The Great Bandsaw Adventure - Phase 1

[Tapper]

John,

Congrats on the new Griz bandsaw - looking forward to more pics!

Doug

[Herb G]

I don't see any pics whatsoever. I'm not kidding.

[Rick F]

I saw pics this morning .. but not now ..

[chips ahoy]

I don't see any pics whatsoever. I'm not kidding.

Same here,just little squares. Did all kinds of clicking but nothing worked.

Mel

[jteneyck]

I apologize everyone.  I have no clue why the photos won't show.  I can't see them either now, except when I go into edit mode.  I even tried re-entering them from another photos hosting site; still can't see them after I save the post. 

OK, Mods, what am I doing wrong?  Please help.

John

[AHill]

I can't see the pics either.  If I quote the OP's original post, and then select reply, the pics show up.  I'm beginning to wonder if this new software upgrade is s total bust.  Inconsistent behavior, etc.  Maybe it's time for all of us to pitch in and get a software consultant to come in and help rectify the situation.

On a much lighter note ----- congrats on the new bandsaw!  Looks really nice.  My next big tool upgrade will either be a 15" planer or an 18" bandsaw.  But we're talking several more years before that happens.

[Ohio Mike]

OK, time to tell you what I did after all your helpful input on what bandsaw to buy.  Well, to put it simply, I set all logic aside and ordered a new Grizzly G0636X, all 620 lbs of it.  This is the first new stationary machine I've bought in about 25 years.  I've always been able to find good used machines and never paid more than half the price of new, some I even got for free.  I imagine I eventually could have found a good used bandsaw, too, but I got tired of looking. 

I placed the order last Wednesday AM and it shipped from the MO warehouse that afternoon on UPS freight.  I paid an extra $35 for lift gate service.  The total shipping was still less than $200, which I thought was very reasonable for something this big that weighs 786 lbs.  Yesterday UPS called and asked if wanted it delivered Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.  Bring it Tuesday, please.  Ken Vick volunteered to help me get it into my basement, bless him.  Today's objective was to just get it into the garage.  About 4 PM this showed up at the street.





I asked the driver if he had a pallet jack.  Yes.  OK, would you be willing to pull the machine up to my garage?  Of course.  So he brought it to the lift gate and down, where Ken and I inspected it for damage but found none, so the three of use pushed and pulled it up to the door of my garage with no great effort.  I gave the driver a tip, which he said I didn't need to offer, but accepted after I said it was just a small thank you for saving us a lot of extra work.  With that he left and we were left with this.




The Grizzly pallet was too narrow for the UPS pallet jack to fit into, so they had put it on top of another pallet.  That complicated our plan to slide or walk the machine off the pallet.  We talked about it a bit and decided to try to lift he upper pallet and machine enough to slide the lower pallet out from under it.  We managed to do just that by inserting some 2x4's through the upper pallet, blocking up one end of them and using two car jacks to pick up the other end. 



Here it is just as we had it lifted and had the pallet almost out.  With the lower pallet removed we lowered it down onto a couple of pairs of 2x4's right at the edges of the machine pallet, in order to pull out the jacks and 2x4's, and then knocked the blocking 2x4's out one at a time. 



OK, down the factory packaging now.  As you can see, the packaging is a small pallet and an open crate.  The machine inside was completely covered in a plastic bag, and another piece of plastic was under the machine and taped to the bag, essentially completely enclosing the machine.  We took the crate off, and then proceeded to remove the table, wheels, and motor.  The table came off easily.  Ken thought it only weighed about 50 lbs, but I think it's at least 75.  I weighed the upper wheel and it is 30 lbs.  the lower wheel weighs more because the double pulley is on the back of it.  I took the wheel covers off, too; they probably weigh 10 - 15 lbs each.  All went well until I tried to remove the drive pulley off the motor so I could remove the motor, which I've read weighs 93 lbs.  The set screws that hold the pulley on the motor shaft won't budge.  The set screws are dinky little 3 mm hex so you can't get a lot of torque on them.  I shot some PB Blaster into the holes but it had no effect over the 5 minutes or so I waited.  If the set screws were installed with some type of permanent Loctite, I have not clue how I am going to remove them.  So we're proceeding with the motor still on the machine, but how do you remove those set screws?  You would need to if you had to change the motor.  Anyone know how?  Suppose I could call Grizzly. 



The only damage we found was a little scuffed paint on the top of the base of the machine on the back side.  I'll call Grizzly just to see if they have a touch up spray paint can but it's really no big deal as it is.

OK, now to get the machine into the garage.  It's too tall to fit under the overhead door on the pallet so it had to come off.  As I thought about how to move the machine all the way into my basement I set out to use mechanical help instead of muscle power whenever possible.  To slide the machine into the garage I thought the winch I have for the back of my car would work but I needed an anchor near the kitchen door to attach a snatch block to for it to work.  The only place I felt confident anchoring to was the sill plate of the house, so I crawled under the landing and lag bolted a structural U-bolt to it, then attached a length of chain with the snatch block on the end of that.  Worked like a charm.  With Ken and my neighbor steadying the machine and flipping pieces of plywood we pulled it off the pallet and into the garage w/o incident. 





We pulled it up close to the landing and called it good for the day. 

Stayed tuned for the next installment of the Great Bandsaw Saw Adventure - following shortly. 

John

Thanks Allan,

By clicking REPLY the pictures became visible for me too.

Mike

Edit:  I see in the public version of my post the pictures are hidden again.  Curiously, while editing my post, I can see the pics again in the edit window!  That's really an unusual software feature 

[WaterlooMarc]

I could see the pictures on the day the post was made originally. I wonder what changed.

[arthropod98]

careful moving that beast around! 


kinda reminds me of when i got my grizzly cyclone and stand, and i set up it myself.  had a chain hoist i hooked to the ceiling to get the thing stood up.  well, the first attempt the whole thing turned into a pendulum.  

[jteneyck]

I see the pictures are back, at least I can see them now directly in the post; hopefully, you all can too.  So stay tuned, the real adventure is yet to come, but I have to do something until later today.  I'll have it loaded by this evening. 

Thanks,

John