Grizzly G0609 Owners

[Brett Bobo]

I've been eyeing the G0690 for quite a while now and the recent offering by Grizzly with a 10% off coupon probably added enough fuel to the fire to pull the trigger. With a kitchen remodel in the works and several ongoing and upcoming bathroom vanity projects, it makes the most sense to upgrade now. This will be my third jointer, coming from a 6" and 8", so while there are workarounds, I've felt some limitations with the smaller sizes for the type of (hobby) work I do.

What are the advantages and disadvantages, in your opinion, of the G0609? What are you likes and dislikes? I realize this is generally more of a budget driven decision but is the spiral cutterhead worth the additional cost of ~$700--cost vs. reward/payoff? Of course, I'm sure all of us would choose a spiral head over knives if cost was irrelevant but I've never known anything other than knives between the jointers and even a 20" planer. Maybe ignorance is bliss and I can save $700 :).

Thanks for the input,
Brett

[Mikail Khan]

I have had the 609X for about 4 years now. No complaints really. Slight vibration when the jointer in coming up to speed that I think is belt related (mine has v belts). The current model uses serpentine belt so they may not have this problem. Because the jointer is so wide the porkchop guard sticks out a lot when face jointing wide boards. I use mostly teak and mahogany. I haven't rotated the inserts as yet - a few inserts were damaged when I jointed a board with nails in it. I just rotated the damaged inserts 90 or 180 degrees.

I have not done a side by side comparison but the spiral cutterhead makes a lot less noise. Hearing protection is not mandatory. I think my dust collector makes more noise. A jointer will probably see less passes than a planer, so the extra $700 may not be worth it. I don't think I paid that much extra when I bought mine. I expect this machine to last me another 20 years at least.

MK

[Jim Andrew]

I bought the G0609 plain, and added the Byrd cutterhead. The parallagram jointer is the way to go. This jointer will last a lifetime.