First Impressions of Grizzly G-0636X Bandsaw
#11
Now that the Great Bandsaw Adventure is complete, it's time to put this beast to work.  I got delayed for a few days by a job I had to install, but earlier this week I got it wired and some temporary dust collection hooked up.  Wiring to the machine was nothing more than connecting three wires at the junction box on the back of the machine, a five minute job once I had power where it needed to be. FYI, this machine has a 5 HP motor and you need a 30 amp circuit to power it.   So here are my first thoughts of the machine.

The build quality looks very good. Everything fits together precisely and operates smoothly. The table is ground to a very fine finish and was flat with no light showing when I put a straight edge on it diagonally. The handwheel that raises and lowers the upper guide operates very smoothly; same thing for the one that tilts the table. The foot brake stops the wheels very quickly - if you don't use the foot brake the machine will coast for a very long time.

[Image: wdhSpALDcF9TbyWBLkiz0WB15vPQjtqtlvu_6DWB...71-h628-no]

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Today, I followed Grizzly's procedure for tracking and tensioning the stock blade and setting the guides. To track the blade you just center it on the upper wheel; same as I would do on my little Delta. BTW, the wheels are 1-3/4" wide which is pretty massive. The upper wheel weighed 30 lbs.; I didn't weigh the lower one but I would guess it's about 40 lbs. Grizzly's tensioning recommendation is similar to what P. Snodgrass recommends; open the guides, set the tension to the nominal blade width, turn on the saw and then reduce tension until the blade flutters. At that point, raise the tension until the fluttering stops and then add 1/4 turn more. When I did that on both blades I used today the final tension turned out to be one pointer width higher than the nominal mark on the tension gauge. When that was done I set the roller guides for a 0.004" clearance, and the rear bearing for 1/16" gap. Setting the guides was pretty easy with the eccentrics that are used for the side guides, although you need a light to see what you are doing with the lower guides. Here you can see the lower blade guides, blade and wheel brushes, and motor belt tensioning screw. Very straight forward design and clean build.

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There are two 4" dust ports on the machine:

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I found the upper blade guide to be parallel in both planes with the blade over it's full range of travel. It can be adjusted but I didn't need to. The table was square to the blade when I set it at 0 degrees on the scale on the back trunnion. The trunnions are pretty massive, too, and the table tilts very smoothly with the handwheel, which you can barely see a portion of to the right of the motor, partially hidden by the DC hose. Because I had removed the table (which I estimate weighs at least 75 lbs) when I moved the machine into the basement, I had to realign it so that the miter slot was parallel with the blade. I did that with no trouble following Grizzly's manual.

The fence was easy to adjust via set screws to be both parallel with the miter slot and plumb with the blade. Simple and effective. I think a drop of Blue Loctite on both pairs of set screws is in order to keep them from vibrating out of adjustment.

I used the stock 1", 4 tpi blade to take a couple ripping cuts in a piece of 6/4 oak. It cut nice and parallel with the miter slot w/o adjustment. Then I set the fence to take off a 1/16" slice in the board which was about 6" wide. It cut fine though you had to push on the wood to feed it through. I didn't measure how long it took but I'd guess at least 20 seconds to cut the 20" long board. The surface was not particularly smooth.

I then decided to do a little comparison with my Delta 14" with riser block. It has a Starrett 1/2", 4 tpi blade on it. I jointed the board smooth and took a slice off it. It took 45 seconds to cut the 20" length; the surface was pretty smooth, smoother than the 4 tpi blade on the Grizzly gave. Then I changed the blade on the Grizzly to the 1", 1.3 tpi Woodmaster CT that I bought specifically to resaw and slice veneer with.

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I went through the same tensioning and setting of the guides procedure that I had with the factory blade. With that done, I jointed the face of the board again and then took a slice on the Grizzly. It gobbled it with no effort. It took 15 seconds to cut it and the surface quality was beautifully smooth, at least as smooth as a Woodslicer. I'm sure I could have cut it much faster if I had just pushed harder.

Here are some photos which might show you the differences.

Here's my Delta:

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The stock Grizzly blade:

[Image: 9pnbhAwkVzeZiCW4JHmk5bYvrPF5NLHraKy5IyQc...40-h480-no]


and the Woodmaster CT:

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After I had finished cutting, so maybe 8 or 10 total slices on the Grizzly, there was a fair amount of sawdust inside the lower door. I was a little surprised since my friend claims he has essentially none. Of course, he has a massive Clear View DC system, while I have a 1400 cfm one. Still, I was not impressed and need to address how to improve it.  I probably need to go with piping rather than the corrugated hose I hooked up just to try it.  I'm open to suggestions.  

My initial impression of the Grizzly G-0636X is completely positive. The build quality and fit and finish look very high, and the machine was in near perfect alignment as received. It runs very smoothly with no vibration. It cuts straight without fussing and the motor powers the blade through 6" wood w/o any effort. I'm looking forward to a real project to give it good workout to get a better assessment of day to day life with it.

John
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#12
Thanks for that review John. My impressions are the same as yours. It looks like a very well-built machine. I'm traveling now but when I get home my new carbide blade is waiting for me. I look forward to really giving it a workout. But first I need to run my dust pipe. I now have all my stationary machines bought and will start connecting the dust pipe.
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#13
John, great review. I have the smaller Grizzly, the GO513x2, and my thought was it is an excellent saw, but the stock blade was worthless, glad to see you like woodmaster
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#14
Great review.  I like how your pic of the blade shows he "Made In USA" markings.
Still Learning,

Allan Hill
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#15
John

The VA bought me the same one back 6 years ago and I love it most of the time except when I want to do something small.

I got tired of replacing the guide bearings at $8 a pop for each one and just made some from Lingnum Viate and they work great.  Also I just do not care for the DC on how it works on the bandsaw which seems it is never completely sucks up all the dust.  What I did do is take some Metal tape and sealed up all around the trunion and any other spaces (It has a lot of them) to get better dust collection.
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification.  Thank You Everyone.

It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
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#16
Arlin, I kept my 14" Delta and will use it for small stuff.  I plan to leave a 1" blade on the Grizzly 90% of the time and use it only for resawing, slicing veneer, and any other thick stock needs. 

I'm interested in how you made the Lignum Vitae guide bearings.  Can you post photos please?   

Is your dust collector pretty low CFM?  Ken Vick has this same saw and his dust collector does a great job.  It's a large ClearView.  No clue how many CFM but I wouldn't be surprised if it's over 2000.  I think I'll be satisfied once I replace the 20 ft of 5" corrugated hose with about 15 ft of 6" ducting to feed the two 4" hoses.  I hope to get that accomplished sometime this week.  Your approach to close off some of the air flow is OK only to a point.  Dust collectors aren't vacuum cleaners.  You need flow to carry the dust.  The lower your CFM the more you have to target where the air flows, and that might be what you were trying to accomplish.  

John
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#17
I'm wondering how much is related to make-up air in the lower bay of the saw?   You have a 4" outlet, but how does air get into the cabinet?   I have a similar dust issue on my 18" Rikon - it does work better when I have the lower door cracked open, but airflow direction is not ideal - and who wants to have the door propped open all the time....  I'm thinking I need to look at a way to let more air into the lower bay to get some flow going.

Dave
MKM - Master Kindling Maker
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#18
That's a really nice saw. At 800 lbs, it should be a brute when slicing wood.
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#19
Only 620 lbs.  Still, it is a heavy beast, but all that mass seems to be put in the right places, because it's very smooth and quiet when running with no vibration.    

John

Dave, if you look at the pictures you'll see that the lower door is rectangular.  The third picture shows that the frame is not; it dips down around the lower blade guides.  That allows air to flow down into the lower door chamber just as it can into the dust outlet on the side of the machine.  How much goes each way, however, may be an issue because they are both being fed by that one supply source. 

I've ordered a 6" x 4" x 4" Wye that I can't get locally.  I'm going to run 6" pipe as close as possible and then two 4" hoses to the machine.  That will be the best I can do with my DC.  Hopefully, that will give enough flow to carry the dust away.  I should know by next week some time. 

John
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#20
John

I have the same one that the VA bought me 6 years ago.  I just found out you can not get tires for it that you have to order the whole wheel and that costs $270 without shipping.   I also have sawdust problem on the bottom but I only have the PSI 1hp 850cfm and it will not suck dust very well.
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification.  Thank You Everyone.

It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
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