Phillip Gregory
04-01-2018, 9:20 PM
I bought this piece of equipment a little while ago and thought I would post a brief review as there is little information "out there" about it.
I was looking for a decent-sized disc sander to do things such as take a fuzz off of the end of a piece of stock so it fits perfectly and also sand convex curves and circles. 20" is the largest size of disc sander routinely encountered. Anything larger is either extremely expensive, uncommon as you are looking for a used industrial piece of equipment to come up for sale, and they generally have a large footprint as they need to have enough mass to offset the weight of the table and disc to keep the unit from tipping over. My shop isn't all that large and I was able to see this unit in person as I work in Springfield just up the street from Grizzly's showroom.
TheG0775 is a 20" disc sander that Grizzly started selling in 2015. It has a cast iron disc, an electromechanical mechanical brake that automatically activates when you push the stop button, is driven by a 2 hp 4 pole single-phase motor, and has a magnetic starter. This piece of equipment is only able to be run on 240 volts due to the magnetic starter and the brake. It has a 4 inch dust port unlike all of the other Grizzly disc sanders which have 2 1/2" Shop Vac connectors, and sits atop a sheet steel cabinet. The table adjusts for tilt from about 15 degrees above perpendicular to the disc to 45 degrees below and is adjustable for the amount of gap between the table edge and the disc. The table does not move up and down relative to the disc as in many of the pedestal units, it is fixed with the table top at disc centerline.The motor rotates counterclockwise and Grizzly has a large guard that prevents usage of the right side of the disc. This is the largest disc sander Grizzly sells and they appear to be the only major manufacturer that sells this specific sander. The other 20" disc sanders out there are versions of the classic tube-and-round-base pedestal disc sander designed around WWII and sold by MAX, State, and Conquest, and more recently imported by Jet/Powermatic when they were owned by WMH Group.
The G0775 comes bolted to a small pallet the same size as the base of the sander and encased in a corrugated box and Styrofoam, similar to other Grizzly equipment of that size. It weighs about 400 pounds so
it is too heavy to pick up yourself but is easy to move with a hand truck. I put mine in the standard-duty 600 pound Shop Fox mobile base. It requires a piece of 3/4" plywood to be put underneath the sander, else the cabinet door will not open as it hits the inside crossmember of the base. This model sander on display in Grizzly's showroom was mounted in the same mobile base, and there was a piece of plywood inside the base underneath of the sander to prop it up. It has a 100 grit sanding disc attached from the factory and like all of Grizzly's equipment, the unpainted cast iron parts are coated in Cosmoline and the other metal parts have a fine coat of oil. There is also a short-runner miter gauge and a small circle-sanding jig included. Once I got it all set up and used it for a few projects, here are my thoughts:
Positives
- Everything was in good working order out of the box with no quality control issues.
- The table and trunnions are sturdy and I was able to get it square, and once set, the table stayed square to the disc.
- The 2 hp motor is plenty powerful. It gets the cast iron disc up to speed in about 3-4 seconds and will easily take off a lot of stock in a hurry without even appearing to notice.
- Reasonably solidly built and finished for a machine of its size. Runs with minimal vibration and passes the nickel test.
- The electromechanical brake works well and stops the disk in about 3-4 seconds.
- The 100 grit disc attached to the sander from the factory is very appropriate and usable; I did not feel the need to immediately remove it and put something else on.
- Easy to move with the mobile base, and has a small footprint that is not notably larger than any of the other smaller disc sanders put on a cabinet. The cabinet has enough footprint so the unit is not tippy at all.
- The disc is large enough to be usable.When I was young I used IIRC an 8" disc as part of a combination belt/disc sander my Dad had and the disc was frequently too small to be usable. You generally ended up with a burned workpiece (because you didn't move it laterally across the disc) or it caught on the "up" half of the disc because you did move it laterally to keep it from burning. The 20" disc has a LOT more usable area on the "down" side of the disc. This is a very capable machine.
- Grossly smaller than the "next size up" 27-30" machines which typically weigh about a ton and take up the same footprint as a cabinet saw with ~50" rip fence rails. This machine by comparison is about the size of a small, cheap portable jobsite tablesaw without any extension wings and weighs 400 pounds.
Negatives
- Changing the paper on the disc is not easy. This is the biggest negative of the unit. Half of the disc is covered with the lower disc guard/dust intake and the table does not move up and down, Grizzly's method to R&R the sandpaper disc involves removing and installing the paper to one half of the disc at a time. This is tricky as this unit like nearly all others uses PSA sandpaper discs where you get one shot to get things squarely applied. Gaining access to the entire disc requires removing the table, trunnions, right half disc guard, side/rear shroud, and the lower disc guard/dust intake. The pedestal type units generally allow access to the entire disc or close to it with little to no disassembly.
- Dust collection is decent but not great by modern standards, although it would be excellent by old-school standards. There is about an inch and a half gap between the underneath of the table and the dust intake on the lower half of the disc with the table at 90 degrees and a noticeable amount of dust escapes through this gap. I made a temporary shroud with a piece of paperboard and some painter's tape and this captures nearly all of the visible dust.
- The bottom cabinet should have been two inches deeper so one could store sanding discs laying flat inside of it. It could also use a shelf.
- This is a minor niggle but I would have preferred a purely electrical/non-mechanical braking setup. Ideal for me would have been a 3 phase motor that I would have hooked to a VFD with a braking resistor. The electromechanical brake works very well but will wear and need adjusted and eventually replaced.
Overall, it's a very decent, very practical machine that works well and has a lot of bang for its footprint and for the buck.
I was looking for a decent-sized disc sander to do things such as take a fuzz off of the end of a piece of stock so it fits perfectly and also sand convex curves and circles. 20" is the largest size of disc sander routinely encountered. Anything larger is either extremely expensive, uncommon as you are looking for a used industrial piece of equipment to come up for sale, and they generally have a large footprint as they need to have enough mass to offset the weight of the table and disc to keep the unit from tipping over. My shop isn't all that large and I was able to see this unit in person as I work in Springfield just up the street from Grizzly's showroom.
TheG0775 is a 20" disc sander that Grizzly started selling in 2015. It has a cast iron disc, an electromechanical mechanical brake that automatically activates when you push the stop button, is driven by a 2 hp 4 pole single-phase motor, and has a magnetic starter. This piece of equipment is only able to be run on 240 volts due to the magnetic starter and the brake. It has a 4 inch dust port unlike all of the other Grizzly disc sanders which have 2 1/2" Shop Vac connectors, and sits atop a sheet steel cabinet. The table adjusts for tilt from about 15 degrees above perpendicular to the disc to 45 degrees below and is adjustable for the amount of gap between the table edge and the disc. The table does not move up and down relative to the disc as in many of the pedestal units, it is fixed with the table top at disc centerline.The motor rotates counterclockwise and Grizzly has a large guard that prevents usage of the right side of the disc. This is the largest disc sander Grizzly sells and they appear to be the only major manufacturer that sells this specific sander. The other 20" disc sanders out there are versions of the classic tube-and-round-base pedestal disc sander designed around WWII and sold by MAX, State, and Conquest, and more recently imported by Jet/Powermatic when they were owned by WMH Group.
The G0775 comes bolted to a small pallet the same size as the base of the sander and encased in a corrugated box and Styrofoam, similar to other Grizzly equipment of that size. It weighs about 400 pounds so
it is too heavy to pick up yourself but is easy to move with a hand truck. I put mine in the standard-duty 600 pound Shop Fox mobile base. It requires a piece of 3/4" plywood to be put underneath the sander, else the cabinet door will not open as it hits the inside crossmember of the base. This model sander on display in Grizzly's showroom was mounted in the same mobile base, and there was a piece of plywood inside the base underneath of the sander to prop it up. It has a 100 grit sanding disc attached from the factory and like all of Grizzly's equipment, the unpainted cast iron parts are coated in Cosmoline and the other metal parts have a fine coat of oil. There is also a short-runner miter gauge and a small circle-sanding jig included. Once I got it all set up and used it for a few projects, here are my thoughts:
Positives
- Everything was in good working order out of the box with no quality control issues.
- The table and trunnions are sturdy and I was able to get it square, and once set, the table stayed square to the disc.
- The 2 hp motor is plenty powerful. It gets the cast iron disc up to speed in about 3-4 seconds and will easily take off a lot of stock in a hurry without even appearing to notice.
- Reasonably solidly built and finished for a machine of its size. Runs with minimal vibration and passes the nickel test.
- The electromechanical brake works well and stops the disk in about 3-4 seconds.
- The 100 grit disc attached to the sander from the factory is very appropriate and usable; I did not feel the need to immediately remove it and put something else on.
- Easy to move with the mobile base, and has a small footprint that is not notably larger than any of the other smaller disc sanders put on a cabinet. The cabinet has enough footprint so the unit is not tippy at all.
- The disc is large enough to be usable.When I was young I used IIRC an 8" disc as part of a combination belt/disc sander my Dad had and the disc was frequently too small to be usable. You generally ended up with a burned workpiece (because you didn't move it laterally across the disc) or it caught on the "up" half of the disc because you did move it laterally to keep it from burning. The 20" disc has a LOT more usable area on the "down" side of the disc. This is a very capable machine.
- Grossly smaller than the "next size up" 27-30" machines which typically weigh about a ton and take up the same footprint as a cabinet saw with ~50" rip fence rails. This machine by comparison is about the size of a small, cheap portable jobsite tablesaw without any extension wings and weighs 400 pounds.
Negatives
- Changing the paper on the disc is not easy. This is the biggest negative of the unit. Half of the disc is covered with the lower disc guard/dust intake and the table does not move up and down, Grizzly's method to R&R the sandpaper disc involves removing and installing the paper to one half of the disc at a time. This is tricky as this unit like nearly all others uses PSA sandpaper discs where you get one shot to get things squarely applied. Gaining access to the entire disc requires removing the table, trunnions, right half disc guard, side/rear shroud, and the lower disc guard/dust intake. The pedestal type units generally allow access to the entire disc or close to it with little to no disassembly.
- Dust collection is decent but not great by modern standards, although it would be excellent by old-school standards. There is about an inch and a half gap between the underneath of the table and the dust intake on the lower half of the disc with the table at 90 degrees and a noticeable amount of dust escapes through this gap. I made a temporary shroud with a piece of paperboard and some painter's tape and this captures nearly all of the visible dust.
- The bottom cabinet should have been two inches deeper so one could store sanding discs laying flat inside of it. It could also use a shelf.
- This is a minor niggle but I would have preferred a purely electrical/non-mechanical braking setup. Ideal for me would have been a 3 phase motor that I would have hooked to a VFD with a braking resistor. The electromechanical brake works very well but will wear and need adjusted and eventually replaced.
Overall, it's a very decent, very practical machine that works well and has a lot of bang for its footprint and for the buck.