Grizzly G0444Z Question--no reply from Grizzly

[Jeff]

A sort of newbie here, I have done construction and historical renovation plenty but have never turned out a real piece of furniture.

I having been looking (or drooling) over a nice table saw for a while, I have narrowed the search to the Grizzly G0444Z and the Bridgewood TSC-10CL, the Ridgid 3650 is in the back of my mind, but too much. I am leaning toward the Grizzly and have sent two emails to the customer service link on their website and have gotten no response. Maybe someone who owns one can help me out. The price limit for me is $600.00, as I think I can get more saw than I will ever probably need for that amount.

1. Is the saw left or right tilt? I think I want a left tilt for the kickback issues.

1. Does it come with a link style belt like the Bridgewood does (or at least their website says it does)? Grizzly advertises that it comes with a machined pulley.

Thanks for the great wealth of information here. It makes it hard to choose between the two saws at this point. Either one would have to be shipped to me, there is not a dealer that I can find within 3 hours of here (Knoxville, TN) for the Bridgewood and Grizzly for obvious reasons. Thanks again.

[Doug Winterburn]

Right tilt.

V-belt.

-Doug

[Mike in Idaho]

Be sure and ask them (Grizzly if you choose) whether the item is backordered. I know the G0444 aparently hasn't even shipped from Taiwan yet (a friend of mine has one on backorder and said he doesn't care if he has to wait a year -- but you might). However, I believe someone on the wreck did mention getting the G0444Z right away when he decided to upgrade.

Mike

[Tony]

Hi Jeff, I also live in Knoxville, near Knoxville Center. I'll be buying the General builder saw come Spring.

[GD]

[Leslie Gossett]

Just the fact that Grizzly didn't answer the email is enough reason for me not to buy it. But I have written to Grizzly and have gotten a response within 48 hours. I find it extremely irritating when a vendor doesn't respond to their customers via email. It is a sign of poor customer service. I do find that the phone works much better in most cases.

Leslie

[Upscale]

With the flood of spam mail these days, (personal and on my business website) I miss the occasional valid message. Even with a slew of filters and my still going into the filter area to do a once over, I can still miss a message. A company the size of Grizzly must get ten times the amount of junk I get. It's inevitable that they will miss the odd message too.

[Jerry]

I pick mine up tonight. They called for delivery on wed.

[Chip]

I'm sort of a newbie here as well. Also, like you Jeff, I'm considering the G0444Z. I called customer service and asked a few question (none of yours). Customer Service didn't seem to have the (relatively) simple answers and they transfered me to Tech Service. The guy I spoke to there was great! He knew his stuff.

I'd suggest the 1-800 number.

[Ace]

I agree. Why do you want to mess around with an email. When I have shelled out a lot of money and I want to know something I want to know NOW!, not after Grizz has had to got through hundreds of emails to find a genuine one.

[Dennis Martin]

I am new to this type of forum, but am a woodworking enthusiast. I have have had my new GO444Z for about 2 weeks now and I am totally thrilled. Have been a carpenter for 25 years and I have seen a lot of different TS's, but for the money this one is a hit. Everthing is heavy duty. The CI tables are flat and true and polished like a mirror.I even screwed up a little when I was cleaning off the gunk, by using a scour pad on a little spot.I do not have a dial indicator, but checking the runout and slot alignment the neaderthal way, every thing was right on out of the box.My biggest concern about buying this new model was the new ShopFox Alumaclassic fence. Grizzly called it "rock solid" in their ad, and I'm here to tell you that it is. Biesmeyer clone, and of very good quality.The only thing that was not of good quality was the guard over the belt, so I just took it off, not a big deal.The bottom of the miter guage is not real smooth, and I'm afraid of scratching the nice table finish. I think I will try and epoxy some HDPE to the bottom of it. The 2HP motor pulls 12 amps at 220V and didn't even think about slowing down ripping 2" oak. Overall I would buy this saw again in a minute. The saw is a right tilt, and comes with a v-belt. I purchased the ShopFox mobile base with the saw, and I think my total with shipping was $667. Hope this helps answer a few questions.

"Trust in the Lord"

[Jeff]

Thank you all for your messages. I was going to give Grizzly a call about the backorder situation if I decide to go with the G0444Z.

Are right tilt saws hard to line up correctly after an angle cut to get 90 degrees from the table? Seems like a small acurate square would be all that I would need for that. Thanks again.

[Tom]

I am still making the final adjustments on my new G0444Z. There are adjustable stops to set the 90 and 45 degree limits of the the blade angle mechanism. I adjusted them using a combination square against the blade, and I had the feeling that this was not accurate enough. I was right, it's not cutting perfectly square and is going to need tweaking to get it right on. It may be a bit of a PITA to get it perfect, but once adjusted, I think it will be consistent.

Tom