Grizzly Jointer G0568 Blade Guard problems

[Brian Fulkerson]

I just purchased a new 8" Grizzly G0568 Jointer. The entire assembly went very well except for the blade guard. When I first installed it, the guard sagged so bad on the on the pin assembly that it dragged on the jointer table. Regardless of adjustment it continuously did the same thing. I called Grizzly and they sent me new hardware for the guard (I thought they were going to send a new assembled Guard). They sent a new support pin, return spring, retaining clip, and a lock washer that didn't fit anywhere. The Lock washer was too small to use and was not included in the original assembly (very strange). I spent a couple of hours disassembling the one original, and reassembling. I am still having the same problem no matter what I do, and I am starting to question the quality of this guard. I particularly am concerned because of how important this part of the jointer is. The guard drags so badly, that if the guard opens wide enough, it catches on the rabbit table and doesn’t close.

Has anyone seen or experienced this problem? Am I not installing this correctly? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian

[glenn bradley]

I believe my G0490X has a similar guard. The pin fits very snuggly in the hole and the guard is a heavy cast non-metallic metal material (aluminum?). There is no flex in the pork chop itself and the pin to hole fit could not allow any droop. If the construction is similar, I could only see a sloppy hole or undersized pin causing the problem(?).

[Brian Fulkerson]

I checked on the Grizzly site and the guard does look like a different style than that of the G0490. Also, The guard on the G0568 dosn't seem to be cast Iron. Fortunately though the guard is a very stable metal. The problem seems to be in the assembly pin.

[Sean Kinn]

I'd take a few close up pics, and get them to Grizzly if possible. Could just be a shipping/pulling/labeling problem that caused the wrong parts to get packaged with the unit originally, and also sent out to you as replacements. If you haven't already, make sure you get through to their tech line, not just customer support. I had a small issue previously, and the tech went and pulled all of the specs and called me back later so we could compare dimensions and such over the phone. They'll make it right.

[Carl Hunsinger]

This is kind of an old thread, but I had exactly the same problem with a g0586 I bought right before Christmas this year. The guard sags, and drags on the tables. Per the manual, this can be adjusted for by raising the shaft, and locking it in a little high. But when I raised it high enough to clear the tables, the spring tab lost contact with the side of the infeed table, so it would not spring back.

I emailed Grizzly CS, and described the problem, along with my proposed solution. I said that a second hole in the shaft, 1/4" lower than the current hole, with a second roll pin would correct the problem.

Grizzly CS replied that they agreed that that should be the fix. Per my request, they sent me a new guard and shaft, along with two roll pins, so that I could attempt the repair.

When the parts arrived, it was clear that the shaft was the wrong part for this jointer. Very similar, but the turned down part that the guard pivots on was too small. This would not work. So, I disassembled the guard, drilled the second hole in the original shaft, tapped in one of the roll pins, and reassembled the guard.

I could then adjust it to work properly. So, all is good again, right?

But then I read this post here that tells me Grizzly knew of this problem in May of 2008. They should have fixed this in the 7 months since then. Especially on a jointer guard. Hells bells, if I owned a company, I sure wouldn't ship product with a known deficiency in the safety equipment.

Now that I think about it, they should have modified the shaft and then sent it to me, rather than have me perform the mod.

I guess I see first-hand now what what you give up when you buy the low-cost imports. I give their customer service a failing grade for sure on this issue.