The Grizzly gloat...490x & 453z

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

Well, no pictures for evidence yet, but they are coming. This past saturday I drove up to Muncy and picked up my 490x and 453z jointer and planer w/ spiral heads. Grizzly is running an extremely tight ship and I was impressed how smooth the whole operation went. I had an uneventful 2 hour drive home w/ my Dad and was able to get everything unloaded with little fuss - man that chain hoist is a lifesaver!

Saturday and Sunday was spent unpacking each machine, setting them up and cleaning - good grief, the cleaning part sucked big-time. Leads to my first questison:

1) How in the heck do you get rid of all that cosmolene all over the feed rollers on the planer?? I can't seem to spin them around to clean the whole roller.


I picked up electrical connections last night and was able to get things fired up and run a few test passes. Wow! Incredible. These are my first jointer & planer so I have nothing to really compare them to other than a buddy's lunchbox dewalt planer i used once a few years ago. These machines are very, very nice and are going to dimension wood quickly. I've been hand dimensioning lately so you can imagine my awe at how quick they make the process.

Initial impressions:
1) The jointer has a bit of a vibration, but i am working w/ a slightly sloped garage floor w/ a drain so i may have been off kilter a little bit.
2) The planer is rock solid so far. can't hardly feel that its even running.
3) the Grizzly tables certainly live up to all i've read: They are scary flat!!
4) overall quality of the machines are quite good - every bit as nice in quality & workmanship as my Unisaw.
5) for the money, i think grizzly has hit the nail on the head. I have seen the Powermatic line-ups at Woodcraft and there is no way in heck i'd pay $1000 MORE for their 15" planer. And the Jointer - this thing cost $1050 bucks - it is feature packed and built very well - i think they are under priced to be quite honest, it would easily sell at 1250 - 1500 when you compare it to Powermatic and others. What gets me is my LN No.7 Handplane cost half as much as this machine. :) How crazy is that?


The to do list:
1) clean up the small garage/workshop from all this horsing around
2) figure out the best place to put each machine since i will have to move them into place before using them.
3) figure out the best way to run DC hose
4) adjust the planer infeed and outfeed tables - they are not quite perfect and flat w/ the main table - tedious.
5) run final test passes and ensure the planer cutter head and table are parallel
6) fine tune the jointer fence for 90 degrees
7) get to working on some good first projects!!

Well, here's to hoping for many years of work out of this equipment!

[Matt Benton]

Regarding the cosmoline, you will probably find kerosine to be the most popular recommendation, however if you are like me and need to keep the fumes to a minimum, mineral spirits worked very well...

[glenn bradley]

Congrats. You will really enjoy those.

[Greg Cole]

We see no jointer nor planer? :confused: Pics man, pics!
Congrats on getting a couple of tailed apprentices to speed up process!
Kero works best on the cosmolene, but mineral spirits does well too.

[Jim Kountz]

We see no jointer nor planer? :confused: Pics man, pics!
Congrats on getting a couple of tailed apprentices to speed up process!
Kero works best on the cosmolene, but mineral spirits does well too.

I guess this would all be great if it in fact really happened but like Greg I just cant see anything here?? ;);)
Hey Congrats on the new toys, you're gunna luv that jointer. I go joint boards with mine even when I dont have to just because I like using it so much!!

[Scott Vigder]

On that to-do list, don't forget to add: pick up a nice digital camera.

[Don Bullock]

On that to-do list, don't forget to add: pick up a nice digital camera.

Congratulations, but remember, it didn't happen if there are no pictures.;):D


Regarding the cosmoline, you will probably find kerosine to be the most popular recommendation, however if you are like me and need to keep the fumes to a minimum, mineral spirits worked very well...

Mineral spirits worked very well for me as well.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

Well, finally, evidence of the Grizzly. :) I finally got things pretty well organized. A few of the deer season items to get out of the way and some huge bags of trash from all the packing material, cardboard, etc.

Did some final cleaning on the equipment last night - I finally realized if i put the gearbox in neutral I could rotate the infeed and outfeed rollers on the planer. That enabled me to clean all the grease off them.

I also cleaned up my electrical outlet - changed to a twist-lock L6 on the wall; made an extension chord for the unisaw w/ an L6 end; hardwired in an extension chord for the J&P since they will share for the time being. I think I blew 50 bucks just changing electrical stuff I think...

I have been monkeying around with the equipment. I realize that the fence on my jointer has a twist in it. If i square the infeed side w/ my Incra square, the outfeed side is slightly off. I would say a good .003 by the eyeball, but i didn't put feeler guages under it yet. Not sure i'm real thrilled about that, but we'll see.

You'll also notice the subtle Sjoberg Elite 2000 gloat - what a sweet bench. I'm in love.

More LN gloating will come later I guess - but that's more Neanderthal stuff (LN 4.5, a couple screwdrivers, couple mortise chisels). *drool* :)

Well, now i guess i need to make something. I could just putz around w/ the tools - i love running that Jointer. Works so slick.

One "technique" question on using a planer - Do you guys lock the table w/ each pass? I can't imaging doing this, but maybe you're supposed to.

Also, I seem to get some real nasty snipe on the leading edge through the planer - not the tail coming out, the front going in. Also, when i feed the board into the planer, it gives a little jump when the feed roller grabs, is this normal or do i need to adjust things?

I really should sit down with the book and just go over it all again since i'm new to it.

Thanks again for the input, guys.

John

106210

106211

[Russ Massery]

John, Congrats on the new machines. I have pretty much the same setup. My G0490 came with knife cutterhead which I switched out with a Byrd Shelix. And a 15" Yorkcraft planer and with the nice Grizzly paint job and the switch you probably would not be able to tell the difference. As for the snipe the infeed feed roller might need to be adjusted. Though I found by pushing down on the work piece as it feed it feeds in. I get almost no snipe. As for the vibration on the jointer. I found by putting a link belt on it, the vibration disappeared.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

Russ, it is amazing the similarities between all the brands. I was scoping out the Delta 8" jointer - parallelogram DJ20 i think? And you could tell from the 490x to the delta pictures they were virtually identical - down to the levers, hardware and castings.

I will take a look at the rollers tonight and see if things need adjusted...could be something simple as holding down as the board feeds in as you mentioned. My jointer was a bit rough for two reasons: 1) i was not on level concrete (drain in the garage floor) and 2) a loose motor mount bolt! So, fixed those up and its a bit better.

Does anyone lock the planer table when they are feeding boards? I'm not sure if you lock it so it doesn't move or just make it snug. Seems as though it would be a pain if you had to tighten, feed board, loosen, crank the table up, tighten, feed the board, etc.

[Mark McGee]

I have a comment about the twist in your jointer fence. I have the same machine and I found that I can control that twist to some extent by the torque on the two mounting bolts. The fence has two V shaped features which seat on a cylindrical rod. So if the machining is not perfect, it will twist as all four points of the V features try to seat on the rod. It worked for me.

You may also want to check the fit of the fence to the rod with high spot blue. I did that and filed mine to a pretty close fit.

[Craig Coney]

Russ,
How difficult was it to change out the cutter head to the shelix on the G0490?

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

I have a comment about the twist in your jointer fence. I have the same machine and I found that I can control that twist to some extent by the torque on the two mounting bolts. The fence has two V shaped features which seat on a cylindrical rod. So if the machining is not perfect, it will twist as all four points of the V features try to seat on the rod. It worked for me.

You may also want to check the fit of the fence to the rod with high spot blue. I did that and filed mine to a pretty close fit.

Thanks, Mark - I will certainly check that out. I haven't even messed w/ the fence enough to know if the "stops" for 0 degrees are adjustable. Not a huge deal though since setting the fence square is super simple. I am definately going to explore the mounting bolts and see if i can torque them in such a way to fix the twist.

[Russ Massery]

Craig, Very easy lower both tables take off the belt, There are four bolts holding the bearing housings and lift it out as a unit. You'll need a gear puller for the pulley. Also Buy New bearing before you start there inexpensive and pain to get off the old head.

John, No I don't lock the head until the last pass. When I'm going for size. Sorry meant to answer that last night. Also I use 30fpm feed until the last pass. Then use slow feed 15fpm.

[Paul Greathouse]

Nice setup John,

I like the color of your tools. Wish my 12" Grizzly came with the built in castors like your 8" did. I can't wait for my planer to come in, its on back order. Wish I could have received the pair togeather like you did. I checked with Grizzly, Tuesday and they said my planer should ship the first week of February.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

Thanks Russ - wasn't sure the correct method on planing, but that makes real good sense.

Paul - Thanks, its a decent setup for a guy just starting out I think. Its a small shop/garage - actually I'm thankful for what i do have. Most small rancher homes like ours have little garages, ours is 16x30 w/ 12 foot ceiling - not terrible. I can only imagine what size planer you went for...at least a 20 inch I am guessing. I was also fortunate to save on shipping and pick them up at the Muncy showroom, a 2 hour drive away.

[Paul Greathouse]

Thanks Russ - wasn't sure the correct method on planing, but that makes real good sense.

Paul - Thanks, its a decent setup for a guy just starting out I think. Its a small shop/garage - actually I'm thankful for what i do have. Most small rancher homes like ours have little garages, ours is 16x30 w/ 12 foot ceiling - not terrible. I can only imagine what size planer you went for...at least a 20 inch I am guessing. I was also fortunate to save on shipping and pick them up at the Muncy showroom, a 2 hour drive away.

John
I did go with the 20" version of the one you have. It was a hard decision to make, 15" or 20". I decided on the 20" because I plan on doing alot of raised panel doors. I'm going to try gluing up the panels longer than necessary to allow for snipe and then run them through the planer to take care of any slight imperfections in the glue up process. Doing so, should cut down sanding time by quite a bit. With a 20" capacity, it should handle the majority of my panels.
I also chose the 20" because of the 5hp motor. I wanted the extra power to handle all the rough lumber I use. I still have my old Delta lunchbox planer for small pieces, that way I won't have to crank the big motor up for everything. The little Delta actually gives a really good finish on small pieces.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

John
I did go with the 20" version of the one you have. It was a hard decision to make, 15" or 20". I decided on the 20" because I plan on doing alot of raised panel doors. I'm going to try gluing up the panels longer than necessary to allow for snipe and then run them through the planer to take care of any slight imperfections in the glue up process. Doing so, should cut down sanding time by quite a bit. With a 20" capacity, it should handle the majority of my panels.
I also chose the 20" because of the 5hp motor. I wanted the extra power to handle all the rough lumber I use. I still have my old Delta lunchbox planer for small pieces, that way I won't have to crank the big motor up for everything. The little Delta actually gives a really good finish on small pieces.

Paul, that should work out really well. My buddy in Iowa runs a 1.5 man kitchen cabinet shop and he's looking to get something in the 24 inch range for your same reasons. He tried to convice me on a 20 as well, but i couldn't justify cost (well, i could i guess :) ) and i don't have the room. A 20 will probably work for 98% of the doors, but he does all custom-build, so occasionally he gets into some wider doors.