Very frustrated with my Grizzly G0544, 20" planer

[Gary Wedemeyer]

After quite a bit of research, I chose this Grizzly 20" spiral cutterhead planer at what I would consider a rather hefty price. I read some pretty good reviews on it. Its had nothing but issue after issue with the boards constantly getting hung up as they feed through.
I went back through and adjusted the table to exactly parallel with the cutterhead. I have even gone through and made certain the feed rollers, pressure bar and chipbreaker are set to .040" below the knife edge at bottom dead center. I've even tried using it at various table roller heights.
Nothing I do seems to stop the wood from hanging up on its way through. It seems to hang up on the left side worse than the right side. At times, the wood will feed about two inches past the infeed roller where it then gets completely stuck while the infeed roller digs a nice divot in the wood.
I paid extra for a spiral cutterhead, figuring that I could get rid of my 13" Dewalt planer, but guess what; my 5k plus planer is collecting dust while I continue to use my Dewalt. Does anyone out there have any suggestions?


Thanks for reading, Very frustrated, Gary

[ed vitanovec]

Did you check the table roller height?

[Mike Kees]

Gary ,first of all what are you using for taking the measurements ? I made a jig from a book called "Care and repair of shop machines" by John White with a dial indicator. This is the tool you will need to accomplish proper setup. ( or a rotocator)This book is an excellent reference that I highly recommend. The info is all in this book as well . However the best visual help I have found is a diagram and article by Bob Vaughn. The actual measurements are critical. I believe that your pressure bar is way low if the measurement you have posted is correct (.040) It should be .002-.004 Above the arc of your knives.I have used this setup advice by Bob on a planer just recently it works awesome now. Just google' Bob Vaughn planer setup with diagram'. These two resources should be all you need. Hope this helps, Mike.

[Cary Falk]

Move the bed rollers completely below the table and wax the bed. This would be a good place to start.

[Kevin Jenness]

Try this: when the workpiece hangs up, stop the machine and see where the leading edge is, the problem will likely be found there. My guess is it is hitting the pressure bar which needs to be adjusted higher. Most planers with an adjustable pressure bar call for it to be set at or slightly above the knife cutting circle. The sweet spot on your machine may be somewhere between there and the specified setting of .040" below. You may also need to play with the chipbreaker height. Make sure the table, chipbreaker and pressure bar are smooth and flat and waxed.

[Stewart Lang]

It sounds like you just need to wax the table bed.

Before you go messing with the settings, which are usually pretty close from Grizzly, buff a little paste wax on, buff it off and try again.

[Alex Zeller]

It sounds like you have the tools for setting up the planer. If the above advise doesn't work I would do some more measurements. Check to see if the table is flat. To do it I would set up your dial indicator on a cutter on each side of the cutter head then check it at the center of the cutter head. I would then check (this is where my problem was on my Grizzly 4 post planer) both sides of the table for flatness on each side of the rollers. What I did was just lowered the rollers below the table and slid a flat edge along the table in the direction the wood moves. My table is about .001" of an inch higher after the lower infeed roller and the table is slightly bowed (about .002") high in the center. When they machined the slits on the table the edges were extremely sharp. With the infeed roller set up at .002" on each side it's flush in the center. What was happening is the table, being sharp, was acting like a plane and either the wood would stop feeding or it would act like a plane and I would find small shavings below the table. I ended up wrapping the lower rollers with cardboard and then using a dremel with a grinding stone to knock off the sharp edge.

[Matt Day]

As said above, lower the bed rollers all the way and wax the table. Have you called Grizzly before ranting here? I understand your frustration however.

[David Buchhauser]

If all else fails, contact Grizzly customer support/tech department. I have dealt with them for many years and they have always been very helpful and taken care of me. I would give them an A+++ for the quality of their customer service.
David

[Jim Andrew]

Please post when you get this figured out. That planer is a commercial grade, and I have considered it a couple times.

[Mike Kees]

In a industrial planer with a segmented chipbreaker and pressure bar that is spring loaded with adjustability built in for more or less force bed rollers have a function. I agree that on a four post planer they are often best below the table. However they need to be part of the equation on a planer like the O.P. is working on. Both of the resources I mentioned above have recommendations for bed roller height.

[Robert Engel]

Planer rollers exert a lot of downward pressure against the table so keeping them slick is important.

I ran the bed rollers all the way down I get zero snipe that way, but you have to keep the bed slick.

Before you do that make sure all the coating from the factory is totally cleaned off. I recommend going over it with acetone before waxing.

[John C Bush]

I have an older version of the 1033Z 20" Griz planer and have had the same problem develop after lots of milling. Initially the stock would "actively" shift to the left and progressively the outfeed rate would slow and I would need to pull the stock thru. After it cleared the pressure bar the outfeed roller pushed the stock out evenly. Like most hobbyist, I assume, the planer will sit idle for weeks and I will start a project, live thru the frustration when planing, and put the PITA adjustment regimen on the to do list and not do it! Finally spent a few hrs. as the maintenance guy to rotate the cutters and readjust the other settings. The pressure bar was low on the left side so I may not have tightened the lock nut enough at the last readjustment and I lightened up the setting from .040 to .020 and that seemed to solve the problem. I considered lightening the chip breaker setting as well but can't remember if I did it!! I did add a half turn on the in/outfeed rollers springs tho. I usually keep the bed rollers out of the way and wax the bed as suggested above. I would imagine the adjusting mechanisms would be similar for the different machines. Hang in there--with a little creative tweaking you'll be happy with your planer. Good luck. JCB

[Joe Jensen]

I don't recall the spec for the pressure bar height setting for my PM planer but .040" sounds like a lot. I am guessing mine is more like .008-.010". I have mine set at the max in the range and unless my carbide cutters are sharp and the bed is not waxed mine will hang up. But the lower the pressure bar the less snipe I get.

Edit: I just looked and my planer specs the chip breaker to be .032" below the cutterhead and the pressure bar to be .000" to .001" below the cutters. I looked up a couple more and all were specs to be between .004" above the cutter to .001" below.

[Mike Kees]

Hey Gary ,what happened? Have you got the planer working well yet ?

[Matt Day]

Single poster ghosted us again.

[Alex Zeller]

I have a feeling that sometimes they realize they missed something and feel like, I hate to say it, embarrassed. So they don't come back. I'm not trying to insult anyone and that may not be the case here. I know I've done plenty of things where after the fact I say "how did I miss that?".

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a feeling that sometimes they realize they missed something and feel like, I hate to say it, embarrassed. So they don't come back. I'm not trying to insult anyone and that may not be the case here. I know I've done plenty of things where after the fact I say "how did I miss that?".

J/P and plug it in there. I have a J/P and a Saw/Shaper plugged into the same receptacle.

When I use the feeder on the shaper I unplug the J/P and plug the feeder in. All have the same colour cord caps and cord.

Ask me about the time I actually got to the multi-meter stage of trouble shooting the J/P and I'm an Electrical Technologist.....:o

Regards, Rod.

[Curt Harms]

J/P and plug it in there. I have a J/P and a Saw/Shaper plugged into the same receptacle.

When I use the feeder on the shaper I unplug the J/P and plug the feeder in. All have the same colour cord caps and cord.

Ask me about the time I actually got to the multi-meter stage of trouble shooting the J/P and I'm an Electrical Technologist.....:o

Regards, Rod.

There are those that have and those that will ............ admit it, that is:)

[Mike Kees]

Rod it gets even worse. When I do something like that my 20 year old son gives me this look and says,"Dad you showed me how to do that when I was 12.".

[Rod Sheridan]

There are those that have and those that will ............ admit it, that is:)

That was grea5 Curt, thanks.

[Rod Sheridan]

Rod it gets even worse. When I do something like that my 20 year old son gives me this look and says,"Dad you showed me how to do that when I was 12.".

Ha, yup, I’ve been there as well.....Rod

[Geoff Crimmins]

I would also recommend checking the pressure bar. It's often the culprit when a board won't feed, and it sounds like yours may be adjusted too low in relation to the knives.

[Ben Zara]

Good news is your jointer seems like it's working really well and making a flat face. Bad news is that the flat face is getting suctioned to the table of the planer. You probably putting your wood in way too dry. Lubricate the crap out of your table and your planing experience should improve.