About My Bandsaw
My big bandsaw is a Grizzly G1019. I sure am happy with it. It's not the biggest or the best, but it does everything I need it for. If I remember right, it was about $300. It's a 14" with a 3/4 horsepower motor. I think it was a great deal. It came 3 days after I ordered it. I picked it up at the local freight terminal. I opened the box in the bed of my pickup and carried in the separate pieces. It weighs 195 pounds and I didn't have anyone to help me with it.
It went together fairly easily. Setting the bandsaw unit onto the stand was not as bad as I thought it might be. Got a chance to do it again a few weeks later when I got the riser block. Anyway, it came with a blade already installed and it seemed to be properly tensioned and tracking O. K. I adjusted the guides, squared the table and switched it on. It cut straight as an arrow with no blade lead. I couldn't have been happier. I knew the stock blade wouldn't be very good so I got a couple of better blades. Cut out a few boxes and then tried some resawing. I could only resaw 6" without the riser and it handled it very well. Decided to get the riser block which added another 6" for resawing. Putting the riser on went smoothly. Had to buy a wrench for the big bolt which holds it together. Again, setting the head on the block was easier than I thought. Checked it for coplanar and finished putting it back together. It still saws with no drift. Of course, the blades now are 12" longer. 105" instead of 93".
I replaced the metal guide blocks with wood blocks. The first ones I made were oak, but when I got a piece of Iroko I used that. It's oily and I thought that might be good. Plus I don't think anyone else has Iroko guide blocks! I can set the small blades, teeth and all, in-between the blocks and squeeze the blade fairly tightly. That holds the blade true. I've rounded the backs of the small blades with a stone and put on some vegetable oil for lubrication. The small blades are 3/16"- 10 T.P.I. raker blades. They work very well for cutting out the drawers of my bandsaw boxes. They will literally "turn on a dime". And they cut smoothly. I've gotten so I can change a blade in about 5 minutes, so for the outsides of the boxes I can use a 1/4" or 3/8" hook tooth blade with fewer teeth per inch. They cut faster, but there is a little more sanding to do. That's easy to do on the outside of a box.
I have been using Timberwolf blades. They work with less tension, which I think is good. I have only resawn 8" boards so far, with a 1/2" wide blade, but the 3/4 hp. motor is very strong. It only took a couple of minutes each to resaw 8' Cherry and Iroko. I made a wood fence for resawing. I just clamp it to the table. Along with a feather board, it works just fine.
After using the saw for over a year, I finally converted it to 240 volts. I was popping the breaker during resawing unless I was very careful. Now that isn't happening any more.