanar so that I can tune it to cut straight.
Since if the wheels are not coplanar, there is no way you can tune this bandsaw, I don't know how they can get away with such bad quality assurance out the factory. The support guys said I could just pull the pins with a pair of pliers. NO WAY. They were swaged in place.
I am now happy with the saw but I wouldn't want anyone to buy this saw expecting it to come from the factory in acceptable condition. The sad part is that it is a nice saw for the money in every other respect. Well, the fence is a bit shabby but about what you would expect for the money - so I'm okay with it.
Customer Review: Nice Little Saw !
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start off by saying, I ordered this saw on 9-1-09 I took delivery on 9-3-09
granted, I live in Washington state and it came from Bellingham Wash.
Fed Ex Freight did the delivery, very good service ! the driver even moved it into
my shop from his truck. even tho I told his office I could handle it. ive my own
appliance hand truck. Grizzlies web site says to the contrary.
assembly took approx. 4 hrs + 2 hrs building my own mobile base,(very similar to
the ones in the user submitted pics)plus I had to run to the BORG store for
some more lag bolts.
I decided on this band saw because of the 80+ reviews and only one bad one.
plus it has alot of standard options, the Rigid has no fence and only guide blocks.
Ive used alot of band saws over the last 35 yrs this one is in the top 5.
its affordable, its easy for one person to move around(on wheels)its got several other after market options also available.
The instructions were well written and understandable.
the fit of parts was perfect, I expected that tho.
Adjustment of the blade tracking was easy, adjusting the roller guides was a little
harder. but still, the "instruction book" was easy to understand. It just took some
tweaking on my part to get them dead on!
getting the main body UP onto the base by my self was easy - but - a helper for
that part might be needed for anyone that cant lift over 175lbs.
Im also glad I decided to change the speed to a slower blade speed, the nuts for
the belt tension werent very tight. caution about bolt and nut tightness...
DONT OVER TIGHTEN THEM. ! !
I was putting the fence on and decided to stop making them real tight for fear
Id strip the threads out.
One last thing,, I recommend NOT putting the table on till after you adjust the
guide rollers, if you do put it on first, you ll just have to take it back off again.(but its real easy to R/R )
AND get yourself some "GOOD" Blades.
Customer Review: Grizzly Producing Exceptional Quality Machines these days
Summary: 5 Stars
Purchased the G0555 after much thought and speculations about getting a larger machine. Went to their outlet in Springfield, Missouri to discuss the bandsaw and a shaper. Their staff is professional and able to answer many questions. Decided on the 14 inch G0555 after seeing it and reading the reviews on the Internet. Wanted to bring the machines home myself as I have had too many problems with trucking companies.My shop includes machines by Dewalt, Delta, Jet, Ridgid, and Grizzly. When I got the bandsaw into its area and began setting it up, I naturally compared the bandsaw to its neighbors. In fit, finish, ease of setup, and general quality, the G0555 was easily as good or better than the other brand names. This was a bit of a surprise as the older Grizzly drill press I had from the company was a modest example of the woodworking art.
The helpful folks at the loading warehouse indicated to me that they received machines from both Taiwan and Chinese factories. They suggested that the Taiwanese machines were higher in quality; I only have their word on this.
Nonetheless, the G0555 is a happy camper cutting through hardwoods, making quick turns, and running very smoothly. I was concerned about vibration since it is the bane of all craftsman. This machine cuts rock solid and does not place movement demands on its stable base.
It is discouraging to hear from a previous reviewer that parts are very expensive for the Grizzly. It would be even worse if they were unavailable. Have not tried the height extension kit yet but am planning on purchasing this soon to aid with resawing. Suggest to the same previous reviewer that if he is having trouble with power, he try one of the specialty blades available; they cut much more easily than the stock ones.
Think that Grizzly has changed its image from that of an importer producing economy machines to a full-fledged competitor in the mid- to high-end woodworking market. Try one of their newer designed machines and see if you agree.