I’ve been considering a couple of different Grizzly products, and was extremely surprised to hear that their founder and CEO announced price reductions in 2026.
Grizzly Tools’ CEO, Shiraz Balolia, has said that he cut prices to the bone for 2026, and that the company has a lot of inventory that they acquired at pre-tariff prices.
I have been hesitant to buy Grizzly products, as they aren’t known to be trouble-free or of the highest quality.
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But when looking at specific products lately, there’s a lot more product information and specs than I remember seeing, and they answered a technical question pretty quickly via email.
Reduced prices sound good to me, although it doesn’t look like there’s any change to the equipment I’ve been looking at.
Here’s the video announcement:
Nathan
Well damn just when I didn’t want to spend any money
Rog
Impressive move, Grizzly
MM
I’ve bought a number of machines from Grizzly over the years, and worked with many others, and I am generally impressed with them. To be fair they have sold some turds, but most of the time they are great value. I have had my G5959 12″ cabinet saw for more than 15 years now and it’s been 100% trouble-free, and that includes the belts. At one point a few years ago I needed a part for it because it was accidentally damaged while moving. No problem, Grizzly customer service had parts even though the saw had been discontinued at that time.
And while they’re known for value they do have some real hidden gems as well. Alas they seem to have discontinued these, but their series of heavy-duty bench grinders (G0596 through -99) were really good. Heavier than Baldor. Better controls than Baldor. I wanted to buy a G0597 earlier this year but alas they seem to be no more.
The owner of Grizzly is an interesting character. Not only does he own Grizz, but he also builds high-end acoustic guitars. He’s also one of the top benchrest rifle shooters in the country having competed at the national and international levels for years.
Price reductions are always great news; I plan on buying a jointer and oscillating spindle sander next year and unless something major changes both will be from Grizzly.
fred
We had an Oliver Oscillating spindle sander in out cabinet shop. When I thought to add a stationary one to my home shop – to supplement the corded Porter Cable 121 that I used handheld and mounted (with a Woodhaven 147PCS mounting plate). The Oliver was too pricey, and I decided on a Shop Fox based mostly on price. I’d say that it is a decent machine – can bog down a bit (more than the Oliver) if you push too hard, and dust collection could improve. I sometimes think I should have bought a combination oscillating belt/spindle sander – but choices were limited. Grizzly is selling a W1686 for $1150 plus $255 freight – it looks a lot like some of the Grizzly branded ones – and the single speed grizzly sells for a bit more – but with a bit less freight charge. Variable speed pushes up the price – but I have no experience to tell how important it is to have that feature. When I bought mine, variable speed was uncommon – and my “freight” charge was the cost of gas and tolls to a warehouse in Pennsylvania.
MM
Many years ago I had an internship at NASA Johnson Space Center. In addition to their main machine shop they also had a “model shop” with mainly woodworking machinery. They had an Oliver double 36″ disc sander with a drive motor bigger than a 5-gallon bucket. Right next to it sat a massive industrial oscillating spindle sander whose make and model I no longer remember. You could control the speed and the stroke separately, and it had a pretty neat built-in sliding wrench that would lock the arbor stationary while you changed spindles. It was seriously powerful too, I no longer recall the specs but I remember the feeling when the power was switched on, it was easily 3HP, probably 5, maybe more. I’ve never seen another that was even close to the size of that beast.
As nice as that was I don’t need anything anywhere near that serious. My current plan is to buy the single-speed floor-standing Grizzly (G1071) and retrofit it myself with a variable frequency drive. The higher speed is nice with smaller diameter drums. They’ve been making that model for decades, it’s well designed and easy to work on. If I find it bogs down on me I’ll swap in 1.5 or 2HP motor but I can’t imagine needing any more power than that.
As for Freight, if anyone is looking for Grizzly (or Jet, Powermatic, etc.) equipment, shop around. Some dealers like Home Depot offer free freight, at least for some of the tools.
John
I view it as a drastic measure. Revenue might have been down for 2025 or even prior. They are sitting on a lot of product. Make up whatever excuse. Lower prices are a good thing, but they also raised prices a good amount over the past few years.
Terry S
Alternatively, they could have bet that some form of tariffs would stay and simply imported a ton of goods before they kicked in. Victorinox imported a huge amount of their Swiss Army knives before the draconian tariffs against Swiss products kicked in earlier this year, in order to have enough stock for Christmas, when a lot of their products get sold.
Just a thought.
Stuart
I’m with John on this. Victorinox can prioritize and reroute inventory. Grizzly isn’t a manufacturer and cannot just order containers full of machinery for short-term delivery.
I just ordered a soldering station at a discount, and it was dated 2024.
This is essentially a broad inventory reduction sale, which isn’t bad.
Machinery has to be purchased in large batches, and sometimes they sit around for a while.
Another Bob
Pretty much all of our suppliers did the same thing. Ordered as much as possible to arrive before the tariffs set in.
Some of the less scrupulous ones still charged for the tariff, even though the goods were bought pre-tariff.
On a sidenote, the poor guys at the warehouse are probably losing their minds trying to find space for all this extra inventory. I’ll bet they’re happy the boss said “sell it all”. 🙂
Jared
Pretty unusual these days. Festool just announced a price increase – which seems to be the more common outcome.
John
Festool has a price increase every single year. At some point they may price themselves out of business, but until then they keep jacking up prices.
Johnathon
At this point I think they’re planning to keep doing it until they see a significant impact on sales. Find their upper bound, ya know?
Andy
Does anyone have any experience with Grizzly’s tool cabinets?
Mark
I have had one for 30 years !- love it
Jim
I’ve had good luck from Grizzly machines. And when I complained that a resaw fence wasn’t flat, they didn’t hesitate to send a replacement.
Sadly, I don’t have enough space (or power) for additional machines right now.
Tarbellb
I’ve been a fan of Grizzly over the years. They are often competitive on both performance and price.
Typically I think they offer better products, better CS, and more variety then the name brands, ALL of whom mfg in Asia these days.
The owner is no dummy, he has navigated this segment for decades, and even announced a price reduction a few years ago when everybody was still jacking up prices post pandemic.
EBT
I would get a Grizzly Cabinet saw if only it had a Sawstop-like safety system. Oh wait, it can’t. Still, a 3HP shop cabinet saw used properly can be safe! And $2500 less than Sawstop for same 3HP!