Shopsmith Forums

So I have been frustrated with the SS bandsaw i have it just doesn't perform like I wished it could. It is fine for very small jobs but it is very limited in depth of cut and the blades I can use with it. I am not getting rid of it but I have been wanting a bigger saw for a while. So i have been keeping my eye on CL for a good bandsaw deal and finally found one. It is a 1986 Grizzly 18" saw that is in remarkably good shape. It is an Asian made saw and as such the build quality isn't the best but it is all cast iron and has a 2 HP motor 220V. and can cut up to 10" depth. It also can take up to a 1.5" resaw blade and that is exactly what was on the saw when i went to pick it up. The saw was known for it's very poor blade tensioning device/setup. It had a tendency of breaking under high blade tensioning. This saw had actually done that previously and the original owner Tom could not get parts to fix it through Grizzly because the saw had been discontinued and the company had also changed hands.

So he decided to just make the parts himself and I must say he did a fine job of it using very stout steel. That part will not fail again I can tell you that much. The saw is going to need some blade guide bearings and I need to ditc the metal blade blocks as they are really loud and hard on the blades. Then just tune and align it and i should be cutting stock on it by the weekend. I am pretty excited about the acquisition as it only cost me $150 for the saw and another $15 for tolls to pick it up and a half tank of gas so for a grand total of approx. $200 I got me an 18" Grizzly bandsaw. Oh the other minor downfall was the OEM fence was a total joke. I wouldn't even use it on a Playschool tool much less a real woodworking machine they really failed on the fence. But not to worry I will just mount my Kreg bandsaw fence and I should be good to go. I still have to put it all back together from the trip home but that was no big deal at all maybe 15 min. work.



Here is the owner manufactured blade tensioning assembly





Here is the Swedish made resaw blade never heard of the company but I am sure some of you have

And here is the manuals and a bunch of blades he included for me

Nice score!! I'd love to have a big bandsaw dedicated to resawing.

Nice pickup!

Are the close up photos of the parts that were replaced?

Ed

Yes Ed those are the parts that the owner was forced to make to keep using the saw. grizzly no longer supports this model as it is quite old and was marketed by a different Grizzly than the one now in business. He really did a nice job with some very crude machining tools and crappy welding equipment. It is very beefy and stout and won't be giving me any problems anytime soon. Some of the blades are too long for the machine. He did say that some of them would have to be resized and welded to use them. The resaw blade is 1.5" wide and is a real monster. I got the saw all put back together and aligned/adjusted tonight. I did some test cutting on some scraps and although it cuts very easily it didn't seem to cut as accurately as i had hoped. I think I still have to do some tweaking on the alignments. I did notice that the table to blade alignment was off so I zeroed it to 90 deg. and set the table stop bolt on that alignment so i know the saw is square to the blade/table now. The blade guides are really horrendous and there is no thrust bearing behind the blade. There is a bearing that rides on the side of the blade with 4 metal blocks in front of that. I am going to look into replacing the blade guide arrangement with possibly Carter parts but I am waiting to hear back from them whether they have a kit for this saw or not. They will make one for it but i shudder to think what the cost for that would be.

The other thing is the saw has no dust collection to speak of so it makes quite a mess so I will be looking at retrofitting some type of dust collection arrangement on the saw as well. All in all I am pleased with the purchase and it wasn't a real wallet killer so even if it ends up being a complete dud which I don't think it will I can turn around and sell it for a profit I am sure. But I didn't buy it to flip it I want to use it so I will play around with it and see how good i can get it to perform.

I bought a new 14" Delta band saw with a lifetime guarantee (yr 2000 model I seem to recall), a nice saw but the exact same white metal casting depicted in the third photo failed and the local dealer would not replace it under warranty, so I too made one, but from a solid chunk of aluminum.......that sucker will be around after the rest of the saw is toast! So, Grizzly who likely scaled up to 18" by copying the Delta, copied the poor design of that part too!

prmindartmouth wrote:So, Grizzly who likely scaled up to 18" by copying the Delta, copied the poor design of that part too!

"Copied"... You think that some of that imported stuff is copied?


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robinson46176 wrote:"Copied"... You think that some of that imported stuff is copied?


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In this case 'extrapolated'!:eek: