Eye opener on Grizzly marketing.

I’m not to familiar with King, but I do know that General make some very fine tools.

-- "At its best, life is completely unpredictable." - Christopher Walken

how about shop fox? Its owned by the owner of Grizzly, many items are almost identical..and they may not have that exclusivity agreement…

-- If you can't build it, code it. If you can't code it, build it. But always ALWAYS take a picture.

Too bad .sorry no experance with the other brands

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Mark, I have a Rikon 14” Deluxe and love it and the price isn’t that bad…

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Jet makes a nice bandsaw? They have sales on now with free shipping on some of their units…I don’t know which ones for sure….The prices are not that much different then Grizzly….and I have used several of these saws…The Jet deluxe 14” has an optional riser that allows you to resaw up to 12” which works great when combined with a woodslicer blade (the option only adds about $90.00 to the cost of the saw).

Delta also makes one I believe….I haven’t used one…but they are usually decent.

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

depict – My understanding is that the two owners are brothers (I’ve yet to find a definitive source to the veracity of this) and have an agreement between them, so I would suspect it is the same with shop fox.

Kindlingmaker – I’ve heard good things about the Rikon, I will check into them as well, thanks for the tip.

reggie – I think the free shipping goes by the boards when they ship outside the USA…but I will check into that, thanks for the idea.

-- "Checking for square? what madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2

I thought about GI and King also when I was looking for my bandsaw. End up getting a Steel City 14”. I think SC has a cast iron frame BS out now that has riser block resaw capacity built in.

Mind you for something comparable to Grizzly price you are not getting General (made in Canada) you are getting General International (import). The lower end GI 14” looks good, but for the price they didn’t include a fence, a cheap switch, and the fact that it got aluminum wheels, I didn’t buy it.

I remember checking the King Industrial (make sure you get the King Indstrial saw not the plain King) and was impressed by its quality feel. Didn’t get to test it. Would’ve bought it if only it had a quick tension release. Can’t remember if the wheel are cast iron or aluminum

-- Ed

Shop Fox does sell in Canada AFAIK, and are often nearly identical to the Grizzly versions, plus come with a 2 year warranty.

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

I haven’t had any luck trying to get Jet products into Canada in the past (not saying you can’t I just had no success at it). If i was looking for a Band Saw right now I would go with the Steel City, the price will probably be a little better than the General, or Delta and Steel City sells good quality equipment and there customer service is very good. I have a Steel City 8” jointer which I like very much. The Steel City 14” Band Saw comes with a mobile base, fence, built in riser kit, quick release blade tension, you will appreciate those options down the road. I have no experience with the King products. Good luck, just my two bits worth of rambling.

-- Mike

Hi Mark, we are in the same boat it seems :)
Sometimes it sucks to live in Canada, we just don’t get the selection of merchandise the yankees get…but our hockey players are much better :)
I looked at the steel city on the weekend as described above. Sorry, but it just looks cheaply made to me. I also really want to be able to add a riser and get 12” of re-saw capacity, otherwise the saw will be less useful to me and the dude says no riser capability. $850ish I think was the price.
There are cheap King Canada saws in the sub $600 range that I may have a peek at next weekend.
This sucks, I wish things were still made in North America and not overseas.
Keep me posted on how you make out.

-- Scott "Some days you are the big dog, some days you are the fire hydrant"

Scott – I believe Grizzly ships to Canada now – least it says so on their website. They currently have a “no brokerage fees” special, whatever the heck that means (but it sounds like a good thing). What do I know though, I’m a yank.

-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.

I 2nd the Rikon, I have it and am very happy with it!

I’m with live4ever, check their site they are shipping to Canada and there are no fees.

twokidsnosleep – rather live here than anywhere else in the world… I can always get stuff but can’t beat living here in the TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE :-)

Steel City was sold at one place here in Brandon but they aren’t open any more :-( I didn’t get a good feeling about SC stuff when I saw it though…expensive and didn’t know anybody who actually had one.

live4ever/ClayandNancy – I’ve heard that Grizzly is shipping into Canada now, but I already bought my BS so maybe when I look for a replacement tablesaw? :-)

drjz1974 – I actually bought a Rikon 10-325 based mostly on the reviews here. I really like it and am very happy with the resaw capability ~13 inches I think.

-- "Checking for square? what madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2

Mark, Have you thought of driving into the US and picking one up and driving back to Canada? Might be worth looking into?

Erwin, Jacksonville, FL

-- Erwin, Jacksonville, FL