New Bandsaw - (NEW new)

Hmm ... that wood blade might be a good choice when cutting aluminum which is at least three teeth thick.

Sounds like you got a bargain.

The 3/4" should be good enough. I would go for the 1" if I were cutting rather thick steel purely on straight lines.

1/2" might even do -- but there is something to be said for using the same blade stock for both the horizontal and the vertical -- *if* you have a blade welder. (Maybe the Grizzly came with one in the column?) Then just buy spools of blade stock and you can make up blades for both saws.

Or -- as I mentioned above -- a roll of stock, if you have a blade welder.

For that -- 6 TPI would do.

In that case -- go up to about 12 TPI -- so you always have at least three teeth in the workpiece.

A stomp shear is nice for that -- but if you are using a circular saw, you don't have one. (And the bench-mount ones are not wide enough to cut the typical 4'x8' sheet metal stock.)

For most of what you are doing (other than the sheet aluminum, whose thickness you did not mention) the 12-14 TIP should do. The 10-12 TPI might be marginal on the 1/4" thick stock -- and you really do want a finer tooth blade for the sheet aluminum, which I'm guessing is about

16 gauge or so.

Enjoy, DoN.

I started with 10/14 on my 4x6 bandsaw and slowly found I needed pitches from 6 to 24. The 6/10 was the only blade that would cut off

6" square timbers, the 10/14 just clogged.

  Mine wears a 10/14 bimetal about 95% of the time . I do have an 18 for thin stock . I have yet to use it for wood ... isn't that what chainsaws are for ? <<Mine have been getting quite a workout lately stocking up firewood .>>

These were 6x6 PT timbers for a retaining wall and I wanted smooth and square cuts at an exposed outside corner.

I've used a chainsaw to square large logs and cut joint notches and plane the tops of log roof beams for pole sheds, so I know what I can and can't do. Chainsawing isn't for exposed surfaces that could snag clothing.

To cut long heavy stock like that I balance it across the bandsaw table and set adjustable support(s) under it, then slide the stock to the cut position. If the stock is too heavy to lift I suspend it from a portable hoist and use a balanced 2x4 etc as the guide to set the height so the cut will be square.

That was good enough to cut 4" square steel tube to ~16' for columns. I made and welded on steel end plates to attach a 20' W10 x 33 beam, which I hoisted into place. An engineer designed the job, not me, but I was able to fab and erect it. "A man's got to know his limitations", and that job was close to mine.

I've wanted a small top-handle arborist chainsaw for a long time but couldn't justify the cost of a Stihl, Husky or Echo. This is on order, hope it's as decent as the reviews suggest. Amazon's price jumped after I ordered it.

  I have 3 older Homelite power heads that all have top throttle triggers in addition to the "normal" rear position throttle . I only use one right now and it works great . One of the others runs , the 3rd is just for spares . My main saw is a Stihl model 025 that was free to me ... though I have since installed a new motor and consumables . The only saw I actually paid for is a Poulan 18" and it's the most finicky of all .

I recently went looking for a good quality light saw, not necessarily a top-handle. There's not much available between very cheap and very expensive. I have a pro Stihl that I bought 30+ years ago when we built our house, one of the best purchases I've ever made, but it seems to get a little heavier every year. I lucked into a nice Echo top-handle on Craigslist for $45. Much nicer when the full-size saw is not necessary.

On 8/14/2019 3:09 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:> I got suckered in by some SPAM from Grizzly and ordered a G0621X > variable speed vertical wood/metal bandsaw. Of course it seems to only > come with a wood blade, and I will probably only ever use it for metal > cutting. (I already have a decent Rigid mid/small woodcutting upright > bandsaw.) >

Well, I had hoped to reach a compromise blade to leave on "most" of the time, but I broke down and bought two blades for the new saw. A 5/8 and a 10/14. I looked at buying some coil stock, but I just don't want carbon steel blades. I cut just enough medium hard steel to make them pretty useless for me. The coils of decent quality bimetal were just a little more than I wanted to spend right now after spending all my pocket money on the saw.

[ ... ] [ ... ]

Isn't the blade welder capable of bi-metal blades? Yes, you need more current for bi-metal, but ... I use mine on bi-metal blades, even though it is not specified for them I use the 5/8" setting for 1/2" bi-metal blades -- which are the largest that my 4x6 horizontal/vertical bandsaw can handle anyway. If your welder specifies 1" blades within its range, use that setting for 3/4" or 5/8".

Good Luck, DoN.

On 8/16/2019 7:34 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote: > On 2019-08-16, Bob La Londe snipped-for-privacy@none.com wrote: >> On 8/14/2019 3:09 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:> I got suckered in by some >> SPAM from Grizzly and ordered a G0621X >>> variable speed vertical wood/metal bandsaw. Of course it seems to only >>> come with a wood blade, and I will probably only ever use it for metal >>> cutting. (I already have a decent Rigid mid/small woodcutting upright >>> bandsaw.) >

I have to weld blades manually, and then anneal with a torch. I don't think the new saw comes with a blade welder. Eventually I'll pick one up though. I've silver brazed, but have had mixed luck. Some seem to hold, and some don't. A little blade holding jig I made some time back helped a lot. I wasn't concerned with being able to weld them though. I was concerned with having only lunch money in my pocket when I looked at bimetal coil stock pricing. LOL. Its not out. Its just out for a little while after spending all my play money on the saw. Also maybe having 250' of coil stock of a TPI that might turn out to not be ideal for my use.

Saw arrives on the 22nd. Blades on the 26th. HA!

So far so good. It's light, balanced and cuts well without grabbing too much on small stuff. I wanted it to cut up kindling-sized wood, fallen branches and sawmill scrap, that is too big for a lopper and jams my larger chainsaws. I cut on sawbucks so there's an upright post between the chainsaw and my other hand holding and feeding the wood.

The housing is all plastic that doesn't impress me as tough enough to bounce around in a truck bed. The screws thread directly into the plastic and two were stripped so I replaced them with larger #8s. Even Huztl doesn't offer parts for it:

Double Ha! Blades came early.

First off. I'm just plain getting tired of trucking companies. Last year when their was a truck and driver shortage service and attitude seemed to devolve a little, but this year the market is reversed. There are fewer loads for the trucks and drivers and service in many cases is worse than last year. Don't get me wrong. I have dealt with a few drivers who have been top notch professionals the last couple years, but the rest seem to get worse from year to year. Drivers, dispatchers, and companies.

So the trucking company notified the vendor of my saw they couldn't reach me. My cell phone is always on, and if for some reason it doesn't ring my voice mail works just fine. It took two calls to the main company who claims its not a local terminal company who is doing final delivery, but when they transferred me through I recognized the voice as a pretty crummy low price local delivery dispatcher. Push comes to shove my saw MIGHT arrive after hours today instead of yesterday. I asked enough question though to find out there was never a chance in hell they were going to deliver on time though.

So the saw blades arrived early and the saw is coming late.

Now to move the wood only bandsaw from the shop to the garage.

Well it finally arrived a day late while the blades arrived several days early.

First impressions are good. All the sheet metal is heavier than I expected and much heavier than my wood only vertical saw. The saw itself is a lot heavier. I will not be dead lifting it onto the stand. One thing in the version of the manual I found online that concerned me is that it appeared to have friction block type blade guides. My wood cutting bandsaw has friction block and they work fine. Particularly since I changed them out for "Cool Blocks" (tm), but both of my horizontal metal cutting saws have bearing roller guides. One of the first things I noticed when I pried the saw out of the Styrofoam packing (more on that in a minute) is that top and bottom had decent size bearing roller blade guides. Making sure it wasn't a very recent upgrade I opened the manual that actually came with the saw and it shows the bearing roller guides. It could be another reason the saw was on sale. Another item that represented the saw as less than it actually was.

About that Styrofoam packing. Its a very thick excellent sandwich foam custom molded for the saw. Did I say thick. The box itself looked like it had been burst partly open and retaped in transit. The box was damaged on two sides and the whole box was "bent" a foot from the end and the end dipped more than an inch hanging off the pallet. I have fully unpacked and unwrapped the saw, and the stand. I went out of my way looking for any signs of damaged from bent sheet metal to a door that might not open or close perfectly. There are still parts (table, fence, trunnion, wheel, etc) embedded in the packing foam, but I could find zero hints of damage despite the obvious abuse the packaging received in transit.

I have a lot of work to do so the saw might just sit where it is for a couple days, but I'll let you know how it does ripping aluminum and steel soon enough.

The motor is a little lighter than I would have liked at 1.25 HP according to the data plate, but it is a 4 pole motor so it should still have decent torque at modest RPM.

Good to hear it arrived OK, I saw the blades guides were shown as pads and thought bearings would have been better so good to hear you've got the improved version. I have seen loads on delivery trucks which were already smashed but apparently they have to deliver the item so the receiving person can refuse to accept it due to damage in transit. I was recently given a British made Startrite Bandit 12" vertical bandsaw and base for free, I couldn't turn it down as too nice a machine so have had to reorganise the workshop a bit to fit it in. 3 phase but I have a converter which runs my BP and Harrison M300 lathe so the Startrite is a small load at IIRC 3/4hp. I know 2 people that have offered to buy it if I don't want it, small chance.

Couple years back, I replaced a thirty year old chest freezer with an upright model. The selling firm quoted "threshlod delivery" i.e in the door. When it arrived, the driver asked me to have a look as it appeared to have some waviness in the side panels. I couldn't see any actual dents or any indication that it might have been hit by anything, so I accepted delivery and jokingly suggested that it was too bad they didn't haul the old freezer away, to which the driver laughed and said no, but they could get it out of the basement for me easy enough. I had been considering a twenty dollar offer to get the new freezer down the one flight so was more than happy to buy the three guys each a five dollar coffee - had it been their last delivery I would have offered beer as I have done with roofing crews in the past.

I started to setup the saw today, and ran into my first problem pretty quickly. The bolt holes in the stand do not line up with the bolt holes in the saw. They aren't off by a little either. They are off by a lot. A call to Customer Service at Grizzly was not particularly helpful.

"Oh, tech support has to talk with you and will ask you to make measurements. I can start a ticket, but then you will have to wait on them to get back to you, or you can call back on Monday and we can transfer you directly over to them. "

What I heard was, "Customer service is only here on the weekend to make people 'think' you might get some service. Not to actually do anything." LOL.

What somebody else, might say is, "Oh that's awesome. Its totally not right out of the box, but they are fantastic because they will make it right eventually." LOL.

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