Quality of Grizzly Tools - 8" Jointer

[Michael Koons]

I'm in the market for a new jointer. I've always had good experiences with my Jet tools but am really stuck on the jointer decision. 8" Jet JJ-8HH with spiral cutterhead is $1750. Grizzly G0490X is $1250. Shipping costs on Grizzly is offset by sales tax on the Jet.

My local Jet dealer kept reminding me "there's a reason for the cost difference", which I usually agree with. But I've read professional and amateur reviews of both and the Grizzly continues to do well in quality and performance reviews, including the latest FWW review. I tend to like to buy quality whenever I can but I am not a big fan of throwing money out the window. This time I just can't bring myself to justify the added expense for the Jet.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I'd really appreciate any insights people can offer. Thanks in advance for helping me with this.

[Mikil Phelpson]

My local Jet dealer kept reminding me "there's a reason for the cost difference"

He's right, but unfortunately the reason may not be quality.

I own the G0490x. I looked at the Jet JJ-8HH and I didn't see enough difference (if any) to justify the higher cost.

I also looked at the Powermatic PJ-882HH. Now that's a jointer that I'd spend the money on (if I had it). It felt niiiiiice

[Kevin Barnett]

I have the G0490X. There's not much that I can think of that could make it better. Maybe a move-able switch column and a better designed chip chute. But that's about it. Fit and finish is good. Customer service is highly rated. I really like the wheels more than I thought I would. Nice machine. If I were to pay more, I'd want a USA made motor, but I'm not sure any have that anymore.

I also have the Jet tilting arbor saw and the 22" drum sander from Jet. So I'm not really biased that much.

[Matt Meiser]

My local Delta dealer reminded me of the same when I bought my Delta Contractor saw in 2001. I really wish I'd bought the G1023 cabinet saw I was also considering.

In your case, I'd the dealer is the biggest reason for the price difference. Are you willing to have to do some legwork if there's an issue? With the Jet, if the dealer is good they might come out and take care of it for you. With the Grizzly, you might have to play mechanic with parts they'll send. Or worse case occasionally a machine needs to be sent back in which case the Jet dealer might pick it up and Grizzly will need you to put it back in the crate and have the freight company pick it up.

I can tell you that I have tools from both Jet and Grizzly. I wouldn't if Grizzly had introduced the latest version of their 12" J/P about 6 months earlier.

[Derek Gilmer]

I've got a grizzly table saw (5hp cabinet g1023) and a 6" jointer G0452 and love them both. Honestly my next big powertool purchase is 99% likely to be a grizzly. Hard to justify the cost of other brands when I've been so pleased with my green bears.

[scott vroom]

I own the G0490X and it performs well.

The Grizzly has a bigger motor (3hp vs 2hp) ...could be an advantage when face planing wide boards. The Grizzly is a parallelogram design, is longer by 9", has a taller fence, and comes with a built-in mobile base.

I've never owned/used a Jet.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I will be the lone voice of caution...I have had a lot problems with my G0490 (bought about 14 months ago) and Grizzly's widely regarded CS was not especially helpful. Looking on the bright side...I didn't lose much of my prized woodworking shop time, I gained an opportunity to teach myself to be a jointer mechanic! I believe if there had been dealer involved things likely would have gone differently--one thing Grizzly has done for woodworkers is make the remaining dealers SUPER-SENSITIVE to where they are adding value. I became quite aware (Grizzly pointed it out to me!) that my jointer only had a one year warranty. The Jet standard warranty is five years.

[Richard Coers]

I don't want this to come across as bashing, just stating facts. My bandsaw is supposed to be picked up by UPS Freight on a return today. New parts did not fix my vibration issue. I had an engineer friend come over and he looked at the vibration as a torsional/natural frequency issue. We braced the top of the machine to the ceiling and half the vibration went away. We removed that brace, then braced to the floor. The vibration issue completely went away. This sure isn't a jointer, but I do feel it addresses the issue of machine quality and design you are asking about.

[Mike Goetzke]

Now it's my turn.

I currently have a Grizzly jointer, bandsaw, and planer. They all had problems but CS was fantastic. Would I buy from them again....I already did twice. I'm a hobbyist with some evening free time on my hands to spend tuning these machines. I quite franky, based on everyone elses experiences, expect to spend some time on these machines to get them up and running. If I were in the woodworking business and paid for someone to tweak the machines I would buy the more expensive local dealer supported machine.


Mike

[Michael Koons]

First of all, a very sincere "thank you" to everyone for thoughtful replies. This was my first post to this community and I'm very impressed with the helpful comments.

There a few things I've noticed as I've done even more investigation. I'm in Denver and I noticed that the only "local" dealers are Woodcraft and Rockler. (Woodcraft is the dealer I went to over the weekend.) I don't know what happened but seems to me the days of my local dealer who I could really work with are gone. The sad thing is that I cannot actually inspect either of these tools in person. For a purchase like this, I think a personal inspection would go a long way with the decision.

Based on the feedback, I've expanded my thought process to include PM. I like the thought of longer tables. PM is 73", Grizzly's 76" and the Jet is only 66". Not to be too crude, but in this case, I really thing the longer the better. I just wish I could call Grizzly and get some sort of quality guarantee from them. :-)

[Maik Tobin]

I may be the exception, but I own a cabinet saw, bandsaw and planer....all Grizzly. All three were perfect right out of the crate (after assembly). I could not be happier with each. I am by no means a professional woodworker, but I manage to knockout 40-50 tables per year, plus an assortment of other stuff. These tools have served me very well and I would have no problem at all buying from them again. Customer service is top notch and I would really question the actual differences between Grizzly products and the competition, most of which is far higher priced.

[Stan Mitchell]

All three were perfect right out of the crate

Same experience here. I've got a shop full of their machines - including the G0490X. The spiral cutter is superb and the long table is very handy when using long lumber.

The shipping carrier seems to be a major issue in delivery of heavy machines. It's the biggest risk factor in my opinion.

[Gerald Senburn]

I ... expect to spend some time on these machines to get them up and running. If I were in the woodworking business and paid for someone to tweak the machines I would buy the more expensive local dealer supported machine.

I own a mixture of Grizzly, Powermatic, Jet, and others. Quite frankly, I find that I spent about the same amount of time tuning the expensive stuff as I do the inexpensive. My Grizzly jointer had a odd vibration caused by loose setscrews. My Powermatic bandsaw had a bad riser block. The only thing I can think of that required no tuning out of the crate was my Grizzly dust collector and my 3520b lathe.

[Craig Kalkman]

I had a Jet jointer that I sold to buy the G0490X Grizzly. No comparison in terms of value. Grizzly kills Jet. I have had no issues at all with the Grizzly jointer after one full year. Pleanty of power and great surface. Don't be scared to go Grizzly just because it looks like too good a value. They really do sell a good product.

[David Kumm]

The more important issue is the type of bed adjustment. If all of your choices are parallelogram, you have equal adjustment choices. The old wedge bed jointers-which were really good have adjustments in the wedges themselves and the tables were bolted to the wedges so adjustments could be made. I would be nervous ordering one of todays wedge type jointers without checking the tables for droop or being out of plane. They have little adjustment options other than brass shims in the wedges. My point is with the parallelogram you reduce your risk considerably, but other opinions may differ. Dave