Busy Bee 14" Bandsaw

Chris Inch

Member
Messages
31
Location
Ottawa, ON, Canada
I'm looking into purchasing my first bandsaw and I've been scouring the local classifieds for good deals. There's an ad here for a 14" Busy Bee bandsaw, but I'm not sure how good it is. Is Busy Bee a decent brand?

The seller is asking $200 and here's the ad:

14" Busy Bee Band Saw, 21 years old. New tires, 3 year old motor. 3 speed. runs like new.

Does this sound like an OK deal? Should I offer $150?

Chris
 
Not knowing the quality of the brand 21 years ago, I would consider current condition very seriously.
Do inspect carefully. I think the $150.00 offer might be a good minimal risk deal.
 
I think Busy Bee is/was the Canadian version of Grizzly :dunno:

That's debatable. ;)

I've heard in many places that the owner of Busy Bee and the owner of Grizzly are brothers, and therefore stay out of each other's territory. But I've never read official confirmation of that from either company.

Like many others (?? almost all!), Busy Bee import tai/chi tools and slap their own brand on them. So, many tools will look pretty similar to those from many other companies such as Grizzly or Jet or or Delta or whatnot.

As such I think it's caveat emptor - check over each tool and evaluate it on it's own. I don't really think it's possible to make a blanket endorsement (or condemnation) of Busy Bee tools.
 
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Chirs from my personal experience of Busy Bee Tools today i would pass regardless of the price. Unless you are a tool restorer.

I simply dont like the quality. Its no where near Grizzlys in my opinion. I have crossed the border and drievn to Grizzly to buy better machines at a better price even with our dollar exchange rate.

Remeber the old story of the bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the cheap price.

This brand is not the old tools of yester year that people restore and still have a good machine.

But I will fully admit to being biased since i discovered how poor the quality is on my BB lathe. But what did i expect for what i paid for it.:eek:
 
Chris...

The posts are correct, Chiraz Balolia (the owner of Grizzly) and the owner of Busy Bee are brothers, and they stay out of each other's territory. I'm a big fan of Grizzly, primarily because I feel that Mr. Balolia has addressed very competently the issue of quality control with the Asian tools...and their customer support is unsurpassed. From Rob Keeble's post I would assume that Busy Bee has not been so diligent in this regard. The other thing is this bandsaw you're looking at is 20 years old...I think that 20 years ago even Grizzly was not up to the point of being acceptable that they are today. Personally I'd keep looking. Buy the best and cry once, buy cheap and cry every time you use it (to paraphrase Rob).

Cheers.
 
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