Grizzly G1023SL TS Overall First Impression

Good review. I look forward to seeing your tests and actual use.

Congrats on a very nice saw!

-- Behind the Bark is a lot of Heartwood----Charles, Centennial, CO

Congratulations on the new saw. Good review. I used the Roller Stand to install the extension wings.
Saw blade to miter slot and fence to miter slot the norm. But, I don’t get Blade to rip fence 2.006/7 ?

-- Router è ancora il mio nome.

Thanks. I look forward to putting it to use. I’m sure that I will be pleased with the results and from other reviews it looks like it should hold up for sure.

The 2.006/7 is just that the fence being parallel to the blade, but there is a .001 to .002 difference from the front fence measurement and the back measurement. I used the blade to measure along with the miter slot to make the fence parallel with the saw blade :)

Nice review
You will like that saw I have the 1023 Z series which is about 11 yrs. old now
Never had any problems with it

This is an excellent review. I have a lot of respect for both the quality of Grizzly’s products and their customer service. This saw should last you for many years.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Great review…very detailed…Would have loved to see some pictures! I am getting ready to pull the trigger finally on a Griz G0690..I hope it comes as dialed in as yours was!

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

excellent review, thanks so much.

just wanted to pass along that after many years, i finally broke down and ordered a zero clearance insert for my 1023 right tilt. even though i have a sharp woodworker II blade on it, there is some tearout on thin oak veneer plywood using the standard issue throat plate. i know several (well 3 that work) techniques to prevent tearout but my latest project was a good excuse, and I wanted to see if a $25 accessory could really prevent or at least minimize tearout. so after a comedy of getting the insert prepared, i can safely say, there is no nada zip zero tearout. unbelievable, but true. what a saw, what a blade, what an insert. life will be good for you too!!! the grizzly 1023SL (and RT) is the best value saw on the market today, hands down, bar none. there is nothing on the market i know of to compare at the price point, and even then some. IMHO of course, and my $0.01, deflation, you know.

-- david roberts, houston area, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but that has never been a problem for me."

congrats on the new saw. Thanks for the review.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Thanks guys. I have uploaded 2 pics of the TS. The TS is in a different location from these pictures now. My next order of business is to make a ZCI for the TS which won’t be hard from the looks of it.

My TS was shipped from PA looked like and luckily it was dialed in very nice. I did not expect it to actually be dialed in that good. I could have used the fence as it was, but it had a 1/16 runout on the back end, but I prefer for all my cuts to be as exact as possible so I spent a bit dialing it in where I wanted it.

I made test cuts last night and so far it is extremely quite and saws through 4/4 oak like butter. I haven’t tried anything thicker, but from what I came from this saw is a dream. The nickel test works also :)

congrats on your new Griz! I own a small woodworking business and I’ve had my 1023 for almost 3 years now. It has made a LOT of sawdust. It has a little bit of vibration now because the belts need to be replaced or at the least adjusted, but otherwise it is an excellent tool. Very accurate and powerful. If you don’t already have one, invest in a Forrest saw blade, they are well worth the money. You just send them to the factory for resharpening when needed, and they really make a predictable and beautiful cut. Enjoy!

Thank you. I have been wanting to get a Forrest blade for it, but haven’t yet. Right now the 1023SL shipped is only $899, that is a very good deal that Grizzly has going on now. If I had waited 2 months I could have saved 200 dollars, but I wanted it then though :)

Kevin

khays,

You’re going to love the combination of the 1023SL and the WoodWorker II. I’ve had the WWII for almost 15 years and it’s been used in 4 different saws with the 1023SL being the latest. I just had it sharpened (by Forrest) three months back. Last weekend I was cutting some large maple plywood panels and it was simply wonderful.

BTW, your review helped me make my purchasing decision. Thanks!

-- Life is too short to suffer bad food and lousy speakers

bunkie, nice to hear about the WWII. Lots of good stuff i’ve read/heard about Forrest. Thanks for the info :)

Glad that my review helped you out. I’ve used mine on a daily basis for the most part and it’s wonderful to use.

Have a good one bunkie,

Kevin

I have this saw for a couple years now. I hope you love it as much as I do.

I too lacked a helper when putting it together… luckily I was able to “walk” it off the palette and on to a mobile base pretty easy. Some roller stands helped to support the wings while I shimmed and bolted them on.

-- Laziness - Apathy = Efficiency

I assembled mine by myself. The hardest part was getting it onto the mobile base. The wings were not a problem. I Held the wing in place vertically while I inserted and threaded the first bolt. I then pivoted the wing on the installed bolt and clamped a level to the wing and the saw while I inserted the second bolt.

The fence went together pretty easily although one potential assembly item looked to be a real bear. ShopFox supplies some washers that are used to raise the square tube so that the fence has the right clearance above the saw table. The washers are supposed to be inserted between the angle iron and the square tube. There are four bolts and lining up the washers and placing the heavy bar on top of them without causing the washers to shift looks to be very difficult. I found it easier to dispense with the washers and to adjust the angle iron’s height instead.

-- Life is too short to suffer bad food and lousy speakers

Just purchased the same saw and have been using it about a week. Great saw, plenty of power and excellent accuracy. So far my only complaint is the power switch which is blocked visually by the fence rail so I find I have to feel around for the stop button and end up often pressing the start button before I find the stop button. I am in the process of changing that situation by moving the fence box section and back rail 10” to the right and then removing some of the angle directly above the magnetic switch. This will also give me 10” more cutting room.

Rab,

What an interesting idea. I was looking at the parts diagram in the on-line manual (I love that Grizzly does that!) and I’m intrigued by the idea of moving the fence box beam to the right to increase the cut capacity. I can see that it might be possible to test this idea without cutting anything by simply unbolting the beam, moving it so that it lines uP with the next right-most hole in the angle and securing it with three bolts instead of four.

Definitely something to try this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration!

-- Life is too short to suffer bad food and lousy speakers

Keep us informed on the progress. That sounds like a good idea. Yeah, so far it’s a great saw, can’t complain one bit.

Kevin

Rab,

I implemented your suggestion. It works like a charm. I made an extension of the back rail.

Here are some photos:

The saw before:

Rip capacity is 26”. I removed the square tube and remounted it ten inches to the right. I then made the back rail extender:

It’s about 15” long. The back rail has two lovely countersunk holes exactly where I needed them! So I got out my vix bit and drilled perfectly-centered pilot holes. I then screwed the extender in place with 2 #6 drywall screws:

The top edge of the extender is slightly below the top edge of the rail. I did it this way because I wanted to apply some edge-banding to give a nice smooth surface. Here’s the revised extender:

And here’s the result. 36” of rip capacity!

and

I can’t detect any deflection, so I think it’s a success. Next up, a router table to fill up that space.

-- Life is too short to suffer bad food and lousy speakers

Why don’t you build a 1×2 torsion box and put an extension table on it. It is safer and more convenient, especially when cutting thin material

This was something of an experiment. These days I cutting an awful lot of plywood, not thin material, so the current setup is fine. However, I do plan to fill in the space with a router table as I currently don’t have one and I’m space-challenged. I’m not sure I need 50 or more inches of rip capacity, but I can tell you with certainty that I’m often wishing for 29” or 30”. This is an easy, no-cost way to get there.

As I see it, the Grizzly is a work-in-progress. I have a background process running in my head to come up with a better blade guard and splitter. Nothing’s come of it yet, but stay tuned.

-- Life is too short to suffer bad food and lousy speakers

bunkie, good job man. I seem to want a 29 or 30” rip at times also and from the looks of it, you’ve got it :) I’ll definately keep this handy and take a stab at it soon. Yeah, put you a router table in that empty space. It will look better, come in handy and save space instead of having an actual “norm” router table or the like.

Good job,

Kevin

Here are pictures of my changes so far.

I cut a bit of the rail away to get better access to the switch. After moving the fence box tube 10” to the right

Had a friend weld 12” angle to the ends of each rail. The front rail is 3×3x.25 angle and the back rail is 2.5×2.5 x .25 angle. Also added a table which I will turn into a router table in the future. I now have a little more than 36” rip capacity.

This photo shows the back rail and also a little bit of an outfeed table I added.

Still working out all the kinks on the outfeed table due to the splitter. But its nice not having cuts falling on the floor.

Nice going there. I’m needing to build me an outfeed table also very soon. I was tinkering with the idea of building one that folded down when not in use just to save some space since I have a smaller garage.

Thanks for the pics on the updates to the table saw :)

Kevin

Rab,

Nicely done!

-- Life is too short to suffer bad food and lousy speakers