(08-29-2024, 05:02 PM)blanning Wrote: In case you've managed to dodge their spam, there's an interesting sale going on at Grizzly.  There's all kinds of things.  But they seem to be unloading a lot of Shop Fox tools for less money than their equivalent Grizzly models.

Some of the deals seem to be better than others.  But there are a few that I thought were decent:

https://www.grizzly.com/products/shop-fox-21-5-hp-bandsaw/w1770

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-20-5-hp-planer-w-spiral-cutterhead/g0454z

https://www.grizzly.com/products/shop-fox-3-hp-shaper/w1702

They even knocked $2000 off of the 16" jointer which I seriously considered, but still couldn't bring myself to spend $7000 on a jointer.

They have sales on and off throughout the year.  And some of it is mark-it-up-to-mark-it-down for sure.  But if you're tool shopping, this might be a reasonable time to pick something up.

brian

(08-30-2024, 08:15 AM)jteneyck Wrote: That is an outstanding price for the bandsaw, not much more than I paid for my 17" G0636X about 16 years ago.  Construction looks the same, too, meaning very beefy, except it's larger.  It looks like a fine saw at a great price for someone looking for a saw in that size range.  

John

(08-30-2024, 10:05 AM)Cian Wrote: That bandsaw is dreamy. What would make me pause is the power requirements. I'd have to maybe pull another circuit just for that tool.

(08-30-2024, 09:10 AM)blanning Wrote: I bought it along with a few other things.  I'll be picking it up tomorrow.  We'll see how it goes.

(09-01-2024, 07:13 PM)kurt18947 Wrote: I was looking at the other band saws and noticed the 17" 2 HP saw had aluminum wheels. I wonder why they went with aluminum rather than cast iron. Do any other Griz 0513 series band saws come with aluminum wheels?

(09-01-2024, 08:56 PM)blanning Wrote: I would guess it's just because it's cheaper so they can offer a lower price point.  I think aluminum wheels are probably fine for the smaller saws.  But cast iron is always better.

Right now they have two 20" disk sanders for sale on their site.  One is variable speed, and the other isn't, both the same price.  This seemed odd to me so I scoured the specifications trying to figure out why the variable speed model wasn't more money.  On the fixed speed model, there's a sentence that says the platen is cast iron.  But the variable speed model doesn't mention it at all.  So I have to conclude that the variable model has an aluminum platen.

About a year ago, I nearly bought a used powermatic 12" disk sander.  But I decided against it when I saw that the platen was bent.  I'm not sure how hard they had to hit it to get it to bend like that.  But that turned me off of aluminum.  I ended up buying the fixed speed model with the CI platen.

I think for bandsaws, CI wheels are heavier which translates into more momentum, which I suspect translates into better performance under load, since the wheels would act like flywheels.