Third-party jointer fence?

[Cliff Holmes]

My Grizzly G0490 jointer fence had a twist in it, so Grizzly had me ship it back for repair/replacement. UPS managed to lose it, so now I have a very nice, but unusable jointer.

So, before I shell out $120 on a replacement from Grizzly, are there any alternatives?

[Frank Drew]

Isn't UPS offering any reimbursement?

[Cliff Holmes]

Eventually. The problem is that they say they never picked it up. I get the feeling I'm gonna get screwed on this.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Cliff,

Do you have a receipt for the pickup?

[Cliff Holmes]

No receipt, the driver just took it. I've never gotten a receipt before unless it was a vendor-generated return label.

[Chip Lindley]

I guess we are supposed to live and learn! With no receipt, it will be hard to get UPS to do anything about your lost fence.

But, they can if they want to badly enough. Unless the fence was stolen off the delivery truck, it is sitting in some UPS facility, perhaps with the label torn off, or in a damaged box. UPS can find it if you discribe the size and color of box you shipped the fence in!

Go directly to your local UPS manager and complain until he is tired of hearing from you!

[glenn bradley]

At $120 for the right part versus some "supposed to fit" fence, I'd drop the $120 without question. Not to dwell on a sore spot but, I think I am hearing that UPS had a pick-up order for the fence, picked it up without leaving you a receipt and now state they don't know anything about it, yes? Based on what your time is worth, I am betting an aggressive pursuit would find the fence. I would at least want a face to face with the driver to see if his memory could be jogged.

[Cliff Holmes]

Well, what I had in mind was a much nicer jointer fence. Not that there's anything wrong with the Grizzly fence, but if I'm going to spend money I was hoping for an Incra-type superfence. Not trying to cheap-out.

[Frank Drew]

I was hoping for an Incra-type superfence.

If it's minutely incremental lateral adjustments you're looking for from an Incra type fence, I'm not sure how that would be all that useful on a jointer. You want, of course, a fence that can be set accurately and stay at 90º to the tables (and very occasionally at various other angles), and the fence should be able to be moved across the tables easily to expose more or less of the cutterhead, but I can't think of much beyond that; the jointer fences I've seen on good equipment are robust but pretty basic.

[Jeff Monson]

If it's minutely incremental lateral adjustments you're looking for from an Incra type fence, I'm not sure how that would be all that useful on a jointer. You want, of course, a fence that can be set accurately and stay at 90º to the tables (and very occasionally at various other angles), and the fence should be able to be moved across the tables easily to expose more of less of the cutterhead, but I can't think of much beyond that; the jointer fences I've seen on good equipment are robust but pretty basic.


+1 on that comment, I think I'd go with the OE fence, if it were a bandsaw or tablesaw I'd be looking elsewhere....but not a jointer fence.

[Dan Duperron]

I don't own any Grizzly gear but from what I have read they seem to have pretty solid customer service. It may be worth trying to work up the customer service chain to a manager and throw yourself on their mercy.

If you can find a polite way to deliver the message "if Grizz had sent me a jointer with a good fence the first time I wouldn't be in this pickle" that may work. BE NICE about it and maybe ask if there is any way they can offer you a substantial discount on the replacement part, perhaps they will do that. If you have other Grizzly tools and are satisfied with those, let them know.

Everyone knows that it's easier to retain a customer than acquire one, that bad news travels 10x faster and farther than good news, etc. I have had good luck with reputable manufacturers and merchants cutting me a break simply because I presented a logical case in a calm, polite fashion and asked them to see if there was anything they could do to help me out.

Having done some hard time in customer service I also know that the number of people who approach a problem in this way is very rare. If you do you will be far outnumbered by those screaming that they will never do business with Grizzly again because their package was missing one 10 cent washer. For me encountering someone who was nice, calm and asking for help (vs. making demands) was so rare that I nearly always wanted to, and was able to help them out just to reward them for being rational and civil.

But I do run on. Good luck and let us know how it turns out. We hate not knowing how a story ends.

[Cliff Holmes]

Well, I didn't mean an Incra on a jointer, that would be kinda pointless. What I would like to see is fence that has accurate positive stops for angles and easy to tune. Every jointer fence I've used shifts slightly when you tighten it down.

[Van Huskey]

+2 I have not seen a aftermarket jointer fence since there is not really anything to improve upon. If it is flat and can be set and stay at 90* it serves 99% of jointer functions, lateral movement is often needed on a jointer but rarely is precision or repeatablility unless one does rabbits which I can't really imagine in a modern shop.

This is the second thread on non-flat jointer faces in a couple of days. :confused:

[Cliff Holmes]

I don't own any Grizzly gear but from what I have read they seem to have pretty solid customer service.

Yep, I love Grizzly's CS. That's why I have so much green in my shop even though I hate that color :) Wish they'd had the Polar Bear series when I was buying.

And their CS has already stepped in and they're seeing if they can prod UPS in this situation.

[Frank Drew]

Cliff,

If you printed out your own UPS label, the driver should have scanned it in when he made the pickup, so there ought to be a digital record of that somewhere. Good luck, here's hoping you get some satisfaction from them.