Grizzly Industrial G0513-17" 2 HP Bandsaw

Still new and practicing with the blade that came with it. Waiting to put my Timberwolf blade on when I start real resawing.

This saw has plenty of power, the guides are pretty decent for the price, runs smoothly, is not too heavy to move around, and is in general a fine piece of equipment. The included fence is, for my purposes, a complete and utter piece of junk. I tried and tried to get used to it, enjoy it, whatever. However, it IS possible to upgrade the fence, though not with another Grizzly product (I asked their helpful customer service team... one insisted the fence was the greatest thing since sliced bread, the other admitted that the position of the release handle was less than ideal). The fence to upgrade to (don't even think about it, if you own one, just do it. and if thinking of buying this saw, order the fence at the same time) is the JET 708747 (asin B0002ZHF3S).Basically, the grizzly fence is lightweight, doesn't move terribly smoothly, does not lock down tightly enough for me to be confident (though admittedly I have not actually slid the fence while locked), and worst of all (this is horrifying) to release the fence you must raise the handle, which is 2 inches to the RIGHT of the fence!!!! That means if you have wood more than 1.5 inches wide/thick along the fence, you must REMOVE the wood from the table before repositioning the fence (!!!!!). This is the most shockingly stupid design I could imagine.The Jet fence is an astoundingly huge improvement. I had to wait a month to get mine from Amazon. It comes with an excellent resaw attachment. If you plan to resaw with this saw (and it is truly excellent as a resaw saw after upgrading the fence) do the fence upgrade. This saw would get 5 stars from me for value IF it came with a decent fence.The nice thing about the Jet fence upgrade is that it bolts right on (keep your original screws from the Grizzly fence) and requires only one hole/notch drilled in the back of the fence to mount the rear skid guide, apparently the Grizzly table is about 3/4 inch deeper than the 16" Jet bandsaw table.Using the 1" wide 3/4 varitooth carbide tipped blade offered by grizzly for this saw, resawing up to full capacity of the saw is a breeze. The blade is pricey but worth it. I believe the brand for the blade is Lenox.******Update, after using this saw for a couple years, my opinions stand: great saw, awful (stock) fence. The reason I'm updating the review is I noticed that Grizzly has introduced an improved model, the G0513X2, which has cast iron wheels, a bigger table, a cast iron trunnion, and a different fence. I haven't used it, but I'm guessing the fence is a big improvement (anything would be better than the stock fence, and I still enjoy using the Jet fence described above). I wish I could upgrade with parts, but apparently not possible. If I were buying a saw now, I'd pay the extra $200 for the G0513X2, also they have a 19" 3HP model for $550 more that looks really nice and fits a wider blade for resawing. But this saw is still a good one, which I use for most of my milling while the table saw gathers dust.

I spent SO much time debating over which bandsaw to purchase... Like most home woodworkers, when I decided I wanted a bandsaw, I started looking at 14" models. And I looked. And I looked. And I read the reviews. And I googled and I read the message boards on the woodworking sites.A lot of people said that the Rikon 14" was the best saw for the money, as far as resaw capacity and horsepower. It is one of those things that for $100 more you can get this but for $100 more you can get THIS! I finally decided that the Grizzly had the best options for the money so I clicked order. I still think that the Grizzly is better all around than the Rikon and less money.The saw is awesome. It is a beast of a machine at about 6' tall and you won't move it without a mobile base. It LOOKS like it cost a lot more than it did. I like most everything about it. It has more resaw capacity than any saw for the price and has a lot more going for it than a lot of saws that cost a lot more. Again, if I could have spent $100 more, I would have got the model with the cast iron wheels instead of this one with aluminum but for $100 more... I haven't yet had any problems with the wheels. Hopefully they will hold up or maybe you can order them as an option somewhere. It does have roller guides which will save you $150 not having to buy Carter guides. They might not be quite as good, but better than what comees on most 14" saws. The fence could go either way. It is a good fence as long as you don't need to adjust it with a piece against it because the fence clamp is on the right side. Kind of dumb design but it is a nice fence and a shame to throw it out. The motor will run on 110 or 220 and since I don't have 220 where I have the saw, it is wired for 110 and I have had no problems even resawing oak.Do yourself a favor if you haven't had much experience with bandsaws. Throw the blade that comes with it out and don't try to make due with it. If this saw is a major investment for you, you may tend to think you will make due because you are spending so much money, but then you get frustrated because the blade wanders all over the place and burns your workpiece and so on. Call Timberwolf and tell them what you do and they will tell you the most affordable means to do it, then cut you some very nice blades and send them to you for very little money. It will make it a totally different machine and you will shiver just thinking about how sharp those blades are...If you have had bandsaws you may know all this or know more and better ways but if you are making the leap into one for the first time (like me) and don't know a lot from experience, maybe you can benefit from the hours and hours I spent researching and using this bandsaw. I would still choose this one over all the others in this general price range if I had to do it again.