Anyone have a Grizzly G0490 jointer with the serpentine belt?

[Dick Holt]

According to the Grizzly catalog, the G0490 now comes with a serpentine belt instead of the single v-belt. I was wondering if this has cured the problem of belt slap and vibration. Shop Fox still uses a single v-belt on their W1741. I was going to get the Shop Fox, but will switch to the Grizzly if the new belt makes a difference.

Dick

[Dave Zellers]

I do. It doesn't.

Although it seems less now than when it was new 6 months ago.

[glenn bradley]

I guess we could always put a lower power motor on them :D. This pretty much cured mine:

An extra nut to act as a spacer on each side elevating the belt guard about 1/4"

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A link belt

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[Dave Lehnert]

Would a serpentine belt be harder to find down the road vs a V belt?

[michael case]

Just like Dave - I do. It doesn't.

Although it seems less now than when it was new 6 months ago.

PS. yes, they are harder to find

[Tony Zaffuto]

I am (was) nearly ready to pull the trigger on this jointer. Please elaborate on the "belt slap" problem. Are there similar issues with any other Grizzly/Shop Fox jointers? I had a Powermatic 6" jointer (imported one) bought in 1996 that I unloaded because of the vibration and belt hitting the guard. Tried all kind of fixes including a link belt and making sure pulleys were lined properly.

[Van Huskey]

Would a serpentine belt be harder to find down the road vs a V belt?



I can't see an issue with either one of them multi-groove V belts (serpentine) are widely available and will only become more so as car using V-belts continue to die and meet the crusher. V belts continue to be used in a huge variety of applications many with very long life cycles so they should be around for many years as well.

[Pete Janke]

I have the Grizzly 604, the 6" little brother to the 490. I had problems with the original equipment V-belt coming off the pulleys. I spent a lot time making sure the pulleys were parallel. Calling the jointer names and kicking it didn't help at all. I put on a link belt and everything was fine.

[Mike Goetzke]

I have one and it came with the serpentine belt and I experience no belt slap at all. After setting up the beds it has been a joy to use (although, I did add a Byrd head).

Mike

[Chris Rosenberger]

I also have a 490 with a serpentine belt & Byrd head.
I have not noticed any problems at all with it.

[Guy Belleman]

I also have the G0490, with V-belt and have no belt slap. On setup I did spend some time ensuring the pulleys were perfectly aligned and the belted tightened properly (which was a tight fit for my hands to get to one of the bolts, if I remember correctly). But the machine runs smooth. I used the spiral head it came with and it provides a superb finish.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I have just finished replacing the bearings on my G0490...argggghhh! I believe the bearing at the cutter head pulley was bad and contributed to the vibration. But, i have had numerous problems with the belt riding off and even the motor pulley walking its way off the motor shaft. I am curious how the link belt works with the multi-grove/serpentine pulleys?

[Tony Zaffuto]

How old is your G0490 & how much use has it had that caused the bearings to fail? Seeing your post makes me hesitant to consider a Grizzly tool. Customer service may be fine for occasional fixes, but I'd rather have something done right the first time.

[Rick Bunt]

I have a G0490X (spiral head) with the older v-belt (about 1.5 years old). I did take care getting the pulleys lined up and the belt tensioned during the initial set up--but nothing extraordinary. No belt slap or any other problems thus far. I thought about link belt, but thus far have had no reason to "upgrade". I would buy again without hesitation.

[Mikil Phelpson]

The "Wood Nerd" upgraded his G0490 to the serpentine belt and said it wasn't worth it, in fact he later "downgraded" back to a normal pulley with a quality belt and that was better than the original or the serpentine. http://www.thewoodnerd.com/reviews/grizzlyJointerBeltUpgrade.html

[Matt Kestenbaum]

It is 15 months now. The blades are still perfectly sharp...if that is a measure of the use. I had many many months of trouble with belts riding off and then the motor pulley walking...eventually paid a machine tech who maintains most of the University shops in Philly come to my basement. He said that in addition to the wrong set screws holding the motor pulley and key in place that a bearing sounded bad...causing enough vibration to exacerbate the belt/pulley problems. If I told you all the wrinkles of this story it would start a flame war of the Grizzly lovers/haters, so I will punctuate the post by saying I am VERY unhappy with the purchase, EVEN less so with the customer support I have received and will NEVER EVER buy another Grizzly machine again.