What a great little bandsaw. I needed something serious enough to resaw wider wood, but not so serious as to be a real estate eater in my garage and this guy does the trick nicely. The packaging was pretty beat up when it arrived via freight, but everything was in there and I can't say I had any trouble putting it together. Assembly took a few hours with simple hand tools, mostly small wrenches and hex keys. I had no trouble with true up either, centering the tire, adjusting the guides or adjusting the table and fence. All went smoothly and came out quite good.

In use I find the tensioning knob tedious, I'll replace that with a weighted wheel. The accuracy is quite good with a decent blade and almost right out of the gate I was getting smooth 1/8" slices off of a 6" wide cocobolo board. I put a mobile base on it and it is easy peasy to wheel outside, take a cut and wheel right back in. I find I use it more than I thought I would. I was worried that it would become a garage decoration bought in a pipe dreaming moment, but I find I'll stop at it fairly often to make a quick crosscut or tenon.

For what I need, this was a pleasant surprise.

This was a huge upgrade for me from an old 12" craftsman. It took me about an hour to set up and tune. It's quiet, powerful and great looking particularly for the price. The table is solid, the saw was true out of the box and only required minimal tuning to get the blade centered and to zero the fence. I built a circle jig and cut several 10" circles in 2 1/2" oak and it didn't skip a beat. I'd give it 4.5 stars if possible and the only thing I ding the 1/2 on is that the fence guide interferes with the miter so you only get about 4" of clearance in front of the blade, meaning if you have a wider piece that you want to use the miter on you are out of luck. I'm considering just taking off or looking for a replacement fence that doesn't block the entrance channel to the miter. It's a bummer in a so far flawless and fantastic bit of machinery. I can't wait to see what I can do with a good blade. The stock 3/8" one is just ok, fine for hobby stuff but not great for any fine work.

My first bandsaw after a lot of research and reading reviews. Heavy bugger to get out of the box but very well made indeed. The stand it sits on is great and I also bought the stand on wheels as well which is nice for easily moving it around. No complaints here at all.

Update: 12/13/12: So far so god even cutting very thick wood over 6" thick. The dust port is 4" and for my shop vac that is simply to big so I bought a few adapters and the saw and shop stay clean. Now my shop or shed is a bit dark even with all the lights I have so I am using a drop light when cutting and unless you have a lot of light might want to do the same. Again I have no complaints here.

Info on shipping: this comes in from New PENN freight. If you want to use their lift gate they charge and additional $34 dollars. Now I paid for it just in case but you really don't need it. While it is heavy the guy did help me unload it (which they say he wont do - and your driver may not) but if you have a helper you can slide it off the semi pretty easily and save yourself $34.

I searched a long time trying to make up my mind on which bandsaw to purchase to replace my aging 12" craftsman. It came down to the Jet and the Grizzly. I went with the Grizzly becase of budget restraints and I am not sorry that I did. I have only been using it for about a month and so far I think it is a great machine. I used the old craftsman for 20 plus years and now I see what I have missed. There is little to no vibration, the cuts are stright and the cut off pieces are fairly smooth. I am using a 3/16" blade as I do fime detailed work. I have not done any resawing as of yet Bu I am sure there will be no problems.
I was a little leary of having it shipped rather than going to a retail store, but the saw arrived in excellent condition and a lot sooner than I had expected. I would have no problems recommending this saw to anyone.

10/31/10

I ordered the band saw from Grizzly in September and it arrived in perfect condition. AS stated in Grizzly's email to me before shipment, have another person handy to help put the saw together as it is very heavy. The instructions to assemble the parts were easy to follow and was completed in a few hours (I also purchased a mobile stand so the saw could be moved in my workshop)and the "fine tuning" was completed within a short time also. I "fired" it up and it ran quietly and with almost no vibration.

The only drawback is that Grizzly needs to provide an adapter for the 4" dust port because as stated in the instructions, the saw will spew out a lot of saw dust if not connected to a shop vac or other dust collection system. I had searched for days at several different stores (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc) to find an adapter that would fit and hadn't found one. I called Grizzly and purchased one that they said would fit but it didn't so I'm back to square one again and can't use the saw. So consider this when purchasing a band saw.