Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Kurt Rosenzweig

>Hey Mike. I don't know anything about the Bridgewood but I do believe the Grizzly comes with wheels. I'll be picking up my 513X next weekend at they're Muncey Pa. Location since I'll be up that way. Seems like a lot of saw for the money. JMHO

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Bart Goldberg

>Not knowing the specifics of each saw, in general, I think that the Bridgewood machines are made better that Grizzly. I believe that the Bridgewood professional series uses USA made motors as well. I've (mistakenly) owned several Grizzly tools over the years and my fondest memory of their stuff was the day I replace it with a better made product.

my 2 cents

Bart

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Ray SW Ohio

>I've had good luck with the Grizzly line. Planning on adding another.

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Johanna

>Did you look at the Steel City 18" bandsaw? It does come with a tension release. Price right now is excellent. I have had one for a month now and think it is going to be an excellent machine.

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

mdclor

>Hi!

I don't have either of these, but FFW gave the Bridgewood PBS 440 a Best Overall rating and the Grizzly G0506 a Best Value rating so take your pick.

Happy hunting!

Merle

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Ted Wong

>I think I saw a review of the Steel City saw in FWW this month and it wasn't very good.

As for Bridgewood vs. Grizzly I'd probably have to vote neither. I have the Bridgewood and although I've made do with it for 15 years I'd gladly take a replacement. For startters the guide post doesn't maintain the same position along itit's vertical travel when you lock it down. The Euro guides are inferior to Carters IMHO. The trunnion system is a bit on the clumsy side.

Based on my experience with other Grizzly equipment I don't think I'll be buying anything else from them in the near future. Have you checked out Laguna?

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Sam Scalzo

>A very good friend of mine has the grizzley and is very happy with it.

My 2cents. Sam

Re: Bandsaw Bridgewood 18" vs Grizzly 17" or 19"

Derrell

>I have the Grizzly 19'' extreme bandsaw and I like it a lot. I looked around at just about everything out there, including the minimax and laguna saws. The minimax headquarters are only a few blocks away from where I work so I went there one day to look over the MM16's. There is no doubt that the MM16 is a 'beefier' saw but to me I couldn't see that it was worth $1000+ more than the 19'' Grizzly and I'm fairly certain that the wood won't know the difference. I talked with several other folks who had the Grizzly saw before I got mine and none of them had anything bad to say - they all told me they had no regrets and would buy it again.

None of the Grizzly bandsaws come with wheels(like a mobile base). I went with the 19'' saw instead of the 17'' for the following reasons:

3hp motor as opposed to 2hp

magnetic starter

bigger table

a little bit more clearance to the left of the blade