Problem with Grizzly 454 20 in Planer

[fRED mCnEILL]

I'm having a problem with my Grizzly 20 inch planer(6 months old)

As I'm planing the vibration of the machine causes the bed to lower. I'm not able to tighten the knobsm which are supposed to lock the bed in place, tight enough to stop this. In fact, even tightening them as tight as possible by hand you can still move the bed up and down. The heavier the cut the more pronounced this problem is. As you can appreciate this doesn't make for good planning.
My previous experience was with a Dewalt 733 lunchbox planer but it had a positive locking mechanism for the head.

Perhaps if someone from Grizzly(Shiraz?) is on here they can help out.

Thanks

Fred Mc.

[lou sansone]

something does not sound right. years ago I had a 20 inch grizz and it did not have any vibration problems and the locking knobs worked. sounds like you should call the tech rep at grizz

lou

[John C. Wilson]

Fred.......... Let's start with basics, you probably have but need to start somewhere
1) Are the knives ground in sets so they are balanced?
2)Are the gibs that hold the knives balanced? All bolts in place?
3)Are the bearings on the knife head O.K.? Try lifting on each end to feel any movement. ( mine has grease certs)
4)Check the belts and motor pulleys....out of balance here could??? travel right up to the planer head. Try unhooking the V belts and see how smooth the motor runs with no load
5) Take the knives and gibs completley out and see how the vibration is when the head turns by itself.I have had my 20'' planer for 6 years and get good results.My table lock knobs do their job. I have NEVER had any luck with Grizzleys service techs. A good machinest or another helpful woooworker has always been my best bet......Good luck, John

[Jim Becker]

I'm very much bothered that you cannot "lock" the planer depth they way you are supposed to. I'd be bothered by that even if the machine was operating "smooth as glass". Suggest you call Grizzly CS about this ASAP as it frankly could be dangerious, IMHO.

[Shiraz Balolia]

Perhaps if someone from Grizzly(Shiraz?) is on here they can help out.

Thanks

Fred Mc.

Like Jim said, not a good thing. PM me your phone number and I will have one of our engineers call you.

[Shiraz Balolia]

Got your phone number and gave it to the Quality Control manager and explained what the problem was.

He smiled and said "Dull knives, everytime!" He is going to call you, but I thought that I should post this for everyone's benefit. Makes sense - dull knives push the material away from them instead of cutting it and therefore cause the table to be pushed away as well. Overpowers the table locks.

[fRED mCnEILL]

As Shiroz said "dull knives".

Thats the good news. Now for the bad news. No bad news but I would like to comment on the response from Grizzly. I e-mailed Shiraz my phone number last night and this morning at 10AM I had a call from his technician resolving the problem. Thats pretty good service, in my estimation.

In another thread on this forum someone was extolling the virtues of the service dept. of a particular company(can't remember the name but it doesn't matter).Another poster said he really didn't care about the service dept. because he felt the machine should work properly when he received it, which I agree. But my experience points out to me that BOTH are important and although I have a number of Grizzly tools, this was the first occasion I have had to use their service dept. Not only was the response prompt but the technician knew EXACTLY what he was talking about. And thats something I find less and less these days.