Grizzly G0490

[Wade Davis]

I am new to the forum and thought I'd provide some feedback on the Grizzly GO490 8" jointer I recently purchased. I purchased this unit to replace my Rigid 6" jointer based on (1) recommendations from members of several forums, (2) quality of a dust collector I recently purchased from Grizzly, and Fine Woodworking's review/recommendation of the Grizzly GO500 8" jointer.

Pros:


I was very impressed with Grizzly's customer service. The freight company misplaced/lost the item and failed to deliver on schedule. Grizzly customer service was prompt, understanding, and went out of their way to assist and resolve the problem.
The beds were dead flat as stated by Fine Woodworking. Based on my measurements, they are flat to less than .001 inch front to back, side to side, and diagonally.
The overall fit and finish was excellent, though there are some machine marks on the tables.
Assembly directions were clear, and assembly was very straight forward.
Pricing for this unit is excellent. I am impressed with the overall quality of the machine given the price. I would be impressed even if it were priced $500 more.


Cons:


The in-feed table lip was improperly installed: 1/32 high on one side, 1/32 low on other side. This prevented wood from sliding across the lip. Correcting this required removing the cutter head. The lip was also not flat which required 20 minutes of honing. I have also noticed that the material (aluminum) is very soft and is marred from simply running hard wood over it. This unit deserves better.
The in-feed and out-feed tables were out of parallel .010 of an inch. This required several hours of tedious adjustment to get them parallel.
The in-feed and out-feed tables were not on same plane .006 of an inch. This too required several hours of tedious adjustment to get them on the same plane.
The cutter head was out of parallel to the out-feed table .006 inch. Removing 3 of the 4 shims installed at the factory got it within .0005 inch. No idea what the person shimming the cutterhead was thinking. :confused:
The blades were all over the map. First, the blades were +/-.004 inch out of parallel with outfeed table. Second, each blade was at least +/- .003 inch off from one side to the other. Third, 2 of the 4 blades have nicks that leave a noticeable groove in the wood and therefore are going to require replacement. :mad:


Since none of the above issues can be explained by shipping, more effort needs to be made setting up the equipment at the factory. And each of these issues was quite surprising given what Fine Working stated about the machine they reviewed. By comparison, my Rigid 6" jointer, which sells for a 1/3 the price, was within .001 inch across the board and ready to go out of the box. While the Grizzly unit is superior to the Rigid in every way, the Grizzly factory set-up leaves much to be desired and required 2 full days of adjustment to correct. While I will still put Grizzly on the short list when it comes to replacing my tablesaw next month, the poor factory set-up found in this unit will be one of the factors taken into consideration when deciding which brand tablesaw to purchase.

Wade Davis

[Van Huskey]

Thanks for the info. Have you contacted Grizzly about your issues?

[Jeff Miller]

Maybe you need to check your straight edge to see if it's straight....just a thought,don't get upset with me;)


JEFF:D

[george wilson]

You must have gotten a lemon,and should have sent it back,asking them for a package pick up tag so you wouldn't pay return shipping. The 8" Grizzly I bought for my former job was absolutely accurate. I am very surprised that you think the machine was a well priced buy with all those problems.

[Wade Davis]

Maybe you need to check your straight edge to see if it's straight....just a thought,don't get upset with me;)


JEFF:D

:p

A straight edge was not used for most measurements that are off. I only use a straight edge for measuring table flatness (both of which were dead flat) and whether the tables are on the same plane. Those measurements were taken with a new 48" Starrett straight edge. All other measurements were taken with a dial indicator on a magnetic base.

[Wade Davis]

You must have gotten a lemon,and should have sent it back,asking them for a package pick up tag so you wouldn't pay return shipping. The 8" Grizzly I bought for my former job was absolutely accurate. I am very surprised that you think the machine was a well priced buy with all those problems.

Well, there was no way of knowing the issues until everything was assembled. And nothing (except the blades) is defective; the unit was just not properly set-up at the factory, which is something I can correct. Disassembling and repackaging a 600 pound piece of equipment, and then waiting another 2 weeks for another one (which very well could have the same issues) is not something I would do unless it was defective. As for being well priced, given that the next closest comparable alternative is over $800 more I still consider it very well priced, even with having to spend a weekend adjusting the beds and knives. Given all the reviews I have read, I was just very surprised that the unit was so out of alignment. :confused:

[glenn bradley]

I am very sorry the tool arrived like that. I hate for this to happen to folks. The sheer number of problems you have makes me wonder if the machine came straight from Grizzly (no offense, it is just very unusual).

There was a series of G0490 threads reporting problems several month back but then all went back to normal. No offense but I hope this was one of those machines as opposed to a return of whatever that problem was.

Anything that required me to remove the cutterhead on a new machine, and I can see how the lip problem would, would cause me to swap it out. My history with Grizzly tells me that they would have gladly done this. It may have helped you avoid the table issues as well as my machine and many others show up needing only minor, if any, adjustment right out of the box.

The issues on the machine you received were unacceptable and I believe you should have replaced it. The main machine mounts with 4 bolts and the fence carriage comes off with 2. That would beat adjusting tables any day. I am so glad it wasn't a dovetail way machine. Getting those co-planer can give you a workout.

I have a few large Grizzly tools and escaped any major problems with any of them. When problems do crop up I almost feel it is our duty to make the manufacturer/seller take responsibility. It is one way that we can send a direct message back that we will not accept inferior workmanship. Budget priced tools can cut costs in many areas but basic functionality is a must.

P.s. I did chase a table problem on my jointer for about half an hour before I figured out that the fence was the culprit. Glad I found it before I started adjusting the tables. The replacement was in my hands in 2 days and was fine.

[Mike Goetzke]

Wade - Sounds like you are talking about the same jointer I got from Grizzly a few months back. The problems fit mine to a "T." I must have spent almost 20 hours messing with the beds. I too found I wasted many hours because of shims being placed under the wrong bearing block. What I ended up doing, after searching the web and several conversations with others, set the tables to the middle of the eight eccentric adjusters travel (I used a dial indicator). I then adjusted the tables and then added shims to the head last to make it level to the tables. This went way quicker. I think these critical adjustments should be made before we get the tool. Grizzly CS told me it probably went out of adjustment in shipping (hard to believe since my shim swap was equivalent to a 0.012" difference) and to keep working at it. The least they could do is include a spanner wrench to make adjustments easier.

I just took delivery of a new BS from them and it had similar adjustment errors (easy for the factory to have corrected but difficult for the user to correct). Grizzly CS was great but if that expense/effort was put into the original product I would be happier and more confident to buy from them again.

Mike

[Wade Davis]

I am very sorry the tool arrived like that. I hate for this to happen to folks. The sheer number of problems you have makes me wonder if the machine came straight from Grizzly (no offense, it is just very unusual).

There was a series of G0490 threads reporting problems several month back but then all went back to normal. No offense but I hope this was one of those machines as opposed to a return of whatever that problem was.

Anything that required me to remove the cutterhead on a new machine, and I can see how the lip problem would, would cause me to swap it out. My history with Grizzly tells me that they would have gladly done this. It may have helped you avoid the table issues as well as my machine and many others show up needing only minor, if any, adjustment right out of the box.

The issues on the machine you received were unacceptable and I believe you should have replaced it. The main machine mounts with 4 bolts and the fence carriage comes off with 2. That would beat adjusting tables any day. I am so glad it wasn't a dovetail way machine. Getting those co-planer can give you a workout.

I have a few large Grizzly tools and escaped any major problems with any of them. When problems do crop up I almost feel it is our duty to make the manufacturer/seller take responsibility. It is one way that we can send a direct message back that we will not accept inferior workmanship. Budget priced tools can cut costs in many areas but basic functionality is a must.

P.s. I did chase a table problem on my jointer for about half an hour before I figured out that the fence was the culprit. Glad I found it before I started adjusting the tables. The replacement was in my hands in 2 days and was fine.

Glenn,

The jointer was ordered online and shipped directly from Grizzly's Springfield, Missouri warehouse...same as the dust collector I bought last month. I ordered the jointer on a Friday morning and it arrived in Nashville Sunday night. And yes, let us hope I got a bad one and that they are all not like the one I received. This is the type of thing I would have expected from Grizzly 5-10 years ago. However, I was under the impression (from numerous reviews) that their quality/fit and finish had improved greatly on their mid/upper-priced equipment. I guess I now have a greater appreciation of my various Rigid tools. :D I did send a polite email to Grizzly today which pretty much mirrored my post here...except for the fact that I was more blunt about having second thoughts about buying additional equipment from them. ;)

[Wade Davis]

Grizzly CS told me it probably went out of adjustment in shipping (hard to believe since my shim swap was equivalent to a 0.012" difference) and to keep working at it. The least they could do is include a spanner wrench to make adjustments easier.

Mike, I expect that is the explanation they will provide me also, though I know the misalignments on my machine were not due to shipping issues. And yes, given all the tools included with the jointer (3 allen wrenches, 2 box end wrenches and a blade install tool) you would think they would have included a small spanner wrench. :confused:

[James Malcolm]

On my G0490, the infeed and outfeed tables were slightly out of plane and level by about .01". After getting darn close and starting to get frustrated because I just couldn't get that last little bit, I realized that the infeed table was adjusted at the maximum travel of 2 of the eccentric cams, which makes it difficult to lock in an adjustment. I adjusted all 4 down equally as best I could and then readjusted the whole thing from there. Took me twice as long as it should to adjust it because of that. Word of disclosure, the poor thing had a 4 hour bumpy ride in a small utility trailer, then a harrowing decent into my basement, grasped only by it's ears (one of us at each end). Also my straight edge is certainly not hi-quality precision; planer works fine now, no snipe on edge straightening, haven't tried face cutting. But being adjusted near the limits of the cams on 2 of the 4 infeed table cams is not acceptable.

Hopefully will get the Shelix in this weekend and I guess since was intending to use the new bearing blocks I bought that I will have to check for alignment there as well. How do I measure concentricity of the bearings? Best I can do at the moment is align it parallel to the bed edge, give it the old spin test and hope for the best. I know there is some misalignment tolerance built into the bearings, but how can you tell if you are near the limits of it?

[glenn bradley]

I ordered the jointer on a Friday morning and it arrived in Nashville Sunday night.

Well that hardly leaves any time for the shipper to beat on it too badly, does it? Glad you got it in order. You certainly put out more effort than one should expect and have reason to be less than thrilled. All in all, congrats on the new jointer. It will serve you well for many years. :)