Grizzly G0453X spiral planer

[John Pennisi]

I've had this unit for a few months and love it so far, aside from some issues with dust collection. Anyone with suggestions on this? I've tried many things but my guess is that if the dust chute came off the top of the machine instead of pointing towards the back the dust collection would be more effective. I wonder if there is a way to address this?? Unfortunately the chips that remain on the table near the cutterhead get trapped between my boards and the table and at times leave small impressions on the surfaced wood... Thanks to any responders..

[Thomas Pender]

You did not mention what you use to collect dust. In other words, do you have a signficant dust collector with a 5" hose or better? E.g., Oneida, Clearview, Grizzly Cyclone?? If not, there may not be enough air movement to move the chips and dust.

[John Pennisi]

I use a Delta 50-760 Dust Collector that is 1.5 HP and has a 4" hose attached. When attached to any of my other machines including a 3HP 8" jointer for heavy work the dust collection is very effective.

[Thomas Pender]

The HP may be big enough, but a 4" hose from the dust collector to the planer is insufficient (IMHO) and tends to explain what is going on, regardless of the port size, which is too small. The ideal size hose for a machine like that would be 6 or 7" not 4. With a 4" hose, there is probably not enough air movement, regardless of the ability the dust collector should have to move the air, to get the chips out of there with a hose that size. Also, I do not accept that DC has a 1200 CFM rate, regardless of what the literature may say. Moreover, a DC of this type throws a lot of fine dust, which index heads tend to make more of. Since your top bag is also your filter, as it clogs and becomes (ironically) a more efficient filter, it also becomes less efficient at moving air, much more so than a good cyclone DC.

Also, chips tend to cascade, i.e., they tend to stack up and become harder to move. None of this means there may not be an issue with the planer. Grizzly tech support will be happy to discuss it with you and they may opine your DC is too small or that you should not have a problem. One thing I would definitely do is unhook the power and check and see if your collector cover is tight and sealed and the chip path is not blocked or impeded.

Good luck. These planers are wonderful when they work, a real pain when they do not. Probably why I use mine for thickness and then use my LV BUS to finish off a lot of stuff or use my ROS with good dust collection. :o

[John Pennisi]

Thomas thank you for the thorough reply. I agree that I'm not getting 1200 CFM from the Delta. It has however performed well for me in an otherwise well equipped shop. I'd be surprised if I can't find a way to further improve the collection on the planer. I may focus on cleaning the bag/filter to see how that improves airflow. The other reason I don't like the dust chute being positioned horizontally (facing the back of machine) is that I have dust collection overhead which adds a bend in the hosing that drops down. Tough to explain.

[Alan Marchbanks]

John, I recently purchased the same planer and like it very much. I added a 4" elbow to connect my Jet 1100 DC. It works fine.

[Dave Verstraete]

John
I have had the G0453Z for almost a year now. I have an Oneida DC Portable cyclone with 2.5 hp and 5" hose and have never had an issue with dust collection. It certainly has an issue when I forget to turn it on though:eek:.

[Thomas Pender]

John,

Not sure what you mean by "performed well," but proper, safe, and effective dust collection is so very often ignored. Like the last poster (Dave), I too have the Oneida 2.5 HP Super Gorilla and while expensive, it has changed my life - less dust, coughing, crap in my nose, my planer works better (:)) and I feel safer. While I do not mean to raise too much controversy (a little is fine), I suggest you give Bill Pentz' website a gander (you do not have to accept everything he says, of course) and get an appreciation of some of the issues. There have also been many discussions of this on the Workshop topic on the Creek. Good luck.

[Cole Dunlay]

The Delta 50-760 has a 5" port on the machine and includes a Y fitting that branches to two 4" ports. A good solution may be as simple as getting a length of 5" hose and dedicating it to your planer. When you need to use your planer you can disconnect the Y fitting and connect the 5" hose. It might just work.

Thanks,
Cole

[John Callahan]

Iirc (the mind is the second thing to go and I can't remember the first :D) there were a couple people here at SC that had the same problem- there was some foam hanging down in the chute. They removed the hanging foam and it solved the problem.

[Danny Hamsley]

I am looking at buying one of these planers, so any and all comments from those folks that have one will be appreciated. I have been looking at the Powermatic 15HH spiral head planer as well. It is rated for the same size, has the same weight, but costs $1000 more. The Powermatic has 98 inserts on the Byrd spiral head while the Grizzly has 74. That is quite a significant cost difference. I am a medium use guy, not a professional, so the planer will not get daily use.

Is the Powermatic really worth $1000 more?

[Kevin Barnett]

I have this planer. I think it's actually the G0453Z. The issue is the foam in the chute that separates the gears from the chute. Apparently, on some models (mine and yours), the foam extends into the chute area too far. What happens is the chips hit it and fall down and get mashed into the board by the rollers. Don't rip out the foam. You need to trim it so the chips don't hit it. It is still needed to keep chips from entering the gearing area.

As to the Powermatic vs grizz question...I had a Powermatic branded jointer, bandsaw, and tablesaw. I now have a Grizz planer and jointer and a Jet tablesaw because of improved quality (in the industry, not in brands) and features. In my income catagory, I didn't see a quality difference in brands justifying the price difference.

[Philip Rodriquez]

I have a griz 15" with the SC. I run it with a Jet 1.5 Canister unit. It gets 99% of the chips... no problem.

I'm guessing that your DC setup is not the issue (unless your running 20 feet of flex hose )

Griz makes a good tool, I have 2 of them, but their quality control is not the best. In my experience, they skip the "factory setup" and leave that to the purchaser. The only "factory" setup that was done on my planer was the table to cutter parallelism, which was .001"! Nothing else was touched. Oh well, it is a good way to learn the machine.


Check your owner’s manual - page 46 - "Positioning Chip Deflector". If the setting is too close or too open, you'll have problems. Also, check the setting on your pressure bar, if you have one. If it is spaced too far away, it won't direct the chips to the DC point.

http://www.grizzly.com/images/manuals/g0453_m.pdf (http://www.grizzly.com/images/manuals/g0453_m.pdf)