Well, I recently purchased a G1023 SL from Grizzly, so I thought I'd make a contribution to the collective knowledge base.
I placed an order for the saw on the Monday March 29 in the late evening, and it arrived on Thursday April 1. I picked it up at the freight dock in my Chevy minivan. The guy that loaded it was extremely helpful and took great care getting it in my van. He had to get extra long forks to reach into the van because the rear door flips up and was in the way.
The delivery consisted of two packages. The first was the fence and it was not terribly heavy. The rest of the saw was in one large, heavy box. It weighed over 400 lbs., as expected. To get it out of the van, I laid a
3'x3' piece of plywood up against the bumper of the van like a ramp. The saw was tipped on its side in the van, so my dad and I simply pulled it out and let it gently slide down the ramp, then we tipped it completely upright. Next we loaded it onto an appliance dolly and wheeled it into the garage. No problem.I unpacked the fence and found that all pieces were accounted for, and all was in good condition. At the freight dock we noticed that both boxes had minor fork holes. This was noted on the bill of lading. Next, I unpacked the large box. Again there was a fork hole but this time there was a minor scuff to the paint on the side of the cabinet. However, it was so minor that you really have to get right up to it and look very carefully to find it, so I will not even worry about it. So again, all pieces were in the box, and all of them were in good shape.
Assembling the saw was straight forward. I first cleaned the cosmoline off the edges of the saw and the extension wings (I'll explain my method in a moment). I read the instructions step by step and found them to be easy to follow. Everything went together easily. I had heard that I could look forward to rough edges and burrs, but I found nothing of the sort. I did have to shim one of the extension wings with masking tape (as suggested in the manual) to get it flat with the table top.
To clean the cosmoline I used kerosene. I knew from previous experience that this was the solvent of choice, but I used a slightly different method than I had before. I poured some kerosene into a cup and used a chip brush to "paint" it on all the parts that needed it. I used it quite liberally, then I simply let it soak and do it's job. I messed with some other things for a while then went back to the saw armed with a roll of paper towels. The cosmoline wiped off with ease and everything was clean and shiny within fifteen minutes. A couple of spots required a little elbow grease, but really no problems. Well, there was the stink. Man did it smell like kerosene in my shop.
Finally, I had to wait a while to actually try out the saw. I had begun to wire a subpanel to my shop back in the fall but it was not complete. I had no power, so the saw was all dressed up with no place to go, so to speak. I spent the next week digging a trench and laying cable and wiring up the panel in my spare time. Today I finally finished the wiring and tried it out.
There was one exception to the ease of assembly that I experienced with the rest of the saw. The blade guard was horrible. I gave it an honest try, but I could not get that thing lined up well enough to actually perform as a safety feature. It was a safety hazard, but what is new? I removed it. I'll put a splitter on there before I do any ripping, and I'll wear a face mask etc.
So my final impression is that the saw is a great buy. I haven't done any real work with it yet, but I am very impressed with what I got. I love the power, but I'll have to get used to it. I did notice a slight increase in the tendency of the wood to ride up on the blade with the additional power. You have to understand that I am coming from a very crappy Craftsman contractor style saw. I love the fence. It's rock solid as others have reported. The miter gauge is nothing special, but it functions and was set dead on at 90 degrees from the factory. I was expecting it to be horrible from other reports that I have read. It's not pretty, but it functions which is more than I can say for the other one I owned.
I'll stop now. If anyone has questions about something I missed or what ever, let 'em rip.
Brian