George Vondriska

Fall 2021 Product Showcase: Grizzly 9” Bandsaw

George Vondriska
Duration:   7  mins

Description

There are a ton of great features on the Grizzly G0803Z bandsaw. This 9” saw has a quick release on blade tension, dust collection port, blower to keep dust off your line of cut, built in light and laser guide.

When changing blades it’s hard to beat having a quick release on the blade tension. Instead of turning and turning a handwheel or crank, you simply move a lever to release tension, put the new blade on, flip the lever back to the tension position and you’re good to go.

The dust collection port connects directly to a shop vac hose, and dust pick up is very good. The blower does a great job of keeping your line of cut clear of dust.

Bandsaws are often used for detail work so having a built in work light is a very valuable addition to a bandsaw. It helps keep your work area well lit so you can easily see your line and make accurate cuts.

The laser guide is cool. It projects in front of the blade so you can anticipate the blade’s position. This is another aspect of the saw that will help you increase your accuracy with this tool.

The G0803Z includes a fence and miter gauge. Using a bandsaw and its fence for ripping is great because the kerf on a bandsaw blade is so small, you waste very little wood to the cut.

How many times have you had a large blade on your bandsaw and had a need for a narrower blade? This saw would take care of that as a dedicated narrow blade saw.

Grizzly’s tool line goes well beyond bandsaws. Jointers, jointer/planer combos, dust collectors, table saws, and more. For more info on Grizzly tools visit the company’s website.

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One Response to “Fall 2021 Product Showcase: Grizzly 9” Bandsaw”

  1. Jon Tartt

    How do you adjust the tension on the blades? I have the exact same model. When I change to smaller blade I can’t get the smaller blade tight enough.

I've just found a bandsaw to be one of the most versatile tools you can have in the shop, cutting straight lines, cutting curves. So here, we're looking at the Grizzly 10-inch Benchtop Bandsaw. And there's a lot of neat stuff going on here, a lot of features that are built into it. Quick release on the blade tension is a great thing that a lot of big bandsaws have. It makes blade changes a whole lot easier, and it's on this unit as well. And again, what we've done here is had a look at the bandsaw offline, not live, and let's have a look at that video and some of the features that the bandsaw offers. Having a look here at Grizzly's nine-inch bandsaw. Got it unplugged so we can have a look under the hood. One of the things that's cool on a bandsaw's quick release on that upper wheel so that when you change blades, it makes that a whole lot simpler to do. Got a dust port on the back that'll readily accept a shat pack hose. Blower here is automatically gonna blow air at your line of cut. Whenever you're running the saw, help keep that nice and clear so it's easy to see your work. And the light here of course is to illuminate that area for the same reason. Let's do a little curvy work here so you can see how this all goes. Now with that curve work, I don't know if this happens to you, but it happens to me all the time. About the time I get a three quarter inch bandsaw blade on my bandsaw, I have something where I want to do a cut with a quarter inch blade on my band saw. So, another way to look at adding tools to your shop is from a perspective of, "My bandsaw is tied up with that big blade, but I need a small blade." This can be the saw for that. This can be the tool for that, and allow me to just keep that smaller blade on this machine, so I always have something accessible to do those curvy cuts." Now, we're not limited to curvy cuts here. We can do a nice straight line, and what's going to facilitate that is that laser. Think about the laser as a forecaster of where you need to be in order to follow that line. For this, I'm gonna leave the work light off, 'cause it's going to be easier for the camera to see that laser. And watch how this can I help you out in cutting straight lines. As I'm cutting, keep an eye right there where the laser is leading that cut. That's what's showing me exactly where I need to keep the board position so I can follow that line. It's one way to get a straight line. The saw does come with a fence and miter gauge. So, let me change blades, get the fence on here and do a resaw on this, and have a look at that method, I cut in a straight line. One of the things I love about bandsaws is using the fence here like a rip fence on a table saw to make cuts like that. And what's great about that is the curve of a bandsaw blade is so narrow that you're sending very little waste up into the vacuum when you're doing that. We can also cut this way, resign. And this is gonna be neat. Let's see what that lovely piece of Spanish Cedar looks like on the inside. Resawing is cool because we get both matches. Man, what a beautiful little piece! So there's a little overview of the Grizzly nine-inch bandsaw. And one of the things that's also a cool feature about this saw is when I'm done with this here, I can disconnect my power, disconnect my vac, and have portability, that I can put that saw away. Pretty, thank you, Paul. That's a feature rich tool. You know, when I see a product with that kind of capability, I think immediately, second bandsaw, right? All those capabilities, I've got my big band saw set up with a big blade for resign and roughing out bowl blanks, wouldn't it be nice to have something like that that you could use for your curve cuts and smaller pieces? Without having to do a blade swap all the time, yeah. Precisely. And the other thing, at the end of that video, I picked it up and moved it just a little bit, the fact that you can, I mean, it's like a suitcase, you know, you've got a handle on here, small footprint, smaller tool, the fact that you can pick it up easily off your bench and put it away. And then two, before the start, we were talking about, it's cool that we have the ball on here to keep your work area clear. I already mentioned the quick release, we've got an onboard light. And then the laser as a neat thing, because I, you know, from teaching Oregon classes, one of the things, bandsaw's probably one of the tools I see people struggle with the most, because you're working free hand all the time and you're trying to follow the line. So having that prediction of cut that the laser introduces is a very handy thing. Dust collection is good on this. So a lot of great features on this one. Yep, I love the dust port. It's in the right spot. That's true. It's perfect. That's true. Yeah, like Paul said, feature rich tool here.
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