So what do I do with a Grizzly Go490x ?

[Larry Gipson]

I received my new 490x jointer a couple of days ago and have assembled it. I've never owned a jointer, so this is new ground. How does one determine if the tables are aligned?

I took a straight piece of oak that had been cut on my unisaw and ran it through the jointer as a sort of test. I basically wanted to see if I could do this and still have all my fingers :)

I was pretty happy at first. With all pressure on the board on the infeed side, the thing cut like butter. Really nice. Then I switched pressure to the outfeed side as I got to the center of the board. The board rocked and no longer touched the cutter (which was set at 1/8"). I thought I was using the tool correctly. What did I do wrong? Right now I think I have a really heavy wood teeter-totter.

Where can I buy a cheap 6 ft straight edge?

I have a few pictures of the machine as I assembled it if anyone is interested. At 556lbs, it's a heavy machine, shipped in 2 boxes. I was able to assemble it alone without incident.

Observations: The sheet metal on the bottom cabinet is thin and easy to dent (no, I didn't dent it, but someone did in a few places). The motor mount is a weak point in the design and could be improved easily. The castings are rough, but the machined surfaces seem really well done. The welds inside the cabinet look like they were done by a 6 year old. There was grease everywhere on the machine, including painted surfaces - done by a 5 year old? No rust anywhere though. The cut is superb when the cutter reaches the wood :) . I love the helical cutter. This latest version of the machine has a wide, ribbed belt that replaces the v-belt of the earlier models. Parallel alignment of the pulleys seems more critical with this belt. This turned out to be much harder to do than it should be. Having to twist the stop button to turn the machine on is just weird . . :)

Regards,
Larry

- having fun

[Richard Coers]

Start with a short board on the outfeed only. Place it just over a cutter in the cutterhead, and rotate the head towards the infeed by hand. It should lift it and move it towards the infeed with about 1/8" movement towards the infeed. That should have the cutters a few thousandths above the outfeed table. Then I start a cut and raise the outfeed very gradually until there is no snipe at the end of the cut. You should be good to go. That doesn't test parallelism or anything else, but it does get the outfeed table to the correct height. If you move the fence and don't get the same cut, it's time to call Grizzly tech.

[glenn bradley]

My G0490X arrived perfectly setup so I would not immediately suspect the machine. The technique you describe is not what I use but, that doesn't make my method right. Using the push blocks (as always when face jointing), I apply enough pressure to control the material (which isn't much on those nice, clean, well waxed tables of yours, right?) and move it into the cutter. Once there are 2 or 3 inches of material on the outfeed table I apply the pad there and put the bulk of the control pressure on the outfeed. I keep control of the infeed side but, pretty much "Drag" the balance of the board across the cutter by walking the push pads in the area just past the cutterhead. There are as many variations as there are types of boards being jointed but, essentially the area past the cutter should have a flat surface and you continue to move that newly flattened surface forward bringing the 'yet to be jointed' part of r the board across the cutterhead. Catch some videos and watch some folks go through the motions. A jointer (like a planer) will give you varying results depending on your technique.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi Larry,It wont take long to get the hang of it.I would like to make a few suggestions.Square the fence to the table just past the cutter head.Look thru your wood pile for some thing thats crowned and thick.When pushing it past the head it should take wood from the beginning and the end.When it takes a full cut from end to end your done.If you try with the crown down it will make a taper.Same thing with the edge jointing the wood should be crowned to take a pass from the start and end first.I am sure you will figure it out in no time.

[Larry Gipson]

Fixed the problem.

This was a combination of over-exuberance and an improperly assembled machine.

First, I noticed that the tables have a sacrificial (aluminum?) piece bolted on the edge, extending over the cutters. The one on the infeed side was aligned perfectly. The one on the outfeed side was high at the fence and low at the machine front. I called tech support and they said I should either hit the offending piece with a large "dead blow rubberized hammer" to force the piece into alignment near the fence or I'd have to disassemble the machine enough to remove the cutter, then loosen the 3 bolts enough to realign the piece. Well, I had smacked the thing with a leather mallet a couple of times and it hadn't budged. Still, taking the belt off again, taking the fence off again, removing the cutters and so forth gave me a new sense of urgency, so I found a large hammer and a piece of oak and smacked it a few times - lightly. After about 4 blows I'd measure the misalignment with a micrometer. When it was within 10 thousandths, I stopped and tried making chips again. By gosh it seemed to work.

Part of this was my inexperience, I'm sure. The other part was a machine, badly assembled by the factory - either in China or in Washington. Now I'm making large boards into little chips and I'm very happy!

I have router bits that I haven't tried. I'm planning to make a mock up of the joinery involved when making an exterior door. That's next.

I've assembled a version of Sam's I beam and am ready for the glue-ups.

I've also ordered various weather tubing, and threshold products from Conservation Technologies that haven't arrived.

Tomorrow we buy the lumber.

Then on to the door project . . .

Regards,
Larry

[Andrew Hughes]

Thats good news,Now that the weather is cooler i too will be back in the shop this weekend working on end tables i started in april.Must be real nice in San diego

[Peter Quinn]

Sounds like you are well under way! Good luck and enjoy that tool.