Halloween Tool Buys – Part 2

I wrote previously about some tools that I bought from a woodworker selling off his shop.  I initially went over to look at a bandsaw that he had for sale, but ended up picking out a lot of smaller things in addition to the saw.  It was raining heavily that day so I couldn’t take the bandsaw home on my trailer. I didn’t want all those cast iron parts to get wet.  I went back the next day to buy it, but am only just getting the chance to write about it now.

The saw I bought is a Grizzly G0514X 19″ Bandsaw.

The Grizzly G0514X Bandsaw that I bought.

When I was considering buying the saw, I remember that Joe McGlynn, of McGlynn on Making, had blogged about a nearly identical saw that he bought earlier this summer.  I sent him an email and then spoke on the phone with him to ask if he was happy with it.  He told me that he thought it was a good saw.  I hope he doest think I’m some weird internet stalker.  Thanks for the help Joe!

I had two friends help me to load and unload the bandsaw in my trailer as it is very heavy (over 400lbs).  I managed to just squeeze it into my shop.  Things are getting tight!    The serial number plate shows that it was manufactured in 2006, but it looks brand new.  The previous owner told me that he bought it new and thought it might have seen one hour of use since then.   It was sitting on a ShopFox mobile base, but the saw didn’t look as though it was installed in the base properly.  I tried to open the bottom door and it wouldn’t open more than 3 inches because it hit the wheel of the mobile base.  I mentioned this to the guy and he told me he had never needed to open it before.  Wow!

Over the next few days, I took it apart to clean it.  When these tools come new from the factory, they often have some grease on them to protect them from corrosion during shipping or storage.  I don’t think that all of the original grease was removed.  Sawdust had stuck to the grease and dried hard.  It wasn’t real bad, but it did have to be cleaned up prior to use.

Some of the things that I had to do to the saw:

• I dissembled the upper and lower guide bearing assemblies and cleaned all the parts.
• I removed the blade and cleaned it.
• I took the wheels off and cleaned the tires.
• I set the V-belt to the lower speed and re-tensioned it.
• I vacuumed out the inside of the saw body.
• I cleaned the table top with a Scotchbrite pad and some citrus oil, then applied a coat of wax.
• I removed all the original crusty packing grease from the miter gauge with some mineral spirits.
• I waxed the front rail and the under side of the part of the fence that rides on the rail.  It slides like glass now.
• I removed the ShopFox base and reconfigured it so that the wheels did not interfere with the opening of the lower door.  I found that even so, the bolts that hold the base together stopped the door opening.
• I added ½” plywood spacers under each corner to lift the saw in the base enough for the door to clear the bolt head.
• I had to change the plug to the NEMA 6-20 kind that I use in my shop.

It is shown with all the accessories that came with it.

The saw also had two of these Grip-Tite magnetic feather-boards attached to it and two spare blades (they’ve never been used).

It came with 3 blades and these two Grip-Tite magnetic feather-boards/guides.

Here is the bearing guide assembly after I had cleaned it.

The bearings and guides after I cleaned them up.

Newer versions of this saw have Grizzly-bear heads cut out of the wheels.  Mine just has circles.  I think somehow I’ll be able to live with that.  When I removed the wheels to clean them, I discovered they are HEAVY!

The saw has nice, heavy cast iron wheels

A 3hp 220v motor.

The previous owner replaced the power cord with what looks like a 20 foot garden hose.

This is a major upgrade from my previous Ridgid 14″ bandsaw.  Now I have to figure out what to do with that one.  I have seen some people on the online woodworking forums recommend having two bandsaws and leave the big one setup for resawing and the smaller one for tighter curves.  In theory this is a great idea, but I don’t think that I have the shop space for it.

Before I started this blog I wrote about restoring my Ridgid bandsaw on Lumberjocks. You can read that post and see a load more photos here.  The before and after is quite surprising.

Here’s the 14″ saw:

This is a Ridgid BS1400 that I restored.

I stiffened the base to make it more rigid and sturdy, and added locking casters.

The whole saw was disassembled, cleaned, and repainted.

I’m not sure what to do with this.

I haven’t decided yet whether or not to sell this saw.  I put a lot of time and effort into restoring it, but there really isn’t anything that it can do that the new saw can’t.   It would simply be a convenience and shop space is limited.

On that topic, my shop is now so jam packed that I can barely move in there.  I am going to have to do a complete reorganization and figure out how to best arrange everything.  A big part of the problem is that I have the lumber pile of wood that I’ve been using to build the workbench, the completed workbench top on saw horses, and the workbench base upside down on scraps of carpet.  All of this means that the workbench in progress is taking up three times as much space as the completed bench will.  Once the bench is done, I will have to give some serious consideration to a more permanent shop arrangement.

The other large item that I bought was a Grizzly G9956 Heavy Duty Air Filter.  I would not normally have bought one of these as I have read some mixed reviews about their effectiveness.  However, by buying it along with the bandsaw, I got it for a deal that was too good to pass up.  Even if I later decide that I don’t like it, I have no doubt that I could sell it for more than I bought it for.  Like the bandsaw, this had been very well cared for and there was not a scratch on it.

I also bought this Grizzly G9956 Heavy Duty Air Filtration system.

I hung the air filter from the ceiling joists on one side of the shop and angled the fins on the back so that they would circulate the air around my workshop.

I used some eye-bolts, chains, and S-hooks to hang the unit from my shop ceiling.

So far I have been using these tools for about a week and my initial impressions of both are good.  I have re-sawed some 10″ mahogany and the results were great.  More on than soon.

I went on the grizzly website and added the saw, the filter, and the mobile base to my cart.  I then checked the total price with tax and freight.  I was a little surprised to find I got an even better deal than I realized.   I paid about a third of what everything would have cost new.

Coming across this saw when I did was just dumb luck, but it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I needed a way to resaw some big timbers to make my vise chops, and my 14″ bandsaw just couldn’t handle it.  I used this new one and it worked great.  I’ll post about that soon.

– Jonathan White