Useful info about Griz 15" planer

[Brian Kincaid]

There seem to be quite a few folks with the Grizz 15" planer. I have one with the griz spiral head. This weekend I tried to take too deep a pass at the high feed rate on a 12" wide board and the planer stopped. :eek:

I figured I tripped the breaker so I checked but it was fine. The light was on behind the stop button so I knew power was getting to the unit. Off to the manual...
It mentioned something about temperature overload but there was no information about where this would be.

Looked over the parts diagram and saw that in the white wire-box there are several circuits, including one that says something about protection so I opened the white box and found that a blue button had popped up (tripped). When I pushed it back down I was able to run the planer again!

Whew, glad that's over, but a little more explanation in the manual would have been nice. I'm sure tech support would have gotten me there but this was a Sunday afternoon.

Hope this will help someone else. :D
-Brian

[Wayne A Hall]

Another word of caution. When a tool stalls for any reason, remember to cut the power (unplug it) and clear the jam. Depending upon what kind of starter the tool has, it may re-start when you clear the jam or reset the thermal overload. I shredded a planer belt years ago by simply resetting the overload and not removing the stock.

[glenn bradley]

Great tip Brian. I have that planer in my sights for "someday".

[Brian Kincaid]

Another word of caution. When a tool stalls for any reason, remember to cut the power (unplug it) and clear the jam. Depending upon what kind of starter the tool has, it may re-start when you clear the jam or reset the thermal overload. I shredded a planer belt years ago by simply resetting the overload and not removing the stock.

Very good point. I did exactly what you said (instinct), but that might not be true for everyone. Any time you work on the tool you unplug it. Have to be careful around machinery and high voltage.

Thanks Wayne!
-Brian

[Brian Kincaid]

Great tip Brian. I have that planer in my sights for "someday".

Glenn, it's a good machine. There is some back and forth about 'stripes' being left by the knives, but I find the boards are easier to clean up than from traditional knives. I always clean up boards after machining either with a hand plane (preferred) or some 120grit. Noise is the main reason I got the spiral knives, I was not disappointed.

The only changes I would make if I were designing it would be to increase the DC hood to 5" and remove the bed rollers for full CI bed.

-Brian

[george wilson]

About unplugging the machine: I had loaned a friend my 12" Parks planer back in the 70's when I had no room for it. The guy was changing its knives,and loosened the gib screws. Another friend came over,and casually turned the planer on. The knives and gibs flew out of it,and the gibs got wrapped around into a spiral. It cost them considerable money to get the parts and fix it.

Heard about another guy changing his jointer knives. Phone rang. He came back,and for some reason turned the jointer on. It tore off the front edge of the infeed table!! He wrote to FWW to complain about the poor customer service from Makita !! Got no sympathy,either .

[Neil Davie]

I appreciate the input. I previously had a Griz 20" planer and since I now have a smaller shop am considering the 15" with the sprial cutterhead also. It's a bit of an investment, but all the knowledge afrorehand helps.

[Rob Holcomb]

Good to know. Thank you Brian.

[Brian Kincaid]

Dust collection:
Problem: Outfeed roller smashing chips into planed board, quite a bit of dust escaping around table with good dust collector running.

Solution: Scraped off the sponge seal on the inside of the lid. This was mentioned on another thread as a great dust-collection modification.

Result: I planed quite a lot of oak last night with no cleanup required. Not sure why that sponge thing was there but it's gone for good now! My planer is now the cleanest running tool in the gara..sho..STUDIO! :D

-Brian