Grizzly 0490 Jointer problems

[Howard Norman]

I ordered a G0490 jointer before Christmas. It was shipped on Feb.6. I received a phone call from FedEx on Feb 7 and set up delivery for Feb 10 in the afternoon. I paid for liftgate service on the jointer. Friday came and no word on the jointer delivery. I called FedEx about three in the afternoon and was told that it was on the truck and they would have the driver call me. No call from the driver. It was again on the truck on Monday and not delivered nor did I receive any phone calls. On Tuesday I called FedEx again and a gentleman there said it was on the truck again and he would get ahold of the driver. Apparently he did because in about an hour the driver called. Discussed it with the driver and decided that it was too chancy for him to bring his 18 wheeler to the house. No surprise there, this has happened before and was one of the reasons for paying for liftgate service so if it had to be offloaded on a trailer or pickup it would be easier.
Met the driver at the designated time and place with a trailer and we off loaded the two packages to the trailer without liftgate service. No punctures or detectable damage. The cardboard box looked like it had been in a warehouse for months but I assumed that was because it had been on the truck for delivery for three days and obviously had been moved around a lot on the truck.

Unpacked the cardboard box and detected that the front panel was not flush on both sides. OK on the right side but bowed in about 3/16 to 3/8" on the left side. Shouldn't be that way I thought. So called Grizzly customer service and they agreed to send a new front panel replacement. Later removed the back panel so that I would be able to get to the motor pulley. Discovered that the back vertical struct that holds the motor mount was not straight but bowed approximently 3/8". Therefore the two pulleys could not be made coplaner. Called Grizzly the next morning and notified them about the problem. Had a call from a man in
Grizzly customer service yesterday morning who asked if I would be satisfied with the replacement of the welded cabinet and I would remove the motor from the damaged cabinet and put it in the new cabinet. I agreed.

Did not hear anything from Grizzly today so just called CS. The records in Customer Service indicate that the Grizzly freight department has notified the carrier about the reported damage. I am not convinced that the damage is due to the carrier but may have occured prior to shipment since the sides of the cardboard box did not show severe compression or punctures.

I am one very unhappy camper at the moment and feel that Grizzly has not responded properly.

Howard

[Dev Emch]

I ordered a G0490 jointer before Christmas. It was shipped on Feb.6. I received a phone call from FedEx on Feb 7 and set up delivery for Feb 10 in the afternoon. I paid for liftgate service on the jointer. Friday came and no word on the jointer delivery. I called FedEx about three in the afternoon and was told that it was on the truck and they would have the driver call me. No call from the driver. It was again on the truck on Monday and not delivered nor did I receive any phone calls. On Tuesday I called FedEx again and a gentleman there said it was on the truck again and he would get ahold of the driver. Apparently he did because in about an hour the driver called. Discussed it with the driver and decided that it was too chancy for him to bring his 18 wheeler to the house. No surprise there, this has happened before and was one of the reasons for paying for liftgate service so if it had to be offloaded on a trailer or pickup it would be easier.
Met the driver at the designated time and place with a trailer and we off loaded the two packages to the trailer without liftgate service. No punctures or detectable damage. The cardboard box looked like it had been in a warehouse for months but I assumed that was because it had been on the truck for delivery for three days and obviously had been moved around a lot on the truck.

Unpacked the cardboard box and detected that the front panel was not flush on both sides. OK on the right side but bowed in about 3/16 to 3/8" on the left side. Shouldn't be that way I thought. So called Grizzly customer service and they agreed to send a new front panel replacement. Later removed the back panel so that I would be able to get to the motor pulley. Discovered that the back vertical struct that holds the motor mount was not straight but bowed approximently 3/8". Therefore the two pulleys could not be made coplaner. Called Grizzly the next morning and notified them about the problem. Had a call from a man in
Grizzly customer service yesterday morning who asked if I would be satisfied with the replacement of the welded cabinet and I would remove the motor from the damaged cabinet and put it in the new cabinet. I agreed.

Did not hear anything from Grizzly today so just called CS. The records in Customer Service indicate that the Grizzly freight department has notified the carrier about the reported damage. I am not convinced that the damage is due to the carrier but may have occured prior to shipment since the sides of the cardboard box did not show severe compression or punctures.

I am one very unhappy camper at the moment and feel that Grizzly has not responded properly.

Howard
I feel your pain and for some reason a song keeps going around in my head.... THINGS THAT MAKE YOU SAY HMMMMMMMM.

Points well taken. I would just send it back and get another one.

[Allen Bookout]

I am truly sorry Howard. As you know there are quite a few of us on this forum waiting for our units to arrive, in fact mine is to be delivered on Monday. Overnight is delivering mine. I do not know what to exect because the same location, a few weeks ago, was called Roadway and one of my deliverys sat there a week and a half waiting for them to fix a truck with a lift gate to deliver it twenty five miles away. UPS, I understand, took over Overnight and they must have aquired this Roadway terminal as the address is the same and I talked to the same persons about the delivery. It is going to be real interesting.

In any case you must have inherited my bad luck as my Delta drill press came yesterday and it looked like that it had just been packaged. Not a spot on it and the contents were perfect. It was delivered by ABF. Usually I have your kind of luck. Sorry about that. !!!!!!

Allen

[John Kain]

Tell them to take that one back and send you a new one. Why pay $800 for something that you have to fix? They owe you that, and they also need to expedite the order. I could see them giving you the run around about it being a couple months for one to become available.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Dev Emch]

Tell them to take that one back and send you a new one. Why pay $800 for something that you have to fix? They owe you that, and they also need to expedite the order. I could see them giving you the run around about it being a couple months for one to become available.


I agree. New or used, if you pay top dollar for something, it had better work. I paid in excess of market value for my tenoner only to find some interior issue.... issues that took me about 2 years part time to finally work out. In my case, I had no recourse. In your case, its new and you do. You bought a brand new machine, then take delivery of a brand new machine.

[Michael Disorbo]

Howard,

Sorry to hear about your problem. I am sure that Grizzly will take care of you, just hang in there. How is the rest of the machine? I am sure that once Papa Griz see this thread your troubles will be solved. As for the thread who said "Any crap from Grizzly at all and I'd tell them to keep the machine and you'll have fun working on your new Yorkie, Powermatic, Jet....etc....etc." I have read a few horror stories about them as well.

Michael

[John Kain]

Howard,

Sorry to hear about your problem. I am sure that Grizzly will take care of you, just hang in there. How is the rest of the machine? I am sure that once Papa Griz see this thread your troubles will be solved.
Michael

I said that. Maybe came out a little harsher than I wanted it to. The meaning was that Grizzly should remedy the situation without any hiccup. Like said previously, I think Griz will fix your problem in short order.

[Russ Massery]

Howard, sorry to hear about your problems. My G0490 is fine with no problems. I'm sure Grizzly will make good on your problem, they have for me in the past. My table saw took a beating during shippment they replaced all the broken parts, But afterwords they still offered to replace the saw if I wasn't satisfied. Hope things work out for you, Keep us posted on the developments.

[John Hedges]

Ok now I am concerned. As I mentioned in my original review the vertical struts holding my motor mounts were very noticably bent (not 90 degrees). It seemed to be an even bend and both stuts seemed to be bent the same amount so I did not think much about it. The top of the base seemed to be level. Is this something that may be a problem and I should contact Grizz about?

[Allen Bookout]

John,

I think that I remember you saying something about that when you first got yours.

I will not have mine until Monday so cannot actually look and see but looking at the downloaded manual under "To install the V-belt" they look straight but hard to tell. Not much help in the parts section either. It sure does look like light weight material that they are made out of.

When I built my bandsaw base I built that part out of angle iron and you could not bend them with a sledge hammer. If they are as weak as they appear I might do the same thing in this case.

I hope that the rest of the unit is built more substantially!

Allen

[Rob Blaustein]

Ok now I am concerned. As I mentioned in my original review the vertical struts holding my motor mounts were very noticably bent (not 90 degrees). It seemed to be an even bend and both stuts seemed to be bent the same amount so I did not think much about it. The top of the base seemed to be level. Is this something that may be a problem and I should contact Grizz about? I think it's worth calling them and asking them if that is per design. Maybe they could also look at several and see if some are straight and some are bent. Also, those of us who ordered one of these should, during setup, make note of what our struts look like and report back. From Russ's post, sounds like his struts are fine, which would make me concerned that bent ones are a defect. Nothing like beta testing, eh?

[John Hedges]

good advice Russ. Think I will give them a call. One thing about Grizzly, their CS seems great as long as you give them a chance.

[Steven J Corpstein]

I'm not sure why you are not requesting a replacement jointer? That's a lot of money for a new machine that you're never going to be quite as happy to own as you would have been one that was new when it arrived. Just my $0.02 worth.

[Russ Massery]

I was thinking about you problem last night Howard. I think that the fact that the motor is already bolted to the frame may have caused the frame to bend.If that box is droped on it's side just from the weight of the motor would be enough to bend the frame. I think I would ask to have the lower cabinet replaced.Without the motor of course. My .02.

Russ

[Howard Norman]

John, I used a 48" level and did not detect any signigicent problem with the top of my cabinet either. The problem is that only the back one is not straight. I suspose that if both of them were deflected the same amount the pulleys could then be coplanar. Can you drop a plumb bob at both edges of the pulleys to see if they are coplanar? Not having my assembled I don't know if this is feasable or not.

Howard

[Howard Norman]

I was thinking about you problem last night Howard. I think that the fact that the motor is already bolted to the frame may have caused the frame to bend.If that box is droped on it's side just from the weight of the motor would be enough to bend the frame. I think I would ask to have the lower cabinet replaced.Without the motor of course. My .02.

Russ
You could be right Russ. I thought of that also. If that is correct it is a design fault IMHO.

[Howard Norman]

I just received a call from Rick Romberg of Grizzly. He said that for some reason the replacement order did not get into their system. He promised that a replacement cabinet would be shipped from Springfield on Monday and inspected there before shipment.

That call made me a lot happier!

Howard

[Allen Bookout]

Are those pieces bolted in place or are they welded? If they are bolted it might be less of a problem to take them out and straighten them yourself instead of trying to get new parts or a new base. If they are welded is there any possibility of using heavy metal bar and c clamps to straighten them? I may be way out of order not having seen the unit yet but just a thought.

Sorry Howard. While I was typing you made the last post so this does not apply to you. I will just leave it in case anyone else might want to give it a try if it is going to be a long time waiting for a replacement.

[Howard Norman]

Allen, the vertical structs are welded in place. My next door neighbor suggested using a torch to soften the metal and straighten them. If it was going to take three months for a replacement I would have considered that a viable option.

One thought that I have had is that since Grizzly basically copied the DJ20 design but replaced the Delta 1 1/2 HP motor with a 3 HP motor that puts a lot more weight and also inertia on those structs so they could be susptable to bending. Don't know if this is true but a thought at least. Sometimes people don't consider unexpected consequences when they make changes. I know, I was an engineer for 40+ years in my working life and I have had that occur to me.

Howard

[John Hedges]

Howard, got my call back from Grizzly this morning. They are replacing the base unit on mine as well, and checking it before shipping. This should fix
1) The problem with the front wheel where the it is not level when in the down position making it harder to turn (reported by another member here as well.)
2) The problem with the bowed motor mount struts.
3) And last but not least the crooked 9 on the G0490 decal sticker.

Got a chance to use this a bit more this weekend and noticed that the startup jolt I initially reported does not seem to be as bad. I think I was originally just nervous about whether my wiring job into the machine was correct and worried about something blowing up (did I mention that I have a VERY healthy respect for electricity), that I probably jumped a little myself when turning the machine on the first couple of times. Now that I am comfortable with the wiring, I really dont notice much of a jump.

Lastly, I dont know about anyone else, but this thing really scares me much more than my old 6". Mainly because of the size of the cutterhead in comparison to a 6", it just looks a lot more formidable and able to really kick something back into my face if I try something stupid (like trying to take off too much in 1 pass). But I guess a good healthy respect of any woodworking machine is a good thing, and will probably be more of a preventative to doing anything stupid.

[Howard Norman]

John, glad Grizzly has agreed to replace your base also. I wonder how many bases they will end up having to replace. I am beginning to believe that the problem may well be that the struts were designed for a 1 1/2 HP motor and now that Grizzly is using a 3 HP motor that may be overstresssing the struts. If so, Griuzzly will end up beefing up those struts.

I am hoping that my new stand can be here within another week. If so I probable won't install the jointer on the old base but will wait for a week. That might not workout since I am really anxious to try this thing out!

Yes, it is large, certainly compared to my old 6" Craftsman jointer.

Howard

[Rob Blaustein]

Howard, got my call back from Grizzly this morning. They are replacing the base unit on mine as well, and checking it before shipping.

I wonder if it's a worth a call from those of us who still haven't received ours yet, asking that these issues be specifically checked before shipping. Of course that wouldn't fix problems that arise during delivery, but it might help. Have any of you who've ordered done that, by any chance?

[Rod Upfold]

Myself...if I ordered a brand new machine, I should not have to fix it to make it work - I didn't damage it...just payed for it.

Floor/demo machine is different - dent or scratches is expected; but it should still work perfectly and have a reasonable if not a full warranty.

If I were you - I think that I would want a replacement in case there is more damage...you bought a "brand new" machine.

[tod evans]

having never seen these machines i can only assume what`s causing problems......... it sounds as though these are shipped with the motor hanging from the mount? if this is the case it would seem as though removing the motor and securing it to the pallet propper prior to shipment would stop distorting the mounting brackets and possibly distorting the cabinet? either that or design the tool to be bounced down the road in an 18 wheeler....02 tod

[Howard Norman]

Tod, you are correct. At least in my case the motor was mounted to the motor mounts without any additional support. You may have a good idea about mounting the motor differently for shipment. OTH, the base is shipped in a cardboard box without a pallet.

Howard

[Ed Bamba]

Allen, the vertical structs are welded in place. My next door neighbor suggested using a torch to soften the metal and straighten them. If it was going to take three months for a replacement I would have considered that a viable option.

One thought that I have had is that since Grizzly basically copied the DJ20 design but replaced the Delta 1 1/2 HP motor with a 3 HP motor that puts a lot more weight and also inertia on those structs so they could be susptable to bending. Don't know if this is true but a thought at least. Sometimes people don't consider unexpected consequences when they make changes. I know, I was an engineer for 40+ years in my working life and I have had that occur to me.

Howard

Your thoughts are probably correct. Since I bought my DJ20 used, it was already assembled. Looking through the manual, it doesn't state to attach the motor, So I am assuming that the base was shipped with the motor attached.

I wonder if they failed to take the extra weight of the 3-horse motor into consideration. I am also wondering if the attaching points for the built-in castors were beefed up enough. The original design DJ20 base (at least the one I have) doesn't have any feet and the entire bottom of the base sits on the floor. I have mine on a Jet mobile base. I didn't see anywhere in my manual to use adjustable feet to level the base when it is placed directly on the floor; shimmed accordingly of course. Hopefully someone here will correct me if I am incorrect.

I sincerely hope that the Grizz clone works out for those who chose to go that route. I like the upgrades they have over the original (except for the 3-horse motor), but hopefully they didn't overlook the obvious by not reeingineering for those upgrades.

Good luck and take care,
Ed

UPDATE
Just reviewed the on-line parts diagram for both the Grizz-clone and the Delta. It looks like there is a beefed-up area for the retractable caster. Not sure if the same is done for the stationary casters. And the Grizz model DOES have levelers, but still not sure if the Delta model is supposed to come with them or not.

[Jay Albrandt]

Howard,

Send the jointer back right now.

Check out my post: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=1885. It is long, but it will give you some insight on what a customer service nightmare I had with Grizzly.

Everyone is so high on Grizzly until they have a problem and then they have to use their "customer service". Why should you have to fix it?

I finally sent my jointer back, and they almost didn't let me because I was past the 30 day return date.

Good Luck!

Jay

[Jerry White]

Your thoughts are probably correct. Since I bought my DJ20 used, it was already assembled. Looking through the manual, it doesn't state to attach the motor, So I am assuming that the base was shipped with the motor attached.

When I received my DJ-20 about a year ago, the motor was bolted to the floor of the case. I had to install the motor on the mounting posts. Just as in your case, Ed, the manual did not address this step at all. If I recall correctly, the manual actually says that the motor was premounted. I suspect that Delta also went through the same problem and solved it by mounting the motor elsewhere for shipping and the manual just never got updated. The 1 1/2 hp motor of the DJ-20 is not a lightweight by any means.

Thanks,

Jerry

[Ed Bamba]

Jerry,
Thanks for setting the record straight. I was hoping someone would reply. Hopefully Grizz will do the same for the rest of their machines so others won't have to go through this delema. Your absolutely right re. the heft of the motor. The mounting struts do look rather under sized with repect to lateral support. I can see why they could be bent should the base be subjected to sideways force (hope I said that right--I'm no technical writer as you can see:o )

What about my comment re. foot pads. Did yours come with any?

Take care,
Ed

[tod evans]

Tod, you are correct. At least in my case the motor was mounted to the motor mounts without any additional support. You may have a good idea about mounting the motor differently for shipment. OTH, the base is shipped in a cardboard box without a pallet.

Howard

howard, since the base is being shipped with the motor mounted i would think it is not the shippers fault that these units are showing up at the consumers door bent and warped, griz is responsible for proper engineering and packaging... makes me wonder if the base and the motor mounts will hold up during use? what do you guys who own these machines think? remember i have never seen one, i`m drawing my conclusions from this forum......02 tod

[Shiraz Balolia]

howard, since the base is being shipped with the motor mounted i would think it is not the shippers fault that these units are showing up at the consumers door bent and warped, griz is responsible for proper engineering and packaging... makes me wonder if the base and the motor mounts will hold up during use? what do you guys who own these machines think? remember i have never seen one, i`m drawing my conclusions from this forum......02 tod

Actually, Todd - the struts will hold up just fine once the machine is in place, unless customers are planning on moving these cross country, back and forth.
Your previous suggestion that we should ship machines with the motor removed is good except that we tried that years ago with other machines and had to take a LOT of verbal abuse from customers who did not feel that they should have to put together a "kit". It is hard to please every single customer, but we do try.
The problem with some of the bent struts occurs when the stand is laid (I am being polite in my use of "laid" here) sideways by the trucking company. Now that we know what is causing these to bend, we will be strapping 2x4 reinforcements to prevent the one set of struts from bending. The other struts (that the motor is bolted to) are twice as thick and an elephant would have to step on them to bend them. All outgoing shipments of the G0490 have been halted, but should be released in a day or so as these units get reinforced internally, for shipment within USA. We will also be increasing the thickness of the second set of struts on future shipments that leave the factory to make them baboon proof.

[Paul B. Cresti]

an elephant would have to step on them to bend them. ... We will also be increasing the thickness of the second set of struts on future shipments that leave the factory to make them baboon proof.

Ok guys so now that we know the truth... Do not do the old Tonka truck commercial of having an elephant step on your joiner. One more thing once the new designs come out all jungle primates will be good to go in purchasing these new machines.....darn it I never thought I would be literally competing with monkeys on my jobs ;) If these same animals figure out how to design buildings I am out of here :)

[tod evans]

Actually, Todd - the struts will hold up just fine once the machine is in place, unless customers are planning on moving these cross country, back and forth.
Your previous suggestion that we should ship machines with the motor removed is good except that we tried that years ago with other machines and had to take a LOT of verbal abuse from customers who did not feel that they should have to put together a "kit". It is hard to please every single customer, but we do try.
The problem with some of the bent struts occurs when the stand is laid sideways by the trucking company. Now that we know what is causing these to bend, we will be strapping 2x4 reinforcements to prevent the one set of struts from bending. The other struts (that the motor is bolted to) are twice as thick and an elephant would have to step on them to bend them. All outgoing shipments of the G0490 have been halted, but should be released in a day or so as these units get reinforced internally, for shipment within USA. We will also be increasing the thickness of the second set of struts on future shipments that leave the factory to make them baboon proof.

shiraz, sounds like you`re on the right track.....it takes real world abuse to find the weak spots in machinery, believe me i`ve ruined lots of equipment making it try to keep up with me. good luck, like i said it sounds like you`re on the right track...02 tod

[Allen Bookout]

I agree totally with what Mr. Balolia said. The struts should be strong enough to withstand normal operations. The ones that are bent have to have been done by really rough abuse and by the units being layed (dropped would be a better term) on their sides. Since mine was OK it was really nice to have the motor already in place but certainly not a necessity. I would rather mount the motor myself than have bent motor mount struts. It would not be that big of a deal. Allen

[Michael Disorbo]

Hey Shiraz,

Did your rickshaw get lost? Or did you forget to put snowtires and anti-freeze in it before you made the trip to the Northeast? Any news on where those jointers are for us folks on the east coast?

Thanks,

Michael

[tod evans]

allen, i`d think that potholes at 65mph in the back of a semi-trailer are more likely the cause than the freight companies "dropping" them? most freight is handled by lift truck until it reaches a non-commercial delivery...02 tod

[Allen Bookout]

Tod, You could be right but from what I see I would think that the struts should hold up, even with the motor mounted and rough roads, if the shipping container remained upright. If they were placed on end on rough roads or banged around a bit on end or on one side or the other I can see how that they could be easily damaged. In any case it looks like that you should plan for the worst case and brace accordingly. Looks like that is what Grizzly is going to do. Besides that, if everything was perfect we would have nothing to talk about.

Michael, Looks like you guys in the Northeast are just out of luck. Sorry about that!!!!! Seriously, I know how hard the wait is and feel your frustration. One good thing could come of it though----maybe you guys will get machines with all of the problems worked out before they get to you. I was lucky and have had no problems yet.

Allen

[John Hedges]

I was thinking about this last night and the vertical struts have 4 slots cut into them. I may just take a piece of angle iron and bolt it to the top and bottom slot to make it truly bulletproof, after I attach the new base, which is on it's way.

[Michael Disorbo]

Allen,

I just want to get to that Muncy showroom!! I managed to hide a few credit cards from my wife. Today is our anniversary so I was hoping that we were going today :o) That way she would let me buy what ever I wanted (I wish).

Enjoy your toy,

Michael

[Howard Norman]

John, where is your new base shipping from? Mine was shipped from Springfield and as of this morning was in Kansas City.

Howard

[Allen Bookout]

I was thinking about this last night and the vertical struts have 4 slots cut into them. I may just take a piece of angle iron and bolt it to the top and bottom slot to make it truly bulletproof, after I attach the new base, which is on it's way.

More angle iron support never hurt anything that I know of. Allen

[Jerry White]

What about my comment re. foot pads. Did yours come with any?

Ed

If I received any foot pads with my DJ-20, I don't remember them. I don't think they were included. I bought the Delta mobile base with the jointer, so I was not an issue with me.

I can't help but comment here on what an excellent buy the G0490 appears to be. Looks to be an IMPROVED version of the DJ-20 at somewhere near half the price. I think Grizzly made some good moves this year. I have my eye on the G1021X 15" planer with spiral cutterhead.

Jerry

[John Hedges]

Howard, to tell you the truth I am not sure. If it takes a while to get here it is no big deal as it is presently running on the old base.

[Shiraz Balolia]

Hey Shiraz,

Did your rickshaw get lost? Or did you forget to put snowtires and anti-freeze in it before you made the trip to the Northeast? Any news on where those jointers are for us folks on the east coast?

Thanks,

Michael

Michael - the rail car is in Pittsburg and we expect the container to hit our dock within 2 days. Then they get a quick check out, struts reinforced and off they go. Thanks for being patient.

[Michael Disorbo]

Thanks for the reply Shiraz. Me have patience?? You must have me mixed up with another Michael :o) Hopefully I may be going to Muncy this weekend or the first of the week. I would offer to bring something back for someone, but I am hoping there will be no extra room!!

Michael

[Frank Pellow]

When I received my DJ-20 about a year ago, the motor was bolted to the floor of the case. I had to install the motor on the mounting posts. Just as in your case, Ed, the manual did not address this step at all. If I recall correctly, the manual actually says that the motor was premounted. I suspect that Delta also went through the same problem and solved it by mounting the motor elsewhere for shipping and the manual just never got updated. The 1 1/2 hp motor of the DJ-20 is not a lightweight by any means.

Thanks,

Jerry
The variety here is interesting.

I, too, received my DJ-20 about a year ago, the motor was bolted to the floor of the case, and I had to install the motor on the mounting posts. But, my manual provided instructions for doing so.

Mounting th e motor was very easy to do and I don't know why anyone would object to doing so.

[Allen Bookout]

Some guys just have no spirit for adventure Frank. They probably don't have much of a sense of humor either.

Allen

[Michael Gabbay]

How does mounting a motor amount to being a kit when you have to mount the table to the base???? :confused:

Every piece of machinery that I have ever bought required some level of assembly. They even included the tools.... :rolleyes: If it meant getting the equipment intact versus all busted up I'd go with self assembly.

[Ed Bamba]

How does mounting a motor amount to being a kit when you have to mount the table to the base???? :confused:

Every piece of machinery that I have ever bought required some level of assembly. They even included the tools.... :rolleyes: If it meant getting the equipment intact versus all busted up I'd go with self assembly.

I'm with you on this one Michael, I don't mind the put-it-together part of new tool ownership. Would rather take some time getting to know the machine as opposed to getting acquainted with the company CS when it comes to damaged shipments.

Heck, there is more to assemble on a ZCS, although the motor is already hung, but supported with styrofoam. Hanging the motor onto the struts of the subject jointers is probably easier than setting those freakin pesky jointer blades. It may be a different story when it comes to the behemoth 3-horse motor though; juuuust a bit heavier than the 1.5-horse motor I'm sure.

Take care yall,
Ed