G0490X 8" Jointer w/ Spiral Cutterhead

[Mark Buchanan]

I am looking for reviews on the G0490X 8" Jointer w/ Spiral Cutterhead by Grizzly. I have read good things but some complain of railroads or cutter tracks. I talked with a Powermatic rep and they have gone with a radius cutter on their Helix heads to eliminate these problems, but at $2300.00 it is out of my budget. Any help will be appreciated.

[Thomas Walker]

I have the 6" version of the jointer. It's a very nice machine that's well engineered and solid. The spiral head cuts smooth and true on my machine. The lower priced grizzleys can probably cut as nice, they just may require more futzying with setup to do it.

I went with this model after having a jointer that I never could get setup right -- I wanted to guarantee I wouldn't have that frustration again.

[Joe Chritz]

There is a possibility of scalops when using a Byrd head because of the geometry of the cut but it is so small as to be almost uninteresting. You can go straight to glue up on edges and faces could be sanded by hand with a block.

I have the dovetail way Grizzly and have no problems. Lots and lots of jointers run just fine without parallel ways. Now I see it is only $100 more for the 8" parallelogram jointer and I would grab it in a second for that much.

The X is more but I am not sure on what the extras are. Don't be afraid of the Byrd head. It is a very good investment.

Joe

[Deck Reagan]

I had questions so I called the tech support and WMH and Grizzly. I mentioned that I mostly use Red oak and they advised against the spiral heads since it is not as smooth of a cut like the HSS blades. They mentioned that I would see the little lines. They said you can't feel them but you can see them. Both tech groups advised going with HSS for my use.

deck

[Don Abele]

Deck, I don't really know if there is a significant structural difference between red and white oak. But at work we have some really LARGE Byrd heads on our jointers and planers and run white oak almost exclusively through them. I've never seen tracks or scallops, not even when we run live oak which is really nasty stuff to work with.

Be well,

Doc

[Allan Froehlich]

Is there an advantage with parallels over dovetail height adjustments?

[glenn bradley]

Is there an advantage with parallels over dovetail height adjustments?
P-beds maintain a constant gap between table and cutterhead regardless of height. They are also easier to adjust for co-planer if that should be required. I got the G0490X with Grizzly's spiral and am very happy with it.