Grizzly G0453ZW Question

[Mark W Pugh]

OK, another Grizzly planer thread, with spiral cutter head. The planer is new. I have adjusted, and adjusted, and adjusted but I'm still seeing parallel cut marks down the entire length of my board. You can't feel them, but you can see them when the light is reflected off the surface.

No, I have not called Grizzly yet, next on the list. Any ideas?

[Cary Falk]

It is normal for the spiral head. Similar to scallops from a straight knife joiner. They sand out quickly with a ROS. No big deal.

[glenn bradley]

A picture would help as would knowing what you are cutting. Soft woods can telegraph impact marks from almost any machine where harder materials do not. The point is to make sure you are not trying to fix something that is not the machine's fault ;-) since you say the length of your board I will guess the lines are running length-wise for the whole board, not cross-wise for the whole board but, this may not be correct.

Here is an example of a knifed machine surface and a spiral machine surface:

379756

In this case I would say the cuts on both were made by cutters needing attention. When I see trails like the ones in the lower picture it is time to rotate my inserts. Do not confuse this with the scalloping that is inherent in how planers operate. There is no way to pass a cutter through a material in an arc (like the cutting edge on a round cutterhead travels) and leave a flat surface. It is "really flat" and "smooth as a baby's butt flat" but, in the right conditions the arcing cut will show.

Unless you are doing rough-work, no surface goes from machine to finish but, we would like the surface to be as nice as possible. Again, a picture would help but, if a new cutterhead is leaving marks like the bottom pic, something is incorrect. I know Byrd had an issue years back where the index cutters were not getting seated correctly at the factory resulting in a variety of behaviors. I guess I should stop talking till we see a picture of exactly what we are trying to diagnose.

[Matt Day]

Great post Glenn.

[Mark W Pugh]

A picture would help as would knowing what you are cutting. Soft woods can telegraph impact marks from almost any machine where harder materials do not. The point is to make sure you are not trying to fix something that is not the machine's fault ;-) since you say the length of your board I will guess the lines are running length-wise for the whole board, not cross-wise for the whole board but, this may not be correct.

Here is an example of a knifed machine surface and a spiral machine surface:

379756

In this case I would say the cuts on both were made by cutters needing attention. When I see trails like the ones in the lower picture it is time to rotate my inserts. Do not confuse this with the scalloping that is inherent in how planers operate. There is no way to pass a cutter through a material in an arc (like the cutting edge on a round cutterhead travels) and leave a flat surface. It is "really flat" and "smooth as a baby's butt flat" but, in the right conditions the arcing cut will show.

Unless you are doing rough-work, no surface goes from machine to finish but, we would like the surface to be as nice as possible. Again, a picture would help but, if a new cutterhead is leaving marks like the bottom pic, something is incorrect. I know Byrd had an issue years back where the index cutters were not getting seated correctly at the factory resulting in a variety of behaviors. I guess I should stop talking till we see a picture of exactly what we are trying to diagnose.

I will try to get some pics. I'm cutting maple. Like I said, you can't feel them, and you can only see them when the light is reflected off of surface from the side. It's similar to the second pix, but not visible when looking straight down on the wood. I'll try to get pix.

They should sand out, but this is my first rodeo with a spiral cutter head.

Thanks

[Nick Decker]

Cue the responses about hand planes. :)

[Cary Falk]

Cue the responses about hand planes. :)

Hand planes are evil. Somebody had to say it.

[Mark W Pugh]

379789

OK, there's the lines.

379790

Looking straight down, no lines visible.

It's just the way it is? I should forget about it and make sawdust?

[keith micinski]

I get those marks sometimes even after using a torque wrench to tighten all the cutter to spec. You have to finish sand any of these pieces coming out of the planer anyway so I try not to let it bother me.

[Nick Decker]

Yeah, when you think about the possibility of every one of those cutters being exactly "coplanar", it boggles the mind.

Well, my mind anyway.

[Cary Falk]

My Byrd head does it. My Grizzly head does it. You can't feel them. Your figured board has no tear out. Life is good. find something else to worry about.

[Danny Hamsley]

It is normal. Sands out very very easily. The lack of tear out with these spiral heads make those little parallel lines on the boards a non-issue for me.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the pics Mark. I agree that this level of marking is normal. Marks that slight on material coming out of a preliminary milling machine are no cause for concern. You will read on the forums that the type of woodworking some folks do has them power sanding up to only 180 grit, some stop at 150. If you shine a light across material sanded to these levels you will see marks, and this material is ready for finish. I take a different road but, your marks at that stage of prep are still 'normal' in my shop.

I run my G0453Z at the low speed thereby getting more cuts per inch. This does nothing for the length-wise lines but, minimizes any scalloping that may occur on softer woods like cherry. The more troubling issue I found with the G0453Z was the serrated outfeed roller pressure being too high. This would leave unacceptably deep marks on things like mahogany. I backed the pressure way off to solve this but, the feed rollers still have a grip like an alligator.