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(More customer reviews)I recently got a Shop Fox W1707 bandsaw. I ordered it with some trepidation because of the sparse reviews. My experience has been very good with other Shop Fox machines though, so I hoped this saw would be similar. So far, I have to say that I'm more than impressed with the quality of this machine for the money.
Why the Shop Fox instead of Grizzly? After all, isn't this essentially the same saw as the Grizzly 0513x2, only with different paint? You would think so, but it is not the case. I called Woodstock Int'l (owners of both Grizzly and Shop Fox) to get some details about the differences between the machines. It turns out that Grizzly and Shop Fox bandsaws are made at different factories and don't even have interchangeable parts. I looked carefully at the specs and decided that I liked the Shop Fox better for similar money. In my opinion, the Shop Fox has fewer bells and whistles and more solid, functional features. Here's a list of what I liked better about it:
-Really heavy cast iron wheels. These wheels alone weigh more than my old bandsaw. This is the single most important feature for a bigger bandsaw, and the heavier the better. The tires are crowned also, so you could easily run a very narrow blade.
-Excellent fence. T square style fence (like a Biesenmeyer except made of aluminum). The fence is 4" tall, which means that you don't really need to attach a sub fence for most resawing unless the board is pretty wide.
-Huge locking gear on table. There's almost no way the table will shift out of square while locked.
-Real sealed bearings on bearing guides. These are single bearings, with seals on both sides. Simple and reliable.
Some other likes:
-Everything is adjustable. When I checked my wheels for parallel, I found the top one out 3/8". On a more basic bandsaw you'd just have to live with that. On this saw, there is a camming adjustment to bring the wheels into parallel. Cool. There are also adjustments to tilt either wheel side to side. You can even adjust the upper guide post in case it isn't perfect.
-Huge table. Nice.
-Really decent dust collection. Gets the fines like you wouldn't believe.
-Of course, it saws through heavy cuts with ease.
-Great customer service from Woodstock. When I initially received my saw, the shipper (UPS Cargo) had dropped it and crushed the frame. Woodstock promptly had UPS remove the damaged saw while simultaneously shipping my a new one. That meant that I didn't have a long wait for a new one (3 days). Woodstock was very courteous and helpful during the whole process. They even knew who I was when I called.
This is my third large Shop Fox machine. Based on my experience with the quality of the machines and the excellent customer service, I would not hesitate to buy another.
Click Here to see more reviews about: SHOP FOX W1707 2 HP 17-Inch Bandsaw
With 12" of cutting height and a 16-1/4" throat capacity, this bandsaw is built to handle large cutting chores. Its 2 HP motor has plenty of power to push 1" blades for resawing. Thoughtful engineering makes this saw a pleasure to use and includes convenient controls, a pair of dust ports for efficient dust collection, ball bearing blade guides and easy-to-read tension scale. Standard features include fence, miter gauge and 1/2" blade.
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