Ben Grefe
12-17-2018, 12:59 AM
I’ve come to the conclusion that my planer was built on a Friday. Before I got into detail, I want to say I really like my Grizzly G0454Z 20 inch planer. I wouldn’t trade it for (most) other brands or machines (maybe the 24 inch version). I’m pretty sure the Grizzly’s are made by similar people/factories making the Powermatics/Jets/etc. I’ve also had great experiences with my other Grizzly tools (18inch bandsaw, 8 inch jointer.
I received my planer a year or two ago, right after Grizzly had changed factories. I even got the letter from Grizzly’s president apologizing for the 4+ month wait after purschase. I was eager to put it to use and remember taking delivery from a freight truck fondly. I went through the entire manual, setup the infeed/outfeed/head/bed rollers, etc. Everything that was called out in the manual, I did.
I probably should have called Grizzly at this point. Right off the bat I found that the cutter head was something like .100 off from the far right to far left. I used some shims and got it within .002 (shimming the bearing block on the right side of the planer). I actually forgot about this operation until now. Got the rollers setup ‘well’, never really got the pre and post chip breakers setup as much as I wanted.
After using the planer for only a few weeks it started to make a very concerning rattle/grumble noise. It cut great, but I was getting concerned about this noise. Then it went away and I (wrongly) went on with life.
Finally this weekend I decided I was way over due for an oil change and a tune up. Way past the manual’s recommendation of 20 runtime hours I bet.
Taking the unit apart I started to find some concerning items. First, I took the gearing cover off (not oil filled gear box, but the black cover ontop of it). To my horror I found what must have been the noise many months ago. The right side pulled bolt holding the outfeed gear on was mashing between the cover and the gear. The bolt was destroyed. The gear (not teeth, but casting) took some minimal damage. No where in the manual did it say to torque or check these bolts upon arrival, but clearly this one was loose and worked its way out.
I decided to keep poking around to see what else was loose. Turns out 2 of the four bolts holding the planer bed to the stand were nearly falling off, the bolt holding the motor alignment system was falling off and there is chipped paint all over - all inside the machine.
I tightened everything up and decided to keep going with the tune up. I was very happy to find that the infeed, outfeed and cutter head adjustments I made on arrival were nearly perfect. I’ve decided to change them up slightly, but they really only drifted .010 over all that time (mainly from left to right). For a machine this size, I think that’s pretty good.
However, I found another annoyance that I had forgotten. The chip breakers are of really poor quality. The infeed chip breaker says to adjust it to .040 below the cutter head. Mine must have .075 or more variability along it’s length making this adjustment impossible. There are just random dips in the casting.
Then the outfeed chip breaker (not the official name). For some reason mine doesn’t have any spring pressure on the left side, making it impossible to get it down to .008 below the cutter head. Nothing I can do will get it there.
Even with these issues, the machine cuts PERFECTLY. Goes a long ways to show how well they’re designed (IMO). I replaced the mangled bolt with a perfect match from the ACE down the street. I’m still thinking about what (or if) I should do anything with the outfeed chip breaker.
I guess the lesson is to really inspect these things on delivery and torque all the bolts - just in case. Knowning what I know now I wouldn’t have sent it back, but I would like to figure out chip break replacements.
I received my planer a year or two ago, right after Grizzly had changed factories. I even got the letter from Grizzly’s president apologizing for the 4+ month wait after purschase. I was eager to put it to use and remember taking delivery from a freight truck fondly. I went through the entire manual, setup the infeed/outfeed/head/bed rollers, etc. Everything that was called out in the manual, I did.
I probably should have called Grizzly at this point. Right off the bat I found that the cutter head was something like .100 off from the far right to far left. I used some shims and got it within .002 (shimming the bearing block on the right side of the planer). I actually forgot about this operation until now. Got the rollers setup ‘well’, never really got the pre and post chip breakers setup as much as I wanted.
After using the planer for only a few weeks it started to make a very concerning rattle/grumble noise. It cut great, but I was getting concerned about this noise. Then it went away and I (wrongly) went on with life.
Finally this weekend I decided I was way over due for an oil change and a tune up. Way past the manual’s recommendation of 20 runtime hours I bet.
Taking the unit apart I started to find some concerning items. First, I took the gearing cover off (not oil filled gear box, but the black cover ontop of it). To my horror I found what must have been the noise many months ago. The right side pulled bolt holding the outfeed gear on was mashing between the cover and the gear. The bolt was destroyed. The gear (not teeth, but casting) took some minimal damage. No where in the manual did it say to torque or check these bolts upon arrival, but clearly this one was loose and worked its way out.
I decided to keep poking around to see what else was loose. Turns out 2 of the four bolts holding the planer bed to the stand were nearly falling off, the bolt holding the motor alignment system was falling off and there is chipped paint all over - all inside the machine.
I tightened everything up and decided to keep going with the tune up. I was very happy to find that the infeed, outfeed and cutter head adjustments I made on arrival were nearly perfect. I’ve decided to change them up slightly, but they really only drifted .010 over all that time (mainly from left to right). For a machine this size, I think that’s pretty good.
However, I found another annoyance that I had forgotten. The chip breakers are of really poor quality. The infeed chip breaker says to adjust it to .040 below the cutter head. Mine must have .075 or more variability along it’s length making this adjustment impossible. There are just random dips in the casting.
Then the outfeed chip breaker (not the official name). For some reason mine doesn’t have any spring pressure on the left side, making it impossible to get it down to .008 below the cutter head. Nothing I can do will get it there.
Even with these issues, the machine cuts PERFECTLY. Goes a long ways to show how well they’re designed (IMO). I replaced the mangled bolt with a perfect match from the ACE down the street. I’m still thinking about what (or if) I should do anything with the outfeed chip breaker.
I guess the lesson is to really inspect these things on delivery and torque all the bolts - just in case. Knowning what I know now I wouldn’t have sent it back, but I would like to figure out chip break replacements.