Anyone have a Shop Fox W1755 jointer?

[Dick Holt]

I am looking at the Shop Fox W1755 jointer ( 6", long bed, parallelogram adj.). It appeaars to be identical to the Grizzly G0604 jointer, but for $200 less at Grizzly's web site. Wood magazine rated the Grizzly model the best of the heap a year or so ago. (They did not test the Shop Fox W1755.) I would like to know if you like your Shop Fox W1755 or should I look elsewhere? TIA

Dick

[david brum]

Not quite the same, but I have the 1741 (8" parallelogram). It came in absolutely perfect alignment. All I had to do was to square the fence.

Mine performs great. I can joint an 8' board and get a glueable surface. I doubt you could bog the motor with anything like a reasonable cut. The bed alignment is very straight forward and simple with a parallelogram jointer. No shimming or jumping on the beds, just turn a screw. These jointers also have surprisingly good built-in mobile bases. My jointer weighs around 500lbs but rolls around with palm pressure. The bed height adjuster is slick too. It is a simple lever which easily operates the parallelogram beds, which are in turn counter weighted with springs. Takes almost no effort to change height of cut.

On the negative side, there are known issues with these jointers from both Grizzly and Shop Fox. I don't know if these extend to the 6" units, but here goes. First, the belts slap when the motor winds down. This is some kind of vibration issue. The top belt cover (I just left mine off) will interfere with the belt and make a racket. This does not affect performance and I honestly don't notice it anymore, but it sounds like a bang just before the motor stops.

The other issue is the dust collection chute mysteriously doesn't have a top. In order to get effective dust collection, you have to fabricate a top for it. I taped on a piece of cardboard. It's inside the machine, so no one sees it anyway.

Otherwise, the QC on Grizzly/Shop Fox jointers is very good. It's one of their best, most reliable products. I chose Shop Fox because I like white and it was a bit cheaper.