Good, Bad, and Ugly | Grizzly G0513ANV Bandsaw Review

We have had the Grizzly G0513ANV Bandsaw for about 6 months now, time flies! We made an unboxing video when it first arrived to the shop, and surprisingly, it was pretty much all put together. You can check out that video here,https://youtu.be/rJnExQYKbsY, but we will get into that in just a little bit. In this post, we are going to be talking about the good, bad, and ugly parts of this Grizzly G0513ANV bandsaw review!

Grizzly did send us this bandsaw for review, but all opinions are our own.

To see this bandsaw in action, check out this project we used it a ton on!https://www.woodbrew.tv/round-coffee-table-with-storage/

For a little backstory, we bought a 14" Delta bandsaw off of Craigslist back when we first started, so around 5 years ago. This has been the only other bandsaw we've ever had in the shop, so this review is going to be based on having had used that Delta for years. If you are in this same situation of having that generic 14" saw, we can hopefully answer your question of, "Is it worth upgrading?"

Right off that bat, we want to go ahead and say that we love this saw. There might be a few things you probably want to know about before purchasing it for yourself.

Grizzly did send us this saw, but have never paid us to talk about it, so we are being super objective to tell you exactly what we think based on the experience we have had with that 14" saw. Now, let's get down to business.

The Price

At this moment in time, this saw is on sale right now for $975. The typically retail price is $1,075 with $129 for freight and delivery. Now, this is an expensive tool, you are totally not wrong about that, but it's actually a pretty great value when you look at competitor's price for a saw very similar to this one. This Grizzly saw runs about several hundred dollars cheaper than it's competitor's and in some cases, a saw that looks almost the same is running about a thousand dollars more that this one. From that standpoint, it's actually a pretty great value. There's one way you can save a little bit of money. Grizzly sent us a coupon code that you can use to save 10%, use the code "WOODBREW10" at checkout. We don't get any commission off this, it's just for you to use!

Here's something that we feel like most people typically don't think about when making a large purchase like this and it's something we adapted to early on in our career. Large tools like this are assets to you or your business. You don't have to think about making a super large purchase like you do with most other things in your life. This is potentially going to make you money, but at very least you can sell it down the road when you are looking to upgrade. Using this method when we first got started is how we built up an arsenal of tools. We would buy an old tool, fix it up a little bit and use it for a year or as little as 6 months, sell it, and then we could upgrade. Now, we did lose a little money from depreciation off of the tool, but often it wasn't that much money for the time we got to use it. For example, the last 14" saw we had, we bought for $250 off of Craigslist and ended up putting a could hundred dollars in that saw, so now we are up to maybe $400. When we sold it, it went fro $300, meaning we had and used the saw for $100 for 5 years. We highly recommend doing something like this, and this Grizzly saw won't lose that much value over a few years, especially if you are offsetting that depreciation to generate income. Really look at these purchases as investments into your business as well. Super cliche, but you have to spend money to make money. If you are buying this saw for a hobby and money really isn't an issue, this will bring you a ton of joy and value into that hobby. From a business perspective and it does make sense for your budget, think about, how is this tool going to make me more money than it is loosing in depreciation. Put your money into an asset that will retain it's value over time is the key.

Performance

How well does this thing actually work?

To start off, this has out performed any saw we have ever used, with the exception of a few that we were in a much higher class. We haven't thrown anything to the saw that it can't handle, regardless of what blade is being used. We are using this on a 120 volt, so using a 220 volt would probably give you a little bit more power. We chose to use 120 because that's what was already in our shop and we move things around a lot, so it's nice that this saw can go anywhere.

For resawing, this Grizzly saw performs really well, we haven't been able to max the saw out and haven't been able to bog down the motor, it's just down everything we've needed it to do.

Another important aspect of this saw is the fence. This is something you are going to get a dramatic upgrade from when you step up from that 14" saw to a larger and industrial size saw. We actually decided to go bigger and went ahead and upgraded the fence to a slightly higher model than what comes with the saw (https://bit.ly/2R50V3w). All the components of the fence are pretty much the exact same other than the height. This higher fence can flip 90° sideways and it can be a lot lower so that you can bring the blade guides almost all the way down to the table when you're cutting really thin stock. We really have no complaints with this fence, it's not the ultimate best one, but it's always done what we've needed it to do.

The dust collection on this saw is actually pretty darn good. There's a 4" port located on the lower back of the saw, and a 4" port right up under the table. kid of where the blade comes through the table. There's actually a little ramp on the inside of the saw, under the table, where it forces the saw dust to fall out of that second port on the side. Using both ports and a decent vacuum, this saw has pretty good dust collection. Of course, you'll have a little bit up on the table top, but that's just part of it, but overall it's great.

One of our favorite parts about that saw, and again this is what you get when you upgraded to one of these larger ones, is the blade guides. The height adjustment is super nice. All you have to do is release one knob and then you can crank the wheel up or down to get it exactly where you want it because of the measurement gauge on the side that let's you know the height it is from the table.

One of our most favorite things is the tensioning mechanism. There's a large arm on the back that allows you to quickly apply tension or take it off. This means you can quickly take the blade on and off. One thing we do is take the tension off when we are not using it, but quickly lift the lever to put tension on when we need to use it. There is also a clear window in the side of the saw so you can see how to the blade it tracking on the upper wheel. This is a good safety feature so you don't have to have the door open to make sure the blade is tracking right.

Build Quality

Pretty much the entire saw is metal, which is great, with a nice powder coating on it. All the labels are of a high quality that don't seem like they are going to fall off or delaminate. The only things that are plastic are the handles bits, but that honestly just makes sense. The thing that sticks out the most about the build quality is the table. It has absolutely no flex in it, which is something that is very typical in bandsaws and more so in our last one. The last one we had, we were super careful not to bump it or pull on it so that it wouldn't come out of square. This table on the Grizzly is top notch and what makes it even more solid is the trunnion system. The trunnion system locks out really well, has indentations, and overall has just been a great experience with this saw. One thing is that it is quite difficult to get to the knob where you release it in order to make the table tilt, but it's not that big of an issue because we rarely ever tilt the table.

Out of the box, the saw was pretty much put together. The blade was on it, it was already tuned, we just had to assemble the table and the fence. Nothing on this saw feel like it's going to break in the future, so we are super impressed and happy with the build quality.

The Cons

There's nothing outrageously terrible with this saw or anything that's going to make you think that you don't want this saw. There are some things we think you should be aware of before buying it, so you don't run into them unexpectedly when you get the saw.

The first thing is that the saw does not come wired. This is a little bit nit picky because most tools and saws of this caliber don't come wired. The saving grace about this is that this saw can be wired up to 120 or 220, which makes it really versatile, but you are going to have to wire it when you get it. It does not come with a plug and it does not come with wires, so you'll have to do that on your own. The manual is super helpful and tells you exactly what to do, but it does require you to go to the store to get those materials.

The second thing is that the saw is advertised to run a 130" blade all the way to a 131 1/2" blade, but there is a little bit of a catch there that we found. All the blades that we have are 130" and it barely goes on the saw. Not a huge deal, just a pain to get on. The other thing is the tension gauge does not work with a 130" blade. The needle on the gauge is way off of the chart, so in order for that to work properly, you'll need that 131 1/2" blade. So, if you decide to get this saw, I would tell you to go ahead and start looking for those 131 1/2" blades.

Another con, and this is a bit nit picky again, but the blade guides are great and amazing, but you have to use an allen wrench in order to tighten and loosen the nuts on there to make the adjustment. It's just a little inconvenient to have a specific key or wrench to keep nearby just to make a quick adjustment. A knob would just be so much better in this situation considering everything else up to the point is so easy.

The last thing and the ugly thing about this is removing the blade. With shop our size, you have to make the most of floor space, so our bandsaw is pushed up again the wall. The top door will not open all the way against the wall, therefore not being able to pull the blade out easily. So what you end up having to do is twist the blade around the door itself, which then twists the blade in the bottom blade guide. This seems so small in the grand of it all, but it's something that just hangs you up in your work flow and makes you not want to do something with the saw. Maybe the blade guard could be on a hinge system so you could open it up and have the blade come right out. For now, we just have to live with pulling the saw away from the wall each time we need to change the blade.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this Grizzly bandsaw is a great bargain, and if you're shopping for one, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this one or look more into it. If you are on the fence about buying a 14" bandsaw or one like this, if your budget allows, go ahead and invest in a bigger saw. This is definitely worth the extra money and everything you get with it, especially if you are going to be producing income with this saw. If you are just getting started in woodworking, get what you can afford and go from there. This post isn't meant for you to get discouraged from buying a 14" saw, we used one for 5 years and could do everything we needed to on that, it might not have been so enjoyable, but it got the job done.

Thank you for making it this far! Remember you can use the code "WOODBREW10" to get 10% off your order, here is the link to this Grizzly bandsaw again: https://bit.ly/3dPb669