Grizzly Planer Died at the worst time, looking for Ideas

[Tim Pape]

Well I bought a new Grizzly 1033x about a year and a half ago and of course is now out of warranty. I've been building all new kitchen cabinets and have run maybe 400 BF through the machine and have loved it. Tonight, I was almost done planing down some face frame material (soft maple), and it made a weird sound, the lights dimmed, and then this acrid smoke came from the vents down by the motor. I immediately shut it down. I pulled the belt cover and they all looked good. The motor is free and can easily be turned by turning the belt pulley. When you push the start button, it makes a sound like it is trying to do something, but nothing turns. The smell was not an electric motor burn-out smell, it was more like a sulfur smell. I pulled the cover to the motor junction box and the magnetic starter and everything looks fine. Do you think it is the motor, or might it be something less expensive?

This could not have happened at a worse time...I'm getting married in April (Friday the 13th), and I have promised my future wife that I'd have her long awaited kitchen done before then. It was tight before this, now I'm in even worse shape.
Any and all ideas are appreciated!
-Tim

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Tim
If your motor is single phase, with your planer unplugged, check out the run capacitor. Tom

[Tim Pape]

Ok, where's that located?

[Peter Elliott]

Post where you live and I am sure one of us would allow you to come over and plane the rest of the job.
If not, a local sawmill will be pretty cheap.

If time is really short. Get the wood planed and fix the planer later...

[Tim Pape]

You guys are great for the offer, thank you! I do have a buddy that's somewhat close I can use in a pinch. I guess I'm just more frustrated than anything else. I own a boatload of grizzly stuff and have never had a problem...and this is the heaviest duty machine of all of them, I thought I'd never have a problem with it. I'm in northern VA, by Front Royal.

[Peter Elliott]

Tim, you are in our back yard. PM me if you need help.

My first Grizzly order has been a disaster (19" Extreme Bandsaw I bought just 2 weeks ago :mad:). It happens.... I highly suggest you call there tech support line and start from there.

But on your deadline, I would move on a get that job done. Fix the planer later

[Matt Armstrong]

either of the capacitors could be bad. They are cheap and easy to replace.

[Tim Pape]

I think you're dead on guys, I finally got to the other side of the motor (not easy to get to), and the smaller capacitor was badly leaking oil. Now I only hope grizzly can send one to me quickly.
Thanks for all the help, hoping it is just that and not the motor.
-Tim

[Dave Lehnert]

Tim, you are in our back yard. PM me if you need help.

My first Grizzly order has been a disaster (19" Extreme Bandsaw I bought just 2 weeks ago :mad:). It happens.... I highly suggest you call there tech support line and start from there.

But on your deadline, I would move on a get that job done. Fix the planer later

What kind of problems with the bandsaw?

[Peter Elliott]

A bunch of issues with it! wheels, tires, few small things.
Horrible service
3 page letter to Shiraz
But absolutely horrible service.

A rant that would probably get me banned from SMC

I leave it at that...

[Jerome Hanby]

You can probably get the caps from any motor shop and probably from any old school electronics supply house...

[Aaron Berk]

Am I the only one here noticing the real issue??

Friday the 13th.

Come on man, who does that?
No wonder your having pre marital issues.

[shane lyall]

Tim, I'm in Virginia as well but the southwest part. I don't know how far but your welcome to bring your lumber and plane as much as you want. I have a planer and my 38 inch drum sander should be set up by tomorrow night. PM me if I can help.

[Mike Metz]

I just had a similar issue with my g0454z planer. my issue turned out to be the start capacitor, mine was just out of warranty as well. they had the part in stock and within about 4 days i was back up without any issues. the total with shipping was less than $20, replacement was easy to do as well.

[Tim Pape]

Mike,
Was the job easy? The motor is hard to get to on this thing and I was wondering if it is possible to replace the capacitor without taking the motor out? It looks like the two wires go into the motor, are they soldered in there, or is it a mechanical connection?

[Tim Pape]

I was waiting for someonet o bring up the wedding date...This better not be an omen of things to come! We got a huge discount for having it on that date, go figure!

[Curt Harms]

Mike,
Was the job easy? The motor is hard to get to on this thing and I was wondering if it is possible to replace the capacitor without taking the motor out? It looks like the two wires go into the motor, are they soldered in there, or is it a mechanical connection?

I don't have that machine but I had a start cap go bad on a Jet JJP. The cap had two push-on spade connectors. I'd expect most motors are pretty similar. Actually replacing the cap took about 2 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if you could take the old one to an electric motor place or industrial supplier like Grainger and come home with a new - and maybe better - one.

[Jason White]

Yep, starter or run capacitor on motor. Not a big deal to replace. You might even be able to get the planer running if you turn the power on and just spin it by hand. Just be VERY careful you don't injure yourself trying to start it by hand.

[guy knight]

Am I the only one here noticing the real issue??

Friday the 13th.

Come on man, who does that?
No wonder your having pre marital issues.

i was married april first :D

[Kirk Poore]

Tim:

Assuming it is the start capacitor, you might pay attention to how often you start and stop the machine. If you start it many times an hour, the capacitor may not have time to cool off between starts and can eventually fail. For the motor on my dust collector, for example, Oneida recommends not starting more than six times per hour. If you're turning it off and on a lot more, I'd suggest either leaving the planer running or saving up jobs to be run all at one time instead.

Kirk

[Aaron Ledbetter]

That's a shame. I'm in the market for a new planer - and Grizzly is topping the list. It's always disconcerting to read about issues on a product you had your heart set on.... hmmmm.

[Tim Pape]

Aaron,
I would certainly not rule out Grizzly, especially if this turns out to be a $19 problem (I ordered a new capacitor yesterday). The planer is awesome, and has been everything I've wanted from it and more (aside from the pain of getting it into the basement).

[David Weaver]

I would've probably removed the leaking or stinky capacitor and gotten another one online or at a motor shop. And not a chaiwanese version, unless you'd like to have the same thing happen again in a short working time.

I doubt it's so much of a grizzly problem, but any time someone says something about a pacific or mainland china origin motor not working, you could answer a very large percentage by a knee jerk "capacitor".

I have a delta machine that's got a taiwanese motor. I have to give the belt a whirl and then turn it on. It's a machine I use about once a year, so I haven't bothered with it yet, but it's almost as if you should have spares for each stationary tool these days so you can change the capacitors out like a flat tire.

[Van Huskey]

I was waiting for someonet o bring up the wedding date...This better not be an omen of things to come! We got a huge discount for having it on that date, go figure!


I read right over it! Omens are what we make of them, superstition is just that. My guess is after 25 years or so you and your sife will see it as a source of amusement and proof of just how strong your marraige is.

[glenn bradley]

That's a shame. I'm in the market for a new planer - and Grizzly is topping the list. It's always disconcerting to read about issues on a product you had your heart set on.... hmmmm.

I suggest you stop reading then :). Every maker, yes even those sacred ones, have an issue now and then. People often don't start a thread to say, "Boy, it sure was great to flip the switch on my XYZ tablesaw today and have it start". Many folks do post praise but the ratio to posts relating to problems is about what you would expect. If I veered away from a vendor whenever I heard about a problem with their products, I wouldn't own a car and certainly wouldn't have a cell phone or a computer :D:D:D.

[scott vroom]

Have you called Grizzly tech support?

[Bruce Page]

I suggest you stop reading then :). Every maker, yes even those sacred ones, have an issue now and then. People often don't start a thread to say, "Boy, it sure was great to flip the switch on my XYZ tablesaw today and have it start". Many folks do post praise but the ratio to posts relating to problems is about what you would expect. If I veered away from a vendor whenever I heard about a problem with their products, I wouldn't own a car and certainly wouldn't have a cell phone or a computer :D:D:D.

Well said. There is no such thing as a perfect machine. Any time there’s electrons flowing and mechanical parts whirring you can have failure – no matter how extensive the quality control.

Just ask Jim Lovell.

[Aaron Ledbetter]

I suggest you stop reading then :). Every maker, yes even those sacred ones, have an issue now and then. People often don't start a thread to say, "Boy, it sure was great to flip the switch on my XYZ tablesaw today and have it start". Many folks do post praise but the ratio to posts relating to problems is about what you would expect. If I veered away from a vendor whenever I heard about a problem with their products, I wouldn't own a car and certainly wouldn't have a cell phone or a computer :D:D:D.

Stop reading huh? Thanks for the suggestion...:rolleyes:

I completely agree with your post (minus the advice to forgo reading)...but I hear what you're saying. I obviously don't post here much, but I'm very active in other forums, and I know how the negativity rises to the top.

Regardless of the fact that people are more prone to write negative comments, it still makes me raise a brow to read about issues on a product when I'm about to drop money on it. I actually know grizzly quality quite well - as I own a g0490x. However, I had to have the motor and fence (badly warped) replaced. Without a doubt, grizzly rose to the occasion quite admirably. For the most part, I'm happy with the jointer - but it does leave a bad taste in your mouth to go through that.

Don't get me wrong - Grizzly is still at the top of my list for a new planer. I'm confident that they would fix any issues that I might have (they've done it before)...I'm just hoping for no issues this round.

I meant to convey more of a condolence to the OP for going through the issue, though I may have failed to convey that. :o

[Keith Outten]

Grizzly planners have a good track record over the long haul. I have one that is almost 20 years old that works today as good as the day I placed it in my shop. I used to sell kiln dried lumber so my planner got a workout every month for many years. As the topic is about motors I also own a Grizzly dust collector, joiner, table saw and a host of other small machines none of which have ever had a motor problem. I wouldn't be surprised if I did experience a failure though, it happens on occasion but the ratio of failures is very low considering how many machines are shipped every month.

For the record I have experienced problems with electrical motors on machines made from other manufacturers but this is also a rare occurrence. I worked at NASA Langley for ten years so I can reinforce Bruce's comment that even the most expensive devices that go though rigorous testing will fail on occasion. Murphy's Law is to blame for the exact timing of any failure :)
.

[Aaron Ledbetter]

Good info, Keith - thanks for posting.

You raise a good point about ratio. I would suspect that Grizzly pushes far more units than *most* vendors due to the lower prices (usually how that goes). So even though there appears to be a lot of troubled posters out there, the failure ratio may be no different than the highest regarded machines. Good reality check!

[Tim Pape]

I meant to post an update yesterday but got tied up with work. I called Grizzly tech support on Wednesday and spoke to a great guy who said it definitely sounds like the start capacitor so I order that and it just arrived today. He said that should do the trick, but that the other thing that may have happened would be the possibility that the points on the motor welded themselves shut....so I am crossing my fingers that didn't happen, because I didn't order those.

The funny thing is that after that phone call, I got a call from Justin at Grizzly in Missouri. He left a message saying he heard I was having problems with my planer, and to call him and he'd help me out. I haven't been able to reach him yet, but I can only assume that he read this thread and reached out to me on his own? If so, I give HUGE kudos to Grizzly for their customer service. Like I said, virtually all of my stationary equipment is grizzly, and I have only needed technical support twice, and both times they were wonderful.

I'll update tomorrow morning after I get a chance to attempt the fix.
Thanks guys!

[Jim Andrew]

I wouldn't back off from Grizzly over this thread; thing is, you can buy a new motor with the savings over other brands, but you probably won't need to. All my Grizzly tools are running fine. And they are out of warranty too. I'm just glad there is an affordable tools company out there. Makes my life better. Love power tools, especially my 12" jointer and my open end thickness sander.