Grizzly G0555X 14" Extreme Series Bandsaw

Comment: I've used this saw for about 6 months and I continue to be impressed. My bandsaw experience include 3 other 14" bandsaws from various brands. This one is the best by far. I did not add the 6" extension block. After delivery I was too impatient to wait for help in assembling the machine, so I did it by myself. It needs some careful planning, but it is possible to assemble alone without the need for heavy lifting equipment. Having an extra pair of strong arms around would be helpful though, and safer. The instruction manual is adequate and assembly is straight forward. Tuning the saw was easy because everything lined up almost perfectly out of the box. Retuning with different blades is a breeze because the adjustments are effective and easy to access. The features I value most in day-to-day use include the power and quietness of the motor (I often resaw up to 6" osage orange and oak without any trouble), the quick blade tension release and easy blade changes, the large work surface, the adjustable work light, the overall weight and stability of the tool, and the ease of blade setup. The included resaw fence is a nice bonus, but I mostly use the standard fence, which is of high quality. As with any bandsaw the blade choice is critical. The included blade was of moderate quality and quite useful, but I would recommend changing to higher quality blades from the start to achieve the full potential of this saw. The only area that I would like to improve is the scavenging of wood dust. A secondary port closer to the underside of the table would be of benefit, but it is something that can be added with a bit of work. Would I buy it again? You bet!!!

Comment: This is my first bandsaw. Set up was straight forward, but took a few hours and you definitely need someone to help you lift it up on the stand because it is heavy and metric wrenches. The motor fan guard was dented and rubbed against the fan, but it was easy to pull back into place. I don't know whether it arrived that way or if we caused the dent taking it out of the box. If you plan to move it around buy the optional wheels. It's a very solid piece of equipment and I've used it a lot over the past 4 weeks. I'm happy with the performance, the light, the rip fence and the cabinet where I can store accessories. I used a plastic 4" to 2.25" reducer on the dust vent so I could attach a shop vac and I needed to use glue to make it stay in place. Even with the vacuum attached, there is some leakage of fine sawdust from various places which is slightly annoying. I plan on getting the extension so I can resaw something wider that six inch logs.

Comment: I have needed a bandsaw for one purpose, resawing. Unfortunately, my shop only has a single 20 amp circuit at 110V, which means I am extremely limited in my choices for tools and can only run one at a time. I am also forced to consider the budget, so the Grizzly saw seemed to offer the most bang for my buck.

My set up is the GO555X with a 6" riser block and an HTC mobile base. Considering the low power and large capacity, I decided to make an investment in a 105" Lenox Tri-Master carbide tipped blade.

Having ordered the saw from Amazon, I had to call Grizzly customer support to tell them to add the $30 lift gate service. Otherwise, I would have had to lift this saw off of the truck. If you have a couple of friends that can leave work with you, that is not a big deal. It came in two boxes that were easy to move around with a hand truck.

Assembly took me much longer than I had expected, because of the riser block. I put the whole thing together myself, but in retrospect, that was stupid. Get someone to help you, so you don't hurt yourself or damage your equipment. I was lucky. I had to shim the top wheel out after installing the block, which means I also had to shim the arbor shoulder. I got some arbor shims and shoulder shims at the McMaster web site and I am sure you can find them elsewhere. Once the wheels were coplanar, my only problem was noise. The lower bearing guides had some rust in them and had seized. I was able to replace them with bearings from an old pair of inline skates (they are the same size). Now it runs smooth and quiet.

I have resawn two roughly 4 foot long, 11 inch diameter logs now. One was Cedar that had been drying out in a field for years and the other was a fairly fresh piece of Bradford Pear that was saturated with water. The saw got through them both admirably. I was very impressed.

Resawing creates more saw dust than I had ever imagined and the dust collection didn't seem to do very much, but it does. It keeps the lower cabinet somewhat clear, which is important, because the pulleys, belt and lower wheel are housed in it. If the sawdust is allowed to build up, your saw may not turn on, or the belt may start slipping. Still, a lot of dust never gets into that cabinet and is thrown around the shop.

I have been skeptical of Grizzly for a long time. I am much less apprehensive now. The adjustments/fixes that I had to make on this saw are common to all bandsaw makes on the market. I am impressed with the features, the build quality, the finish and the performance.

Comment: I bought one of these with the riser block. I figured the extra motor power, the cast-iron wheels and the addition of a resaw fence was worth the cost above the regular G0555 model.

There were a few minor problems. The riser block was a little more complicated to install due to the additional wiring to the lamp on this model, and it took a little extra time, but it fits fine. The scale on the tension gauge is not accurate with the riser, so I use the musical note method of tensioning, which works fine. There is probably a way of adjusting the pointer on the tension scale, but I have not felt the need yet.

My last gripe is that the stock 105" blade that comes with the riser block is worse than useless. It cuts like a cheese grater, wanders all over the place, and is too fine pitched to resaw. Don't let that discourage you from buying the machine; it is entirely a blade problem.

The good news is that once I replaced the blade with a Wood Slicer, and spent a few hours tuning and adjusting the saw, it cuts like a dream. I have cut 1/16" veneers 8" wide. Even in dense woods like purpleheart, the motor does not bog down; the 1.5HP motor and heavy cast-iron wheels give this machine some serious power. With the riser block, this machine has a respectable 12" resaw capacity, and the resaw fence is quite serviceable.

Comment: Try Resawing with this saw and you will regret the purchase. I bought Maple and Oak and after spending countless hours, was never able to get straight flat resawn pience. This saw needs lot of adjustments and regret the purchase. I wish had bought Delta or powermatic instead.

My first band saw purchase but after started using it, I realize, I need a Degee in engineering to get this to work. I never had a machine in my life which needed so many hours of aligning to get a simple straight resaw or get fine venners In general, I think band saw's is the worst power tool ever devised by human being.


It needs aligning 4-5 different things to get a cut you wanted, you may want to use other tools. At this time, I think Germany/Japan need to come with something which will replace bandsaws for good.


I am selling mine in Garage sale this year as it has proved to me useless in all aspects of woodworking, resawing, curve cutting, unless you have too much patience or degree in Engineering to get this too work. For me, it is waste of time to use this.