Grizzly Table Saws: An overview of table saws made by Grizzly

Have you ever heard of Shiraz Balolia? Unless you’re an avid woodworking enthusiast you probably haven’t, but his story is one of the great testimonies to the spirit of entrepreneurs everywhere.

Born in Kenya he immigrated to Washington State, via Canada, where he began rebuilding and reselling used metalworking equipment. He was so good at this that his customers began requesting woodworking equipment as well, but he knew nothing of woodworking. So off he goes to night school to learn woodworking. He hit a roadblock when he approached local manufacturers of woodworking equipment so he went off and founded his own company, Grizzly Industrial, and began importing high quality woodworking equipment in 1983. Amazed at the high cost of such equipment, he decided to eliminate the traditional distribution network and sell direct to the end user. Today the company operates showrooms in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Washington, and for those customers who want to “touch and feel” the product but are too far from one of these distribution centers,

Grizzly offers a customer reference service. You simply call their 800 customer service number and they will put you in touch with an existing customer in your local area who owns the type of Grizzly equipment you’re interested in buying. Do you know any other companies with customers loyal enough to field questions and allow visits from potential buyers?

Despite the success of Grizzly, Mr. Balolia wasn’t done. He wanted to get into woodworking accessories and so he founded Woodstock International to market through existing woodworking dealer networks. Later they added the Shop Fox line of stationery tools and many of their table saw models are identical to the Grizzly offerings. Let’s take a look at two of Grizzly’s top models.

 

The Grizzly G0576 Table Saw

Grizzly caters to the professional woodworker and the serious hobbyist. As an example, they don’t even make a portable table saw, the most popular type of table saw on the market today. But if you compare the Grizzly G0576 to the more popular Ridgid TS3660 or the Craftsman 22114 you’ll find the Grizzly gets much better reviews and is not that far off in price. The Craftsman 22114 goes for $759 while the Grizzly is shipped to your door for $789. For some reason, Home Depot no longer sells the TS3660 in the United States but it is still available in Canada for 599 Canadian dollars.

The G0576 is a solid cast iron table with a cast iron pulley assembly and a full 2 HP motor. While it comes prewired for 220v it can be converted to 110v. The rip fence is the Shop Fox Classic, a Biesemeyer look alike that gets very high marks from expert reviewers. It has a powder coated finish, a beveled table edge and includes dado inserts.

 

The Grizzly G1023SLX Cabinet Table Saw

Once again, if price is a concern, this saw goes for $1169 delivered and if you check the woodworking forums you’ll find expert users who compare it very favorably to the PM66 from Powermatic which goes for around $3500. It has a 3 HP motor with a triple V belt drive but is strictly a 220v machine so you may have to add a special circuit. If you want more power, the G1023SLWX has a whopping 5 HP motor for about $100 more! In addition, the slide out extension table on the G1023SLWX doubles as a router table.

The G1023SLX has 7 foot rails and the highly acclaimed Shop Fox Classic rip fence. It also features a slide out extension table allowing a full 54 inch width cutting capacity to the right of the blade. If you like the idea of getting a Grizzly you should see if you have a Shop Fox dealer in your area. Shop Fox has some table saw models that are virtually identical to some Grizzlies and they come with a two year warranty, backed up with local dealer service. Shop Fox also has a more complete line of accessories like their D2260 and D2057 mobile bases that can be added to allow heavy contractor saws to be moved when needed.