Congrats Shozzy, that's a fine saw. I have the GO555P, and it has been a great tool. I've had mine for about 2 1/2 years, and added the riser block. With a 1/2 blade, I regularly re saw QSWO 10" wide with no issues. I love t, enjoy yours.

 

thanks for the review.i've been eyeballing the same bs just need to pull the trigger before the end of the year.congrats on the new saw!!!

 

Congrats on new saw, always nice to get a new, usable tool. Looks like you are ready to saw, and that base also looks like a dandy.

 

I have one and like it too. Before you get too far, watch this video for tips on how to adjust it:

 

Looks like a nice set up…. I especially like the fence.

 

I also just bought the same saw inn the beginning of November. The only other band saw I had was a Skill 10" that couldn't cut 1/2" stock without the blade falling off the wheels.
This saw is fantastic. I used the stock blade to cut 5/4 and 6/4 Hard Maple and it did just fine, but I put a Timberline blade on and it's night and day. The new blade is way better than the stock one.
I don't know if I will be using it for re-saw, but if I do, I'll just get the riser kit when I'm ready
My first project was a rocking horse for my grand daughter. I am just about finished with it, just in time for Christmas.
I hope you enjoy yours as much as I am enjoying mine.

 

Just got the same saw! I haven't spent much time with it ,my wife just had a baby so it might be a little bit before I put in some time on it and I will get a new blade for it as well. My first impression is very good for this saw,it's my first bandsaw as well but so far I'm very happy with my purchase.enjoy!

 

I have the G0555X on my wish list. I'm hoping the added cost of the cast iron wheels is worth it.

 

I've done everything except hit the buy button. Darn near bought it from Amazon then found a link to Grizzly and it's $400 cheaper from them. All I need is one more positive response and I'm all in.

 

Congrats on your new band saw! You sound very happy with the saw. Great review! Enjoy!

 

I'm going to pick up the exact same machine from the freight company tomorrow…I absolutely can't wait. Congrats on the new saw.

 

Shozzy - so after about a week of ownership, have you used this saw much, and can you report anything additional? I've been on the fence about purchasing this for about 5 days in a row.

 

So far no complaints at all regarding this saw, I actually purchased another viking blade for it today, its a 3/16 10tpi and you can cut tight radius corners with no problems at all. I also got a 4" - 2.5" adapter for the dust collector port so I can hook my shop vac to it and it works well. Made my first bandsaw box on it and it was a pleasure to use compared to my broken delta benchtop saw. I havent had the need or opportunity to resaw yet but will update you when I have a chance. I highly recommend this saw especially for the price. I have yet to see a comparable unit at this price and I havent seen anywhere on the unit where corners were cut.

 

Tony, have you picked yours up yet??

 

I did. Spent the better part of the afternoon getting it put together and set up. Simply put, I'm thrilled with it. It's officially the nicest thing in my whole shop.

 

Great to hear tony,

Randy and recycle, you pull the trigger yet?

I bought myself a little christmas present today and picked up a carter accuright circle cutting jig and just finished installing it. Out of the box it looks great, im going to write a review about it after I have a chance to try it out.
On another note, bonus points to the general 50-025 mobile base as it has become the place to store manuals, mitre gauge and even the fence when its not required or when the jig is installed.

Heres the jig installed, also you can see behind the saw picked up some cedar with some nice contrasting sap wood, I plan on really having fun with the saw and making some bandsaw boxes this set of days off.

Sorry, not sure why the pictures are flipped

 

I did! I listed my old 12" craftsman on craigslist last evening and it was sold within 30 minutes. I placed my Grizzly order today and I am super excited. Thanks for your review - it is partly why I purchased this one.

 

I figured the first project for the saw should be a bandsaw box and it worked out great, I am truly in love with this machine!

 

Very nice! You wasted no time. I got a shipping notice late yesterday that my saw shipped. Obviously excited.
I want the riser but didn't want to spend the extra $80 at this time. I will get it and some larger blades in a few months.

 

I'm also planning on getting the riser kit eventually, probably should have just done it from the get go because I have now bought two blades that will be useless once the riser is installed. Enjoy your new saw

 

Thanks for the review, I am torn between this model and the 17" anniversary model.
after reading all the comments, I don't think I can go wrong with the 14",but… I would never need anothe BS if I got the 17"er.
What should I do????

 

I too have purchased this saw. But I had purchased the Polar Bear version a few weeks back and received it. I was under the impression that they are basically the same saws and the Polar Bear was being phased out so they had it on sale for about $100.00 cheaper. (Probably still do at the time of my writing this post.)

But I discovered several issues with the new saw.

1. The tension rod compression spring was completely compressed at the 3/8" blade size mark. The rod and nuts on it were basically at full range.

2. The down rod would not allow me to properly set it so that the guides would clear the blade properly at both bottom and top of the rod. i.e. the rod had a great deal of play in it. Even after attempting to micro-adjust the set screw it would still "twist" the rod when tightening it. So when I setup the guides at one end it would actually be pressing the blade hard on one guide when moving the rod.

3. One of the guide bearings had a "flat spot" in it. The bearing would turn about 3/4" rotation and then want to lock up instead of spinning as it should.

4. The riser kit was not readily available for this saw at time of purchase (it was backordered until around the end of June or beginning of July). I had purchased the kit and was waiting on it.

I called Grizzly and the tech gave me my choice of us trying to repair it myself with his guidance via the phone or RMA it. After careful consideration I decided that since I had a brand new machine and wanted "piece of mind" that I would RMA it. They very quickly got that arranged and within two days the machine was on its way back to Grizzly. I don't think you can ask for better customer service than that! Thanks Grizzly! You guys have handled this with the utmost care and professionalism.

The day after I shipped the P series back I had watched a review video done by Jay Bates for the LANV. It made me think … or should I say "re-think" the Polar Bear purchase. So I called Grizzly and asked if it would be a problem for me to "upgrade" to the LANV since we were already shipping the P series back. I thought for sure they would say it would not be possible. But they didn't hesitate. Let me pay the difference and was upgraded to the LANV! It was actually only about $80.00 difference in price because they applied the shipping discount and also a discount for purchasing the saw and riser kit at the same time!

My riser kit arrived today. The saw will be here tomorrow afternoon or early evening.

I would like to say that like many of you guys I have limited space as well ( 1 car garage/laundry room and it's only 1 car if you have one of those Smart cars or you ain't getting out of the vehicle! LOL) and I don't have "friendly" neighbors at all. So I have to handle that beast by myself. One post stated, as well does the manual for both the saw setup and riser kit install, that you need two people. Well, that would be good but I can say that I had setup that P series from box to stand by myself. The answer is simple. You just dismantle the top arm from the saw as if you were going to install a riser kit. This makes it much more manageable by yourself. And since I'm installing the kit and already have it I will essentially be killing two birds with one stone… err.. with one block of oak! LOL

Let me be clear here. I have no affiliation with Grizzly. Also, I have limited experience with band saw work. I had purchased a few new and used bench top models. The limitations of these were just too much for the things I wanted to do but did give me some basic knowledge of use and setup of a band saw. I than purchased a used Rigid 14". I only gave $130.00 for it. I discovered some things about it that I missed before the purchase and decided to sell it because Rigid is no longer making band saws and parts for it were not readily available at all. I sold it for $300 after owning it for a just a few weeks. I used that money to purchase a 14" Delta saw for $200 that worked great but I discovered that Delta doesn't make riser kits at all and the only way to add one was to purchase another brand kit and modify it. I didn't like that idea at all so I sold it at a nice profit of $100.00 as well. I decided I did not want to continue getting second hand machines and researched, features vs. price comparisons. Yes, there are other saws out there that have more to offer. Not a lot more. But more. But those saws that have enough features to offer that would warrant choosing one over the Grizzly are going to cost you 3 to 5 times and even more with some. I suppose if you are doing production work than the cost would be beneficial. But for the money I say Grizzly is the way to go. They can offer these prices because they have cut out the middle man so you are not paying that retail mark up. You are essentially getting your tools at a wholesale price.

So I am anxiously awaiting tomorrow to come! I will post more once I receive it, get it setup and have made a little dust. But I am sure that I will be most pleased!

 

I too have purchased this saw. But I had purchased the Polar Bear version a few weeks back and received it. I was under the impression that they are basically the same saws and the Polar Bear was being phased out so they had it on sale for about $100.00 cheaper. (Probably still do at the time of my writing this post.)

But I discovered several issues with the new saw.

1. The tension rod compression spring was completely compressed at the 3/8" blade size mark. The rod and nuts on it were basically at full range.

2. The down rod would not allow me to properly set it so that the guides would clear the blade properly at both bottom and top of the rod. i.e. the rod had a great deal of play in it. Even after attempting to micro-adjust the set screw it would still "twist" the rod when tightening it. So when I setup the guides at one end it would actually be pressing the blade hard on one guide when moving the rod.

3. One of the guide bearings had a "flat spot" in it. The bearing would turn about 3/4" rotation and then want to lock up instead of spinning as it should.

4. The riser kit was not readily available for this saw at time of purchase (it was backordered until around the end of June or beginning of July). I had purchased the kit and was waiting on it.

I called Grizzly and the tech gave me my choice of us trying to repair it myself with his guidance via the phone or RMA it. After careful consideration I decided that since I had a brand new machine and wanted "piece of mind" that I would RMA it. They very quickly got that arranged and within two days the machine was on its way back to Grizzly. I don t think you can ask for better customer service than that! Thanks Grizzly! You guys have handled this with the utmost care and professionalism.

The day after I shipped the P series back I had watched a review video done by Jay Bates for the LANV. It made me think … or should I say "re-think" the Polar Bear purchase. So I called Grizzly and asked if it would be a problem for me to "upgrade" to the LANV since we were already shipping the P series back. I thought for sure they would say it would not be possible. But they didn t hesitate. Let me pay the difference and was upgraded to the LANV! It was actually only about $80.00 difference in price because they applied the shipping discount and also a discount for purchasing the saw and riser kit at the same time!

My riser kit arrived today. The saw will be here tomorrow afternoon or early evening.

I would like to say that like many of you guys I have limited space as well ( 1 car garage/laundry room and it s only 1 car if you have one of those Smart cars or you ain t getting out of the vehicle! LOL) and I don t have "friendly" neighbors at all. So I have to handle that beast by myself. One post stated, as well does the manual for both the saw setup and riser kit install, that you need two people. Well, that would be good but I can say that I had setup that P series from box to stand by myself. The answer is simple. You just dismantle the top arm from the saw as if you were going to install a riser kit. This makes it much more manageable by yourself. And since I m installing the kit and already have it I will essentially be killing two birds with one stone… err.. with one block of oak! LOL

Let me be clear here. I have no affiliation with Grizzly. Also, I have limited experience with band saw work. I had purchased a few new and used bench top models. The limitations of these were just too much for the things I wanted to do but did give me some basic knowledge of use and setup of a band saw. I than purchased a used Rigid 14". I only gave $130.00 for it. I discovered some things about it that I missed before the purchase and decided to sell it because Rigid is no longer making band saws and parts for it were not readily available at all. I sold it for $300 after owning it for a just a few weeks. I used that money to purchase a 14" Delta saw for $200 that worked great but I discovered that Delta doesn t make riser kits at all and the only way to add one was to purchase another brand kit and modify it. I didn t like that idea at all so I sold it at a nice profit of $100.00 as well. I decided I did not want to continue getting second hand machines and researched, features vs. price comparisons. Yes, there are other saws out there that have more to offer. Not a lot more. But more. But those saws that have enough features to offer that would warrant choosing one over the Grizzly are going to cost you 3 to 5 times and even more with some. I suppose if you are doing production work than the cost would be beneficial. But for the money I say Grizzly is the way to go. They can offer these prices because they have cut out the middle man so you are not paying that retail mark up. You are essentially getting your tools at a wholesale price.

So I am anxiously awaiting tomorrow to come! I will post more once I receive it, get it setup and have made a little dust. But I am sure that I will be most pleased!

- TwoThumbs

Well folks, this went to the deep south as fast as it could. The shipment arrived the day after my original post but there were two major issues….

1. The two boxes that were shipped to me were so badly damaged that I could actually see the parts through the Styrofoam inside. I see "GREEN" and not "BLACK" that the LANV should have been. Obviously alarmed I then notice that the box with the actual saw in it had the incorrect item number. They shipped me the LX instead. So while the driver stood there I called Grizzly as I was thinking I would do one of two things. Either refuse the shipment or make some sort of deal where Grizzly would give me some sort of compensation, assuming this LX was in working order, and I would simply keep the LX since it is supposedly the same saw as the LANV with the only difference being the color of the paint.

Well, both the driver and Grizzly said I cannot refuse the shipment. Grizzly stated they would simply have it RMA'd and ship me the correct saw. But when I attempted to work something out with them to just keep the LX I was only offered a $25.00 gift certificate that could only be used at Grizzly.com. This hardly seemed like a good idea or just compensation to "settle" for something I really did not choose to begin with.

As I moved the box for the saw into my garage/shop there parts falling out into my driveway! Good thing I didn't decided to keep the LX because I have no idea if parts are missing or not.

So, I took the saw in and now I'm having issues with Grizzly getting me the RMA information to send this one back. They wanted to make me wait even longer to get the LANV on the move to me until they seen that the LX had been shipped back to them but I put up a fight about that yesterday by asking for a full refund instead. They then told me that they would get the LANV shipped out yesterday if I chose to not take a refund. I was at odds with myself about this as I had truly lost confidence with Grizzly that it would get here in a timely manner "AND" in good working order. Note: I had also purchased the Grizzly scroll saw and it had to be returned as well due to a problem with the blade tensioner not keeping tension on the blades during use. But I told them I would continue with this order if they indeed would get the LANV on the move to me yesterday. It did not ship and I still have not gotten the needed bill of lading to ship the LX back.

I called this morning at just before 11:00 a.m. to find out what the status of the bill of lading is and was told it would be sent to me immediately. As of right now, still no bill of lading. No, it didn't go into my junk mail. I checked. :'(

I knew they had also received the above mentioned scroll back on the 1st and I wanted to find out its status so I called back because no one had contacted me regarding the status of it either.

Having lost complete confidence I cancelled the order for the LANV and will be purchasing the Rikon 724. It will be a little more expensive but it seems to be better way to go for about $150.00 more then I was spending on this LANV.