Grizzly adds 19″ Ultimate band saw

Grizzly Industrial continues to add to its wide-ranging line of band saws with the introduction of its 19" Ultimate band saw, model G0701. The saw is similar to the company's 17" Ultimate band saw, but has a greater cutting capacity, larger table and a motorized upper-blade guide control. The new 19" model is designed for use by furniture makers and cabinetmakers, as well as the demanding small-shop owner. And there's no doubt that the key feature of the saw is its 19" resaw capacity.

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"With wider boards becoming increasing difficult to find and more and more expensive, people are turning to resawing as a way of saving money by cutting their own veneer," says Bill Crofutt, Grizzly's quality-control manager. "When you think about it, why have beautiful wood hidden inside a solid piece of wood, when it can be resawn and applied to wood less attractive. With the large resaw capacity of this machine, it creates more opportunities to use and extend the use of that increasingly rare wide board."

Grizzly opted for a 5-hp motor because of the amount of power required for resawing. Although a smaller motor would still allow resawing of a 19" piece, Crofutt noted that the difference in the amount of time it takes to do it is "quite surprising."

Grizzly has changed the process of adjusting the guide-post height, which is normally a two-handed operation where a lock is released with one hand and the guide is raised or lowered with the other. "While adjusting the guide-post height is not very difficult, it is just inconvenient enough that the guide is often set too high, exposing more of the blade than necessary and not providing as much blade support as is possible," says Crofutt. "[Our] motorized guide-height adjustment allows for very quick, one-handed adjustment for optimum support of the blade, which improves performance. It also increases safety by decreasing the likelihood of having the blade exposed above the workpiece."

Other features include computer-balanced cast-iron wheels with rubber tires, a 28" x 24" cast-iron table, rack-and-pinion table-tilt adjustment, foot brake and resaw fence.

Grizzly has also fitted the new band saw with a cast-iron trunnion and a patented rear-trunnion gear for heavy loads.

"Any band-saw table can be a little difficult to set exact angles and on larger band saws, due to the increased table weight, this becomes a greater issue," explains Crofutt. "With the geared trunnion, the quick-release lock lever is moved to the unlocked position and a hand wheel is used to adjust the table angle precisely until the quick-release lever is moved to the locked position. It also adds additional support to the table. It's one of those features that doesn't seem like such a big deal until you use it and find out how easy and convenient it is."

The Grizzly 19" Ultimate band saw, model G0701, is priced at $2,295.

Contact: Grizzly Industrial P.O. Box 2069, Bellingham, WA 98229. Tel: 800-523-4777. www.grizzly.com

This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue.