Paul Ziegler
02-20-2006, 10:47 AM
My Grizzly 8" jointer (model G0490) arrived on Friday so I thought I would post my initial impressions.
The good:
The item arrived much sooner than expected. I was anticipating a mid-March delivery and ended up receiving the jointer less than one week after placing the order.
It arrived in good condition and the delivery person was friendly and wheeled it right into my garage.
Assembly was very simple and everything lined up perfectly. I did not notice the bent motor mount brackets that some have mentioned. My guess is that isn't a design feature.
The infeed and outfeed tables were nicely machined (much better than my Unisaw tables) and flat. Same is true of the fence. The outfeed table height was properly adjusted and didn't require any tweaking.
Infeed adjustments are smooth and precise even though I usually just set it to 1/32th and leave it.
It works great! The size of the tables is such an improvement from my 6" Delta. And what a difference sharp blades make. Since the blades get dull so gradually, I never really noticed how dull mine were until I got this new one. The cuts are so smooth. It prompted me to flip my blades in the planer as well and now that machine feels like new. Now why don't they make it as easy to change jointer knives as they do planer knives? The planer took all of 15 minutes but I'm still hesitant to ever mess with the jointer knives for fear of screwing it up.
The bad:
The red off button was broken upon arrival. It still works fine but since you have to twist the button before pressing start, it will need to be replaced.
As mentioned in previous posts, the cord that comes with it is 16 gauge so I replaced it with 12 gauge while I had the panels off for assembly. Of course, all of the other wiring is also 16 gauge but at least the longest length is now up to snuff. Side note: mine didn't come with a plug (which I wasn't expecting except a previous review seemed to indicate that his arrived with a plug). After wiring it together I went to fire it up. It started very slowly and then died. Eventually I determined that the thermal overload switch kicked out. Seeing as how it was -20 degrees outside (and a balmy 10 degrees in my insulated but unheated shop), I don't think it was thermally overloaded. It almost felt like it was running on 120V but my Unisaw worked fine on the same outlet. I was super careful when I rewired the cord but spent quite a bit of time reviewing the wiring diagram just to make sure. My wiring was correct. I called Grizzly but it was Saturday and they were understaffed so nobody from technical services could help me. I decided to keep trying it (about 6-8 more times) and eventually it fired up like it should. It kicked out a couple more times shortly after that but at least I knew it was capable of running correctly. Ever since, it has worked fine so I don't know what was going on initially. I thought it might have been the extreme cold, but the Unisaw had no problem with it and if I can work without gloves in that kind of weather, I expect my tools to also. I'll keep my frozen fingers crossed. There is a noticable jump at start-up but it settles in quite nicely with no perceptible vibration. Does anyone know if a link belt would help reduce the initial jump or are they more for reducing the vibration associated with running at full speed?
Overall, I am very pleased with the jointer. It arrived in good condition (except the off button), went together easily, and works great. My only lingering concern is about the motor. Hopefully it was just a result of the unusually cold weather and won't be a recurring problem.
The good:
The item arrived much sooner than expected. I was anticipating a mid-March delivery and ended up receiving the jointer less than one week after placing the order.
It arrived in good condition and the delivery person was friendly and wheeled it right into my garage.
Assembly was very simple and everything lined up perfectly. I did not notice the bent motor mount brackets that some have mentioned. My guess is that isn't a design feature.
The infeed and outfeed tables were nicely machined (much better than my Unisaw tables) and flat. Same is true of the fence. The outfeed table height was properly adjusted and didn't require any tweaking.
Infeed adjustments are smooth and precise even though I usually just set it to 1/32th and leave it.
It works great! The size of the tables is such an improvement from my 6" Delta. And what a difference sharp blades make. Since the blades get dull so gradually, I never really noticed how dull mine were until I got this new one. The cuts are so smooth. It prompted me to flip my blades in the planer as well and now that machine feels like new. Now why don't they make it as easy to change jointer knives as they do planer knives? The planer took all of 15 minutes but I'm still hesitant to ever mess with the jointer knives for fear of screwing it up.
The bad:
The red off button was broken upon arrival. It still works fine but since you have to twist the button before pressing start, it will need to be replaced.
As mentioned in previous posts, the cord that comes with it is 16 gauge so I replaced it with 12 gauge while I had the panels off for assembly. Of course, all of the other wiring is also 16 gauge but at least the longest length is now up to snuff. Side note: mine didn't come with a plug (which I wasn't expecting except a previous review seemed to indicate that his arrived with a plug). After wiring it together I went to fire it up. It started very slowly and then died. Eventually I determined that the thermal overload switch kicked out. Seeing as how it was -20 degrees outside (and a balmy 10 degrees in my insulated but unheated shop), I don't think it was thermally overloaded. It almost felt like it was running on 120V but my Unisaw worked fine on the same outlet. I was super careful when I rewired the cord but spent quite a bit of time reviewing the wiring diagram just to make sure. My wiring was correct. I called Grizzly but it was Saturday and they were understaffed so nobody from technical services could help me. I decided to keep trying it (about 6-8 more times) and eventually it fired up like it should. It kicked out a couple more times shortly after that but at least I knew it was capable of running correctly. Ever since, it has worked fine so I don't know what was going on initially. I thought it might have been the extreme cold, but the Unisaw had no problem with it and if I can work without gloves in that kind of weather, I expect my tools to also. I'll keep my frozen fingers crossed. There is a noticable jump at start-up but it settles in quite nicely with no perceptible vibration. Does anyone know if a link belt would help reduce the initial jump or are they more for reducing the vibration associated with running at full speed?
Overall, I am very pleased with the jointer. It arrived in good condition (except the off button), went together easily, and works great. My only lingering concern is about the motor. Hopefully it was just a result of the unusually cold weather and won't be a recurring problem.