Greg Roberts
10-28-2010, 11:07 PM
I purchased a Grizzly G0564 sander a few weeks ago, and after setting it up and getting it adjusted, I noticed the belt looked crooked while at rest. Actually, it was crooked while running too.
I contacted Grizzly and asked about the problem, and it basically took them three weeks to answer one simple question. Is the crookedness I see normal for this model of machine? Terrible customer service on this one, but I've already covered that in another thread.
According to Grizzly tech support, the crookedness is not normal. While at rest, the belt on the motor side is about 3/4" lower than on the idler roller side. Adjusting the belt only slides the crooked belt up and down, it does not straighten it out.
The oscillating action does move the belt up and down more on the motor side than the idler roller side, but it's still crooked.
I used my Tiltbox (awesome product by the way) and found the table, platen, and sheet metal belt cover were all level side to side. The end table that goes around the idler roller was level side to side, but it was tilted back two degrees. The idler roller was also tilted back two degrees. Both the idler roller and the table attach to a cast arm that extend out of that side of the machine. Looking at the end of that cast arm, it looks crooked by about two degrees.
Measuring the front to back plumb of the motor roller is difficult because the roller is barrel shaped. But with a little tweaking, I could see that this roller was tilted forward about one degree.
One of the Grizzly techs suggested that the rollers being twisted by three degrees could be causing the belt to track crooked. It does make sense to me as I think about it.
They're going to pull out a new machine, set it up, make sure it is running properly and not crooked, and take the cast arm and a few other parts off that machine and send them to me. Now that's pretty darn good customer service.
The machine runs great. It has some nice features, like the stop button on top of the machine, the table up/down mechanism is really nice, the cabinet is really nice, dust collection (even with just the one end hooked up) is fantastic, and it's a nice smooth running machine. Much nicer than the Laguna unit I had before. The dust chute swings out of the way so you can sand long stock. The platen is quite long, I forget how long right now, but it's a very good size for the price of the machine. It's a nice looking machine. It was crated very well and showed up at my shop in perfect condition.
The crooked belt is not that big of an issue for me. The platen is oversized enough that even with the crookedness, the belt is still completely backed by the platen. But if it can be fixed relatively easily with a couple of parts, then I'd like to do it.
If you're in the market for an edge sander of roughly this size and roughly this price range, I recommend buying this machine.
Greg
I contacted Grizzly and asked about the problem, and it basically took them three weeks to answer one simple question. Is the crookedness I see normal for this model of machine? Terrible customer service on this one, but I've already covered that in another thread.
According to Grizzly tech support, the crookedness is not normal. While at rest, the belt on the motor side is about 3/4" lower than on the idler roller side. Adjusting the belt only slides the crooked belt up and down, it does not straighten it out.
The oscillating action does move the belt up and down more on the motor side than the idler roller side, but it's still crooked.
I used my Tiltbox (awesome product by the way) and found the table, platen, and sheet metal belt cover were all level side to side. The end table that goes around the idler roller was level side to side, but it was tilted back two degrees. The idler roller was also tilted back two degrees. Both the idler roller and the table attach to a cast arm that extend out of that side of the machine. Looking at the end of that cast arm, it looks crooked by about two degrees.
Measuring the front to back plumb of the motor roller is difficult because the roller is barrel shaped. But with a little tweaking, I could see that this roller was tilted forward about one degree.
One of the Grizzly techs suggested that the rollers being twisted by three degrees could be causing the belt to track crooked. It does make sense to me as I think about it.
They're going to pull out a new machine, set it up, make sure it is running properly and not crooked, and take the cast arm and a few other parts off that machine and send them to me. Now that's pretty darn good customer service.
The machine runs great. It has some nice features, like the stop button on top of the machine, the table up/down mechanism is really nice, the cabinet is really nice, dust collection (even with just the one end hooked up) is fantastic, and it's a nice smooth running machine. Much nicer than the Laguna unit I had before. The dust chute swings out of the way so you can sand long stock. The platen is quite long, I forget how long right now, but it's a very good size for the price of the machine. It's a nice looking machine. It was crated very well and showed up at my shop in perfect condition.
The crooked belt is not that big of an issue for me. The platen is oversized enough that even with the crookedness, the belt is still completely backed by the platen. But if it can be fixed relatively easily with a couple of parts, then I'd like to do it.
If you're in the market for an edge sander of roughly this size and roughly this price range, I recommend buying this machine.
Greg