New (to me) Bandsaw

[dg152]

I've been wanting to upgrade to a larger, more powerful bandsaw and finally found one that would work well without paying a crazy amount.  I found a Grizzly G0514X3 on craigslist.  It's 7 years old and has been lightly used by a furniture maker.  Normally I wouldn't look at a 3 phase machine but this one came equipped with a WEG variable frequency drive which converts my single phase 220 volts to three phase 220 volts.  Its original cost was around $300 and it by-passes the stock On-Off buttons on the saw.  You must use the on-off function on the VFD.  The original owner placed the VFD in an old ammo can which I thought was ingenious.  The lid can be kept closed to keep the dust out.

The VFD is set up to soft start so it takes about 5 seconds to come up to full speed.  Likewise, it takes about 5 - 10 seconds to come to a full stop.  The saw came equipped with a 1-1/4 inch re-saw blade which made quick work of re-sawing a 2x4 in half in my first use.  The saw also came with a Shop Fox mobile base.

It wasn't a steal at $1200 but was a whole lot cheaper than a comparable new bandsaw.

[barryvabeach]

I've been wanting to upgrade to a larger, more powerful bandsaw and finally found one that would work well without paying a crazy amount.  I found a Grizzly G0514X3 on craigslist.  It's 7 years old and has been lightly used by a furniture maker.  Normally I wouldn't look at a 3 phase machine but this one came equipped with a WEG variable frequency drive which converts my single phase 220 volts to three phase 220 volts.  Its original cost was around $300 and it by-passes the stock On-Off buttons on the saw.  You must use the on-off function on the VFD.  The original owner placed the VFD in an old ammo can which I thought was ingenious.  The lid can be kept closed to keep the dust out.

The VFD is set up to soft start so it takes about 5 seconds to come up to full speed.  Likewise, it takes about 5 - 10 seconds to come to a full stop.  The saw came equipped with a 1-1/4 inch re-saw blade which made quick work of re-sawing a 2x4 in half in my first use.  The saw also came with a Shop Fox mobile base.

It wasn't a steal at $1200 but was a whole lot cheaper than a comparable new bandsaw.

Looks great to me, and that sounds like a great price as well .

[daddo]

Great machine. You got a deal.


I can explain to you how to rotate your pics if you want.

[dg152]

I tried rotating the originals but it didn't work. Hope nobody hurt themselves trying to look at the pics sideways!

[Admiral]

I've got the same saw in single phase, great saw.

[fredhargis]

You did very well, congrats!

[jteneyck]

That was a very good deal on a very good saw.  It should meet just about any need you have.  You didn't say what your old BS is, but if it's a 14" or similar keep it if you have the room. Run a 1/4" blade on the little saw and leave the big blade on the big saw. Changing blades on the big saw isn't fun, and they aren't ideal for running narrow blades either.

John

[EvilTwin]

Good score. You'll appreciate being able to dial down the speed of the saw when you need to. You also may want to make some remote buttons for the saw that are a bit bigger and/or closer to where you are working. If you can, download the manual for the WEG drive and you should see how to do it.

You can also change the settings for the start up and shut down times. There should be a DC braking function that should stop the blade a lot quicker than 5-10 seconds which in my opinion isn't all that safe. I've been running a Delta 20" saw with a VFD now for going on 10 years and my start up time to full speed is less than a second and shutdown is about the same.

[Huxleywood]

Good score.  You'll appreciate being able to dial down the speed of the saw when you need to.  You also may want to make some remote buttons for the saw that are a bit bigger and/or closer to where you are working.  If you can, download the manual for the WEG drive and you should see how to do it.

You can also change the settings for the start up and shut down times.  There should be a DC braking function that should stop the blade a lot quicker than 5-10 seconds which in my opinion isn't all that safe.  I've been running a Delta 20" saw with a VFD now for going on 10 years and my start up time to full speed is less than a second and shutdown is about the same.

The simplest method for adding an outboard stop switch to the VFD would be to use the micro-switch that should already be on the brake pedal.  Press the brake pedal and it tells the drive to shut down.  Obviously, you could add switches anywhere but the brake is already there and should be wired with a switch.  

That may be the quickest that drive can brake the 514.  Depending on the minimal ohmic value the drive can support and the particular dynamic braking resistor installed (if any) it just may not be able to stop it faster.  Plus the old Delta 20" saws have pretty lightweight wheels, the 514 has more inertia to stop.  In any event, the quickest was to stop this saw would be to use the largest braking resistor the drive can support and use the mechanical brake to trigger the stop/braking circuit on the drive as well as using the mechanical brake to help stop the saw.  This should get the stopping time down significantly, even though Grizzly's foot brakes have never been the quickest on their own.

[EvilTwin]

The simplest method for adding an outboard stop switch to the VFD would be to use the micro-switch that should already be on the brake pedal.  Press the brake pedal and it tells the drive to shut down.  Obviously, you could add switches anywhere but the brake is already there and should be wired with a switch.  

That may be the quickest that drive can brake the 514.  Depending on the minimal ohmic value the drive can support and the particular dynamic braking resistor installed (if any) it just may not be able to stop it faster.  Plus the old Delta 20" saws have pretty lightweight wheels, the 514 has more inertia to stop.  In any event, the quickest was to stop this saw would be to use the largest braking resistor the drive can support and use the mechanical brake to trigger the stop/braking circuit on the drive as well as using the mechanical brake to help stop the saw.  This should get the stopping time down significantly, even though Grizzly's foot brakes have never been the quickest on their own.

That's a good idea on the switch on the brake, I hadn't thought of that when I posted. Hard to speculate on the inertia, it may be a significant factor or not.  I don't have any braking resistor installed and the drive handles it fine.  As long as the drive is appropriately sized to the motor, it would probably work about as well.  IIRC, my drive is an Altivar and is rated for up to 3 hp and the motor is 2 hp.  When buying something that has been user configured like this saw has, you can't assume they knew exactly what they were doing and it never hurts to verify how it was set up.