08-05-2016, 02:37 PM
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.
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.
There are two 4" dust ports on the machine:
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.
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:
The stock Grizzly blade:
and the Woodmaster CT:
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
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.
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.
There are two 4" dust ports on the machine:
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.
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:
The stock Grizzly blade:
and the Woodmaster CT:
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