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Rank Amateurs ongoing experience with the Grizzly Bear

4K views 37 replies 14 participants last post by  Whiskers 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hey guiys, I'm totally new to posting here, but I been lurking over a year, and am a computer pro with many years experience dealing with forums such as this. This is great forum, reason you never seen me before was I never needed to register to find a answer to any of my questions, the search function works quite well. Some of you I feel I almost know.

I'm setting up shop, computer programming and the space program is dead here and i guess everywhere. The Chinese will probably take that over eventually. Fortunately due to good investing and inheriting, I'm doing ok. In fact, I just went a little ape crap and ordered about 5 grand worth of equipment from Grizzly. Thought maybe other amatuers would like constant feedback on how it gos since you do get a lot of them here.

Right now, My poor garage is over flooded, It's a typical 2 car garage and it piled up with cartons that some of which can't get in. I'll get them in though soon.

This order had lots of stuff, not going to list everything but the main pieces are as follows.

Chainged my mind, easier to cut and paste the whoe enchilada, lol

G0555LX - 14" Deluxe Bandsaw
1 $445.00 $445.00
G0490X - 8" Jointer w/ Spiral Cutterhead
1 $1,125.00 $1,125.00
G0691 - 10" 3HP 220V Cabinet Table Saw with Long Rails & Riving Knife
1 $1,395.00 $1,395.00
G0548ZP - 2HP Canister Dust Collector with Aluminum Impeller - Polar Bear Series
1 $445.00 $445.00
T20916 - Zero Clearance Table Saw Insert for G0690 & G0691
1 $30.95 $30.95
G7314Z - Heavy-Duty Mobile Base
2 $62.95 $125.90
G8684Z - Extension Kit For G7314Z
1 $62.95 $62.95
T25555 - Riser Block Kit for G0555LX
1 $79.95 $79.95
G7060 - Bench Vise w/ Anvil - 6"
1 $99.95 $99.95
LIFTGATE - Freight Destination Liftgate Service Add-On
1 $34.00 $34.00
H7200 - 35-7670 8" Stacked Dado Set
1 $99.95 $99.95
H0683 - 3" Gray Rubber Swivel Caster w/ Double Brake
4 $6.75 $27.00
T23415 - 4" x 10' Clear Hose
1 $15.95 $15.95
G2974 - 4" Wire Hose Clamp
6 $0.75 $4.50
T23416 - 4" x 20' Clear Hose
1 $26.95 $26.95
G1843 - 4" Plastic Blast Gate
5 $3.95 $19.75
G1552 - 4" Y-Fitting
3 $5.25 $15.75
T23852 - 4" Connector
2 $3.50 $7.00
T23816 - 4" x 2" Reducer
1 $1.95 $1.95
G2972 - 2" Wire Hose Clamp
2 $0.50 $1.00
T23411 - 2" x 10' Clear Hose
1 $10.95 $10.95

That's good for first post, There also a bunch of stuff coming from Amazon to support this order, I'll talk about it too if you guys want me to.
 
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#3 · (Edited by Moderator)
That's quite a first post! Welcome and congrats on a MAJOR purchase.

Good setup and good quality cutters are the key to the performance of cutting tools. Stock blades are notoriously poor…buy good blades and bits, and take your time setting up the critical tools. You've made some nice choices IMO, including your dado set. If you haven't seen it, check out Grizzly's free shop layout tool.

Any plans to buy a router or two? It's the most versatile tool you can buy for a wood shop. How about a planer to compliment the capabilities of your jointer and TS?
 
#4 ·
Good Morning People, I wanted to follow up immediately with a 2nd post, but system wouldn't let me. Guess things set so some mods must filter what my first post was to make sure I wasn't some total flake or troll as my post didn't appear for quite some time. Hope that not true of every post on here, I hope I can gain some trust.

Hmm, well I guess I should deal with that reply I got from Knot, Right now I'm hitting midline on the blade and bit philosophy. I ordered 2 blades for the table saw from Amazon. Both Freud. I know they aren't considered the absolute best, but they ain't Ronco either. I recently bought a new skil saw and got a freud diablo blade made for cutting plywood with it. I was quite impressed with it and how well it did. It got exceptionally good reviews from the Amazon community and didn't disappoint me. I have a bought a couple Freud blades I bought for the table saw which I hope repeat that performance.
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
Wow, that's an impressive list. Each tool in my shop was a separate purchase with months or years between major tools. It takes a while to get proficient with most complex machines and you've got a lot of new equipment to learn how to use. Good Luck!!!!!!

When I was starting, I subscribed to a bunch of woodworking magazines. Wood Magazine had the best plans for the furniture I wanted to build. Shopnotes had the best jigs, Woodsmith had some advanced furniture I only wished I had the skills to build, and Fine Woodworking had plans and instructions that were way over my head. After several years, I still subscribe to Wood Magazine. Some of the others I subscribe to if I get a mailing from them with a price I can't turn down. The rest I buy if they have something in them that I'd like to build or information I'm interested in. Used bookstores are also a good resource for cheap woodworking books and magazines. Ditto for E-Bay. I got back issues of Wood Magazine from 1995 to 2005 for less than $25. The seller also packed a bunch of other woodworking magazines in the boxes. Craig's List's tool section has been the biggest source for tools for the last two years.
 
#6 · (Edited by Moderator)
Freud blades are a great choice….especially for a beginner because there are no clunkers, and they tend to represent really good value overall. Some are excellent, some are value oriented, some are for a specific task, so it really depends on which ones you chose, but all are good quality. (Glad you skipped the Ronco blades!)
 
#7 ·
Oh goody, looks like I can post, so I can really start giving some info on this experience. Ok, the shipment. If you have never had anything trucked freight in, well let me tell you, There is no model to go by as the experience will vary every single time. When I had my huge 500lb desk delivered from Office Depot they just drove up, backed their truck up to my garage door and said howdy, here is your box. That was some non descript trucking firm with no national recognition. They were great, no hassles, no extra rip off charges, just hi, here is your box and they dropped it in my garage where I could deal with it in my own time.

Grizzly used UPS Freight, I think UPS Freight must require retardation as a mandate for employment, Especially on the management level. They acted like some kind of wierd quasi goverment organization citing safety excuses why they didn't want to do their job and deliver. Oh heaven forbid a driveway be driven on, it might crack, that was not possible. The truck might spontaneously explode, taking the house with it, can't get the truck near the house. I'll give the driver credit though, he did deliver, but the two of us had to push the nine large heavy crates up my steep drive and into my garage. Apparantly the UPS drivers are under constant tattler monitoring and followed by spys eager to get them into trouble so they are a little paranoid about violating any of UPS's rules and actually doing their job. I'm 53 years old and much too old for that, but thank god I survived it. I paid for lift gate service, and what I got was a freaking joke. A joke UPS will continue to perpetuate. Unfortuantely, we as consumers are kind of stuck with it, cause if the drivers will not bring their trucks in to our loading docks, which by the way I do have, and they won't bring their trucks to our garages, we kind of screwed.

Now on the plus side, the shipment did arrive without any major damage. The table saw box did take a major hit on the backside leaving a 6" diameter hole in it and a corner of the box completely knocked apart, but cause of the way things were packed on pallets there was no sign the machine itself was impacted. I'll have more to report on this as we go, not all "shipping damage" is necessarily visible when inspecting cartons. Of all the cartons which arrived, The 9 by UPS Freight and the dozen or so by standard UPS, only one shows major problems, and that one was by standard UPS, I haven't got into that one yet, but the top of the box was ripped open and parts were hanging out of it. Not sure what that one is yet, but I think it the extention for the mobile base on the table saw. I'll find out soon as it warms up a bit and I've had breakfast.

Last night I did assemble the dust collector, my next post will be about that. It has issues. Stay tuned.
 
#10 ·
welcome to the forum and congrats on some wise purchases. not sure i agree with the money spent on the ZCI and the dado set. at least you avoided the jet/powermatic trap of overpriced yet underperforming tools. that kind of a haul from the WMH tool group would have probably cost twice as much and delivered half the value. let's see some pics as it all comes together. besides, if you've been lurking around here for as long as you say you have, then you know the rule..no pics, didn't happen.
 
#11 ·
Welcome to Ljs Again

Looks like you have a great start as far as equipment goes,I hope you have all of you power ready to rock and roll for all that great stuff. It will be interesting to see how every thing comes together,perhaps a blog is in order? Good luck with all that unpacking an cleaning,that's the part I dislike most about new equipment .
 
#12 ·
Well, Whiskers, welcome to the best woodworking forum on the web.
I also have a few Grizzly tools, as well as many others, they perform well as a whole. You should not have many problems, once everything gets assembled and positioned.

Any ideas on what you think you might like to build, and what kinds of woods you prefer?

I see you live in Athens, Alabama. I'm not that far from you, in Cleveland, Tennessee. The head estimator at my part-time sales job used to be a model builder for the team in Huntsville - he remembers it fondly. He got out in time and pursued a successful career as an HVAC man with his brother in Chattanooga, before part-time retirement. Now he sold off his business and just estimates.
We all have something we are fairly good at here with wood, mine is wooden things with curves in them. I build guitars and bandsaw jewelry boxes, which you can see in my projects.

You do realize you are probably entering the wood market at one of the worst possible times, with the disposable income so low, as you well know, being close to the NASA program as you were. I agree with you totally, it was one of the worst decisions in recent decades, considering how many wonderful things came out of that program.

Good luck, and keep posting, reading, and when you finally put that first project together, post it and join the fun!
 
#13 ·
Welcome to LJ's and to the not so exclusive club of woodworkers. Livin the dream that most of us have had; to spend 5 large on tools at one time. Like Hal stated, I too accumulated all of my stuff a little at a time over many years. I am glad that you were able to buy all of the ursus arctos horribilis tools. I have a Griz cabinet saw and stationary oscillating spindle sander with a new 8" joiner on the way. I have some Jet, Powermatic, Delta and Dewalt stationary tools too, and the Griz stuff matches the others in the fit, finish and functionality all the way. You will not be disappointed with your new products. Now build something! But first, let me caution you in the safety department. Read all of the safety manuals, articles, reviews and any other stuff you can lay your paws on before you plug in anything. These bears will bite, very quickly and very hard. Set them up right and get some safety gear and start slowly. Woodworking has taught patience to this Type A personality geezer over the years. When using your new equipment remember this motto: If what are you are doing seems to maybe be dangerous, then it probably is…STOP. Good luck with what will become your new addiction.
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
Welcome, and hope ya enjoy the Grizz tooling.
Just a point of interest:
If you should have any probs other than ordering, etc., deal with Grizz TECH SERVICES. Not a toll free number, but you'll talk with someone who'll REALLY help you through any issue about the machines.
My lathe, band saw, and table saw are Grizz, and I couldn't be more pleased unless I could find a super rich uncle. 'Course they're all dead now.
Mississippi here, so we're not that far on the map.
Keep on postin'.
Bill
 
#15 ·
Thought I would update a bit for you guys. Got the dust collector assembled. Overall not a bad experience. Even though there was no damage to the cartons, The dust collector did take some damage somewhere. Possibly in the manufacture and packing stage since the type hits I saw would have ruffled the box if it occured in shipping. The main unit has a large flange on the top which had a corner dented down. This was the worse, but it wasn't anything a *********************************** with a pair of vice grips couldn't straighten out. Fortunately another large flange piece fits over top of this one so the cracked paint etc associated with the damage and repair is completely invisible. The other hit was on the underside of the large round band that the cannister and bag are attached to. Again, a little work with those vice grips was able to take care of it. For the most part it assembled fairly easily, but if I had it to do over again I would have a few taps available and run through the bolt holes cause especially on one piece none of the threads were cut well. At one point I had to make one of the bolts sacrificial and use it going thru the backside to cut the threads out of the piece before I could get the pieces bolted together. It takes up a lot less room now that it assembled than when it was in 2 boxes. I plugged it in and thru the switch but unfortunately nothing, and I do mean nothing, happened. At this moment though, I can't swear that the plug I put it into is even live. I've never used it. It was late, so I didn't even bother checking the breaker box yet, but I'll get around to that and post a update.

Most of today I spent unpacking all the myriad of smaller boxes and inventoring and inspecting parts for damage as I don't want to have to wait until I'm assembling something to discover something was wrong, plus all those boxes hanging out the front of my garage I'm afraid are a temptation to thieves. Of all the things on that order only one thing was missing, and it was the cheapest thing I had ordered. 2 2" wire clamps for dust hoses. As for parts quality, inventoring and inspecting the pieces of the shop fox mobile platforms, both units had 1 fixed caster that was faulty in the same manner. They have outer plastic bushings around the wheels and these were shattered on one side. I called the bear's tech people and they said no problem, they will ship replacements for these parts right away.

While not related to this order, just a honorable mention, also today I received a Bosch 1" Rotary Hammer. (I know, off topic, not woodworking). Well I plugged it in and it fires up fine, so no problems seen there so far, but when I opened the paperwork envelope, instead of finding a owners manual for a Bosch Rotary Hammer I found a manual for a dremel moto tool. The warranty card and calling card etc were for a Rotary Hammer though, so it wasn't just someone putting the wrong packet in. Well a toll free call to Bosch has a manual heading my way, and in the meantime the lady walked me thru the few things I needed to really know to work the thing, so just wanted to mention looks like Bosch has good tech support.
 
#16 ·
Hello again folks, no one has made any replies since my last post, hope someone is reading and cares about my opinion, don't need a flood of posts but would appreciate someone saying something now and than.

Got busy again tonight, Unpacked the Bandsaw stand box, and assembled it. Kudos to grizzly for what seems a very easy to assemble and sturdy stand.

I also assembled one of the shop fox mobile bases which their website recommends to buy along with this stand. BAD BEAR! I'd whack the grizzly bear on the nose with a newspaper but not sure if that wise. First off, the stand doesn't exactly fit, collapsed to it's smallest size it is actually a little large for the bandsaw. Increases the footprint of the tool by a good bit. Than again, I am concerned with the fact the bandsaw is going to be very top heavy, and tippy. Considering the line is connected, this would be forgiveable if there was a way to attach the stand to the saws stand without modifications. would have just taken a holes drilled in key places. Also the mobile stand is kind of kludgy in design especially in the way the rails are attached. The recommendations for which bolts to use where are also backwards. Your given some short bolts and some longer bolts, 2 sets of 16, and they tell you to use the short bolts on the casters and the long ones on the rails. Well that leaves the long bolts sticking way up in the air on the rails looking tacky as hell, and in the case of the fixed casters, a pain in the butt to get the nuts started. If your setting up a 691 or the 1023rlx, your kind of stuck with the shop fox mobile bases cause of the available extention, but for any other tool I have to say, I recommend using another brand or building your own base. Fortunately for me, as some may notice I ordered 4 nice casters along with all that miscellaneous junk in this order. Tomorrow night, I'm going to rig up a mobile base for the bandsaw stand, something that will look neater, and nicer, and will make it less tippy.
 
#17 ·
Oh, I forgot to mention this, So far, there is no sign of a manual in the shipment for the bandsaw. I read a review of another brands bandsaw which said the manual was Underneath the huge heavy piece that came, and it wasn't found until the people had pretty much got the thing assembled, and this may be the case again, since all this stuff tends to made in the same place. If so, I think that rather stupid, would think the Chinese and
Grizzyly would be smarter than that. Fortunately Grizzly does offer all manuals online for download, and I had downloaded manuals for everything before I ordered. Part of my research.
 
#18 ·
one of the good things
about doing the assembly yourself

you get familiar with the tool itself
as you get to see it from all different perspectives

most tools need some tweaking
so it's good to know that
makes it easier to keep them in running order

i put carter guides on my older saw
and even though they were specified for my machine
one hole in the machine itself was about 1/16" off
so get a drill and move it over
(fortunately it had nuts
and i didn't need to thread the hole)

rather than sending things back
and waiting for some new one
 
#19 ·
That the way i look at things, repair it and move on. Note my review of the dust collector and the damage sections regarding bent metal. A *********************************** with a pair of vice grips can perform miracles that many wouldn't even think about.
 
#20 ·
them and a good hammer

if and when you do call teck support
you actually know what you are talking about

then they need to listen better
and are more helpful
 
#22 ·
Whiskers: RE bandsaw…"... First off, the stand doesn't exactly fit, collapsed to it's smallest size it is actually a little large for the bandsaw. Increases the footprint of the tool by a good bit. Than again, I am concerned with the fact the bandsaw is going to be very top heavy, and tippy…."

I actually cut a larger footprint double thickness piece of 3/4" ply when I put my BS on a mobile base. Works like a champ and MUCH more stable. Plus it allowed me to open the cabinet door on my unit (Rikon 10-325).
 
#23 ·
I find it really interesting that there are two concurrent threads regarding large Grizzly purchases. In this thread, Whiskers is working through the tools and issues and seemingly enjoying the process. In the other thread which references a CL ad from Richmond, the purchaser was totally frustrated by all the "junk" worth scrap metal prices that he wants to sell and order new machinery from a different manufacturer.

I rarely see Grizzly as having the "best in class" tools, but I often see them as being the "best value".
 
#24 ·
AandC, I guess expectations have a lot to do with it. I knew going in that Grizzly wasn't on top of the heap in quality, and that there would be some issues to deal with. I've been reading about Grizzly for a couple years here and in other forums. Their tools have a good reputation for being functional and great bang for the buck, but they are Chinese or Taiwanese made. Most everything I bought was supposed to have come from Taiwan, which supposedly is a little better than China, but when shipping 500+ lbs of something overseas to the states, little mishaps are to be expected and life is easier if you just fix them and move on rather than raise a fuss. Overall I've been very happy so far, I've gotten what I expected.
 
#25 ·
I thought maybe a liittle update on the progress of things in my shop. Last night I made some additions to my shop which had nothing to do with Grizzly. The first was I received another Blu-Ray player from Amazon. What's really neat about this is it is WiFi capable and it plays all the videos I've downloaded over the years seamlessly from my computer. After all, you can't have a fully functional woodshop without a good entertainment system.

The 2nd was I made a venture into the city and paid Harbor Freight a little visit. Picked up a few small items and a US General, Black, 3 (really 2 and 2 half) drawer rollaround cart for $120. Let me tell you, this thing is well made and spacious. I've grown tired of scattering tools and heavy tool boxes around my garage. I always wanted one of those big rollaround chests with all the drawers but couldn't justify the expense, nor did I have that many tools. This is perfect, plenty of room for all my mechanic type tools, and it has a bottom shelf that will hold many other tools or tool chests. I thorougly recommend it.

Tonight I got to work on the jointer. This thing is built like a freaking tank. I had to get creative in mounting the motor since I was by myself. The instructions say to have one person hold the motor and another tip the base up on it's side, than place the motor on the motor mounts. Hmm, one slight problem, There no other person here. Time for some *********************************** ingenuity. I cut a piece of binders twine about 3 foot long, tied one end to a part of the stand, and than threaded the other end thru a mounting hole and than thru the motors corresponding mounting hole, than tied a simple half hitch. Than I lifted the motor roughly into place and quickly with one hand grabbed the free end of the twine and pulled the slack out of the hitch, Weight mostly supported now all I had to do was add a 2nd hitch. Now the motor was secured close to in place, Threaded the twine again thru the 2nd hole in the motor mount and motor and this time made a very tight tie in so the motor was really held in place. Now it dangling by binders twine roughly in place and I was able to stand the stand on it's side as instructed, and than install the motor. First putting the bolts in the holes not occupied by binders twine, than removing the twine of course I bolted the other side. The rest was quick, and simple, not much to do there really. Than I hit a little snag with Grizzlys directions. It said, "using lifting straps with the forklift", okay, a quick check of the box revealed Grizzly neglected to send me the forklift. Not sure what I'm going to do now. Got a neighbor down the road who has a tractor with this thing he uses to move those big huge round bales of hay with. It has 3 prongs, 2 real low to the ground and one up high. I'm going to pay him a visit and see if maybe we can't use that to put the massivly huge and heavy main piece on the stand.
 
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