Jason Hanko
12-15-2009, 12:23 AM
Well Im finally the owner of a Jointer!
When Microsoft/Bing Cashback jumped up to 20% last weekend I offhandedly mentioned to LOML that now would be the perfect time to buy, what with the M$ discount on top of the free shipping and $50 off Grizzly is offering on the GO490. I think I almost fell over when she said "Well, order it then!" So I hopped on Bing/Ebay and did so before she could come to her senses! :)
Pretty quick delivery - I placed my Ebay order around 10PM on Sunday, and the unit was in my driveway Thursday afternoon. So far I am VERY impressed with Grizzly's customer service (although not surprised since I was familiar with their reputation from posts here). I think I ended up calling them three or four times, and each time I was on hold less than ten seconds before speaking to a real person. Not only were they understanding and helpful with an Ebay SNAFU (I "accidentally" ordered two units since the M$ cashback didnt work the first time...:eek::mad:), but also they were very helpful in arranging for liftgate service, and then refunding that fee when the truck showed up with a BROKEN liftgate. My buddy and I ended up hefting the crates out of the back of the semi by hand....not real fun, but all ended well.
There was one smallish hole in the box containing the cabinet/motor, but not so much as a scratch or dent on the cabinet itself. My only real complaint was with the bolts that held the jointer bed to the bottom of the wooden crate. On one side the bolt must have been scraped up because the threads were destroyed and I couldnt get the nut all the way off the bolt - I ended up using a hacksaw. I didnt have that problem on the other side because the nut/washer were missing...
Assembly was fairly straightforward, although the newer copy of the manual I got from the Grizzly website was much more detailed than the older copy that was included in the crate. The overall fit and finish of the machine is excellent.
Moving the motor into its mounting position was no problem at all - I did a little writeup on my no-lifting-required method in this thread. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=1280392&postcount=16) My neighbor and I were able to lift the bed up onto the base with no issues - this wasnt nearly as bad as I had been worrying about.
I didnt bother with the OEM belt that came with, opting to go right to a high-quality notched belt from the local auto supply store. I got the exact same size as had come with the jointer, but the proper amount of tension wasnt possible due to the placement of the slots that the motor bracket slides on. The top set of slots didnt allow the belt to get tight enough, and if I moved things down to the lower set of slots I couldnt get the belt around the pulleys. I ended up getting a shorter belt. I then had to use a quick clamp in spreader mode to get enough tension on the belt to avoid vibration. I decided that the best use for the $1.99 Harbor Freight clamp was to reposition it slightly and leave it in the machine permanently as my version of the wooden-block-to-brace-the-motor-mount fix (see picture 1). Passes the nickel test now though, including on startup and shutdown! (Is it just me, or is it hard to get a nickel to balance even when the machine isnt running?? :rolleyes:)
I did the dust-collection fix as seen in picture 2 - I cut two scraps of plywood (from the shipping crate:)) and blocked off the top corners to keep dust out of the cabinet. I hear the new units have this fixed now, along with an updated belt/pulley system. Mine says it was born in April 2008, so Im guessing I dont have one of the newer ones.
I swapped out the cord for a longer 20 footer, and the test run went great. Im guessing these three horses wont be slowed down by pretty much anything I try and run through it. Sure is quiet for such a big machine - most of the noise seems to be from the whooshing of air coming off the cutterhead/blades!
I spent quite a while checking alignment with a good quality straightedge from Lee Valley and some feeler guages. The beds were very flat - I found just one .0015 dip on the infeed table, no big deal. A slighly larger (.003'') wave in the fence, also no biggie. The outfeed bed wasnt quite aligned with the cutterhead straight out of the crate. After some adjusting of the outfeed bed (quite easy thanks to the parallelogram design) I thought I had it all squared away. Spent about an hour then trying to get the infeed coplaner with the outfeed. I came pretty close, but finally at 1am I decided to call it a night.
I started over again the next morning and found that the operator side of the outfeed table is about .001'' higher than the fence side as measured from the cutterhead (not the blade). On the infeed side, the the corner closest to the fence near the cutterhead seems to be about .003'' inches low (out of co-planer with the outfeed table). I cant get this adjusted up high enough with the cam adjusters on the parallelogran setup, so Im thinking Ill have to lower the other three. :mad: I guess my question is: is it worth spending another afternoon getting everything dead-nuts on to within < .001'', or am I close enough with how it is now??? Im thinking I'll at least need to fix the dip on the infeed table side, since I can get the fence 90° square to the infeed OR square to the outfeed, but not both.
Woo! This got long. Thanks for reading - Comments/suggestions/advice are very much welcomed!
When Microsoft/Bing Cashback jumped up to 20% last weekend I offhandedly mentioned to LOML that now would be the perfect time to buy, what with the M$ discount on top of the free shipping and $50 off Grizzly is offering on the GO490. I think I almost fell over when she said "Well, order it then!" So I hopped on Bing/Ebay and did so before she could come to her senses! :)
Pretty quick delivery - I placed my Ebay order around 10PM on Sunday, and the unit was in my driveway Thursday afternoon. So far I am VERY impressed with Grizzly's customer service (although not surprised since I was familiar with their reputation from posts here). I think I ended up calling them three or four times, and each time I was on hold less than ten seconds before speaking to a real person. Not only were they understanding and helpful with an Ebay SNAFU (I "accidentally" ordered two units since the M$ cashback didnt work the first time...:eek::mad:), but also they were very helpful in arranging for liftgate service, and then refunding that fee when the truck showed up with a BROKEN liftgate. My buddy and I ended up hefting the crates out of the back of the semi by hand....not real fun, but all ended well.
There was one smallish hole in the box containing the cabinet/motor, but not so much as a scratch or dent on the cabinet itself. My only real complaint was with the bolts that held the jointer bed to the bottom of the wooden crate. On one side the bolt must have been scraped up because the threads were destroyed and I couldnt get the nut all the way off the bolt - I ended up using a hacksaw. I didnt have that problem on the other side because the nut/washer were missing...
Assembly was fairly straightforward, although the newer copy of the manual I got from the Grizzly website was much more detailed than the older copy that was included in the crate. The overall fit and finish of the machine is excellent.
Moving the motor into its mounting position was no problem at all - I did a little writeup on my no-lifting-required method in this thread. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=1280392&postcount=16) My neighbor and I were able to lift the bed up onto the base with no issues - this wasnt nearly as bad as I had been worrying about.
I didnt bother with the OEM belt that came with, opting to go right to a high-quality notched belt from the local auto supply store. I got the exact same size as had come with the jointer, but the proper amount of tension wasnt possible due to the placement of the slots that the motor bracket slides on. The top set of slots didnt allow the belt to get tight enough, and if I moved things down to the lower set of slots I couldnt get the belt around the pulleys. I ended up getting a shorter belt. I then had to use a quick clamp in spreader mode to get enough tension on the belt to avoid vibration. I decided that the best use for the $1.99 Harbor Freight clamp was to reposition it slightly and leave it in the machine permanently as my version of the wooden-block-to-brace-the-motor-mount fix (see picture 1). Passes the nickel test now though, including on startup and shutdown! (Is it just me, or is it hard to get a nickel to balance even when the machine isnt running?? :rolleyes:)
I did the dust-collection fix as seen in picture 2 - I cut two scraps of plywood (from the shipping crate:)) and blocked off the top corners to keep dust out of the cabinet. I hear the new units have this fixed now, along with an updated belt/pulley system. Mine says it was born in April 2008, so Im guessing I dont have one of the newer ones.
I swapped out the cord for a longer 20 footer, and the test run went great. Im guessing these three horses wont be slowed down by pretty much anything I try and run through it. Sure is quiet for such a big machine - most of the noise seems to be from the whooshing of air coming off the cutterhead/blades!
I spent quite a while checking alignment with a good quality straightedge from Lee Valley and some feeler guages. The beds were very flat - I found just one .0015 dip on the infeed table, no big deal. A slighly larger (.003'') wave in the fence, also no biggie. The outfeed bed wasnt quite aligned with the cutterhead straight out of the crate. After some adjusting of the outfeed bed (quite easy thanks to the parallelogram design) I thought I had it all squared away. Spent about an hour then trying to get the infeed coplaner with the outfeed. I came pretty close, but finally at 1am I decided to call it a night.
I started over again the next morning and found that the operator side of the outfeed table is about .001'' higher than the fence side as measured from the cutterhead (not the blade). On the infeed side, the the corner closest to the fence near the cutterhead seems to be about .003'' inches low (out of co-planer with the outfeed table). I cant get this adjusted up high enough with the cam adjusters on the parallelogran setup, so Im thinking Ill have to lower the other three. :mad: I guess my question is: is it worth spending another afternoon getting everything dead-nuts on to within < .001'', or am I close enough with how it is now??? Im thinking I'll at least need to fix the dip on the infeed table side, since I can get the fence 90° square to the infeed OR square to the outfeed, but not both.
Woo! This got long. Thanks for reading - Comments/suggestions/advice are very much welcomed!