Mike Sandman
07-25-2009, 9:19 PM
I’ve used this forum to help me decide between 6” vs. 8” jointers; helical head vs. knives; and manufacturer. Finally bought a Grizzly 6” helical head jointer with a mobile base – model G0604ZX. I’m sure I’ll wish for an 8” jointer sometime soon, but this is as a big a unit as my workshop can accommodate, and there are techniques for using a 6” jointer to flatten wider boards.
There are many threads with both positive and negative views of Grizzly’s quality and customer service so I thought I’d contribute a [positive] report.
First and most important, once it’s set up and aligned, the jointer does what it’s supposed to. It put a glass-like edge on cherry and it does almost as well face-jointing maple. It is amazingly quiet – probably about 70 – 75 decibels.
The Grizzly’s jointer table and head are shipped in one case and the base is in another. The jointer section is packed in a heavy corrugated cardboard box. Inside, it’s laid into molded foam shells an inch or so thick. The carton is 62” long (1.6 m) and it weighs about 250 lbs. (114 kg), so it’s heavy and awkward. It just fit into the back of my small SUV. A big notice printed on the box says not to stand it on end., probably because the weight would push it right through those styrofoam shells. So you shouldn’t move it on a normal hand truck. The same carton contains the fence, extension table, guard and a few other parts. The jointer section probably weight about 200 lbs. by itself and the manual tells you to get someone to help place it on top of the base. Good advice unless you have a hoist..
The base and motor are in a more manageable carton -- about 110 lbs/50kg. The small parts and tools are bagged and packed in a small box inside the larger carton. It’s important to inspect the cartons for damage when you get delivery. Despite the rugged carton it wouldn’t be hard for damage to occur if the box was grazed by a fork truck. You want to be there when it’s delivered.
The jointer base is made of heavy gauge steel, and the frame for the mobile base is welded in. The base is painted inside and out. The front and back panels are easy to remove for access to the motor, and equally easy to reinstall. Instead of sheet metal screws, Grizzly uses machine screws that go into threaded nipples. Everything feels very solid – even the two plastic push blocks Grizzly includes are hefty.
The fasteners are metric, and there’s a very helpful diagram in the manual so you can tell the 50 mm bolt from the 55 mm one, etc. The basic tools are included, but you’d benefit from having a 14 mm metric socket and a couple of other metric sockets.
Every unpainted surface has rust preventative on it. It was easy to remove with degreaser. Even the bagged nuts and bolts have a light coating of oil. There was a big sack of silica gel in the jointer carton to absorb moisture. You might think Grizzly prepared it to be shipped *under* the surface of the Pacific instead of over it. :-)
The manual is very well illustrated, clearly written and printed on glossy paper, which makes the photos and diagrams easy to see. There are step-by-step illustrated instructions for assembly, for making adjustments to align the tables, and for basic jointing operations.
The built-in mobile base has a large foot lever that locks down when you want to move the unit. You can maneuver it quite easily on a reasonably smooth floor. When the foot lever is disengaged, the jointer base rests on adjustable feet so it can be leveled.
Assembling the base, table and fence and carefully checking alignment took a couple of hours. The only PITA was setting the height of the carriage on which the fence rides so that the fence slides a bit above the table. The instructions were clear enough, but it still took about three tries to get it just right because there’s a bit of vertical play in ways that the carriage rides on. The outfeed table was perfectly aligned with the head right out of the box. The infeed table’s upper stop needed to be adjusted, as did the 90 degree and 45 degree stops for the fence. Those are easy adjustments to make with the supplied Allen wrenches. The infeed table is supposed to be set so that the jointer takes off no more than 1/8”, but the length of the bolt controlling the limit was too short for me to adjust it to 1/8”. The smallest limit I could set was 3/16”. The locking mechanisms work smoothly as do the levers to adjust table height. The jointer is free of vibration and the dust port works well. The carriage and fence require a bit more force to move in and out than I’d expected, but a bit of grease on the ways of the carriage seems to help.
Grizzly ships by freight carrier and if you live on a back road that can be a problem, since the carrier may try to deliver from a tractor-trailer. The freight depot in NH was willing to deliver it in a 24 foot van. Unfortunately even that’s too big to get down my narrow drive, but Grizzly will ship to the carrier’s depot for pickup. If you need to it pick up at a depot, call Grizzly and explain that. I ordered on the web site and Grizzly thought that the address of the depot was my house address. That caused a bit of confusion, but Customer Service was proactive and helpful in straightening it out.
All in all, this is a solid, full-featured 6” jointer for a reasonable price and at the moment shipping is free. I’m happy with the performance of the jointer and pleased to report that my experience with Grizzly was quite positive.
There are many threads with both positive and negative views of Grizzly’s quality and customer service so I thought I’d contribute a [positive] report.
First and most important, once it’s set up and aligned, the jointer does what it’s supposed to. It put a glass-like edge on cherry and it does almost as well face-jointing maple. It is amazingly quiet – probably about 70 – 75 decibels.
The Grizzly’s jointer table and head are shipped in one case and the base is in another. The jointer section is packed in a heavy corrugated cardboard box. Inside, it’s laid into molded foam shells an inch or so thick. The carton is 62” long (1.6 m) and it weighs about 250 lbs. (114 kg), so it’s heavy and awkward. It just fit into the back of my small SUV. A big notice printed on the box says not to stand it on end., probably because the weight would push it right through those styrofoam shells. So you shouldn’t move it on a normal hand truck. The same carton contains the fence, extension table, guard and a few other parts. The jointer section probably weight about 200 lbs. by itself and the manual tells you to get someone to help place it on top of the base. Good advice unless you have a hoist..
The base and motor are in a more manageable carton -- about 110 lbs/50kg. The small parts and tools are bagged and packed in a small box inside the larger carton. It’s important to inspect the cartons for damage when you get delivery. Despite the rugged carton it wouldn’t be hard for damage to occur if the box was grazed by a fork truck. You want to be there when it’s delivered.
The jointer base is made of heavy gauge steel, and the frame for the mobile base is welded in. The base is painted inside and out. The front and back panels are easy to remove for access to the motor, and equally easy to reinstall. Instead of sheet metal screws, Grizzly uses machine screws that go into threaded nipples. Everything feels very solid – even the two plastic push blocks Grizzly includes are hefty.
The fasteners are metric, and there’s a very helpful diagram in the manual so you can tell the 50 mm bolt from the 55 mm one, etc. The basic tools are included, but you’d benefit from having a 14 mm metric socket and a couple of other metric sockets.
Every unpainted surface has rust preventative on it. It was easy to remove with degreaser. Even the bagged nuts and bolts have a light coating of oil. There was a big sack of silica gel in the jointer carton to absorb moisture. You might think Grizzly prepared it to be shipped *under* the surface of the Pacific instead of over it. :-)
The manual is very well illustrated, clearly written and printed on glossy paper, which makes the photos and diagrams easy to see. There are step-by-step illustrated instructions for assembly, for making adjustments to align the tables, and for basic jointing operations.
The built-in mobile base has a large foot lever that locks down when you want to move the unit. You can maneuver it quite easily on a reasonably smooth floor. When the foot lever is disengaged, the jointer base rests on adjustable feet so it can be leveled.
Assembling the base, table and fence and carefully checking alignment took a couple of hours. The only PITA was setting the height of the carriage on which the fence rides so that the fence slides a bit above the table. The instructions were clear enough, but it still took about three tries to get it just right because there’s a bit of vertical play in ways that the carriage rides on. The outfeed table was perfectly aligned with the head right out of the box. The infeed table’s upper stop needed to be adjusted, as did the 90 degree and 45 degree stops for the fence. Those are easy adjustments to make with the supplied Allen wrenches. The infeed table is supposed to be set so that the jointer takes off no more than 1/8”, but the length of the bolt controlling the limit was too short for me to adjust it to 1/8”. The smallest limit I could set was 3/16”. The locking mechanisms work smoothly as do the levers to adjust table height. The jointer is free of vibration and the dust port works well. The carriage and fence require a bit more force to move in and out than I’d expected, but a bit of grease on the ways of the carriage seems to help.
Grizzly ships by freight carrier and if you live on a back road that can be a problem, since the carrier may try to deliver from a tractor-trailer. The freight depot in NH was willing to deliver it in a 24 foot van. Unfortunately even that’s too big to get down my narrow drive, but Grizzly will ship to the carrier’s depot for pickup. If you need to it pick up at a depot, call Grizzly and explain that. I ordered on the web site and Grizzly thought that the address of the depot was my house address. That caused a bit of confusion, but Customer Service was proactive and helpful in straightening it out.
All in all, this is a solid, full-featured 6” jointer for a reasonable price and at the moment shipping is free. I’m happy with the performance of the jointer and pleased to report that my experience with Grizzly was quite positive.