shop fox

[John Bigg]

Never hear much about shop fox on here. Looking to buy their cabinet saw -5 hp any comments?

[B a r r y]

I always thought of Shop Fox as Grizzly tools with different paint.

Barry

[Mike King]

"John Bigg" wrote in news:icudnTbsM4wE12LcRVn- [e-mail]:

I have 2 of them one under a grizzly planer, and one under a grizzly band saw. I consider it a standard item for any large piece that I order.

[Jeff P.]

Dang, I wish I had enough money to use a 5hp cabinet saw to hold up my other tools! ;-)

[Leon]

I think, Pontiac is to Chevrolet as Shop Fox is to Grizzly? Why 5 hp?? Are you going to be running it 8 hours a day with a power feeder? If not, with

3 hp you can resaw Ipe with the blade all the way up with no indication of the motor slowing and save money.

[Mike King]

"Jeff P." wrote in news:rkNLd.739$ [e-mail]:

What else would you use them for? :)

[Jody]

I have the 3hp left tilt with the classic fence and also the 2hp dust collector. I am very happy with both.

Shop Fox is not made by Grizzly as some think. It's Woodstock International line of tools. It is carried by a lot of dealers including Grizzly. Also as someone else pointed out, why are you looking at the

5hp. If it's not a production shop with the saw running all day long with a power feeder a 3hp is all one should need. Also it's not numbered like the craftmans peek hp.

[B a r r y]

Do you know if they source from the same factories?

I'm one of the "some think" people, and the couple of tools really looked the same that I've compared.

Barry

[Brian Elfert]

Awful lot of coincidences if Woodstock International and Grizzly are not related.

Both are headquartered in Bellingham, WA. Both have warehouses in the same three states. (Woodstock only lists the states and not cities of the warehouses.) Some machinery is said to look very similiar.

Brian Elfert

[Jody]

Well this might start a flame war but yes most of the big iron tools are made at the same place. The BIG difference is tolerances. When a tool is cast and milled if it falls within the tolerances set by a company like grizzly it gets painted green. If it does not meet the tolerances it's passed to the next company. Now on a large scale when that is done all the tool companys get there machines. Some are a little better than others, most are the same. I do know for a fact Jet's 15" planer is the same casting as the Reliant 15" planer. The big difference is Jet holds the factory at a higher tolerance and still does the final machining to bring it to even a higher tolerance.

[patrick conroy]

Shop Fox is Grizzly's retail brand. There's one magazine article that claimed more than just cosmetic differences 'tween the two. That's never been confirmed. The prevailing suspicion is that its the same gear, just white and logo'd.

[Dave Hinz]

So, kind of a Rockwell/Delta kind of thing then?

[Nova]

A partial quote below from:

"It got me curious, so I checked with the state of Washington's Secretary of State. I don't think this lists who owns them, but it's revealing none-the-less.

Woodstock International (Shop Fox) UBI Number 601 179 517 Category Regular Corporation Profit/Nonprofit Profit Active/Inactive Active State of Incorporation WA Date of Incorporation 05/15/1989 License Expiration Date 05/31/2005 Registered Agent Information Agent Name SHIRAZ BALOLIA Address 1821 VALENCIA ST PO BOX 2069 City BELLINGHAM State WA ZIP 98227

Grizzly UBI Number 600 487 982 Category Regular Corporation Profit/Nonprofit Profit Active/Inactive Active State of Incorporation WA Date of Incorporation 04/01/1983 License Expiration Date 04/30/2005 Registered Agent Information Agent Name SHIRAZ BALOLIA Address 1821 VALENCIA ST City BELLINGHAM State WA ZIP 98226

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[Nova]

IIRC, Sal Balolia the president of both companies address the question. I believe he stated that Grizzly Tools was set up to be direct marketers. Grizzly received so many requests for retail distributors Grizzly obliged by marketing their products under the "Shop Fox" name to avoid having retail operations from having to compete price wise with Grizzly's direct marketing operation.

I'm not sure where I saw the article but in may have been in one of the past Grizzly catalogs.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[bridger]

a quick comparison will show differences in the featureset. generally shopfox will have more features than the comparable grizzly.

[patrick conroy]

IIRC, the article I refer to stated/implied that the shop fox trunnions on the cabinet saw were "beefier" than the ones on the similar Griz. Well, that's what I recall.

Like the old joke:

"Honestly, I read it!" "OK, first I wrote it, and *then* I read it..."

[Tim Douglass]

S. Balolia is the president of Grizzly, so the idea that the two companies are related is probably pretty sound.

Tim Douglass

[John Bigg]

[B a r r y]

I agree. No flame here.

The real differences are with General, Baldor, OneWay, etc... and the higher end of names like Delta and PM. I had a Delta Shopmaster grinder that I feel was a Harbor Freight unit with a cheapie speed control and gray paint. I now have an American made Baldor, which was three times the price, but incomparable in quality,

The bicycle industry is almost identical. The low end stuff all comes out of China, with brand name stuff getting better fit and finish, and the low end going to department stores. The mid-line stuff is designed in North America or Europe, made in China or Taiwan, and sometimes assembled here. High end is American, Canadian, Japanese, Italian, French or German made, from start to finish.

Barry

[Jim Weisgram]

I recall that, too. However, IIRC, the original source of that info was comparing the left tilt Shop Fox against the right tilt Grizzly. At the same time as all this, a left tilt Grizzly was available at $100 more than right tilt.

I always suspected the left tilt Shop Fox was the same as the left tilt Grizzly.

Now, I don't know why the (somewhat) beefier trunnions are all that relevant for a home woodworker. But I ended up with the left tilt Grizzly.