I finally did it... Grizzly G1033X 20" planer....

[Terry Hatfield]

Congratulations, Terry; it looks GREAT! A question if I may.

I am looking at upgrading my own 20 year old 15", open stand Jet planer to a 20" model with a spiral head. Can I ask what factors drove you to go with the Grizzly versus say, a Powermatic, or a Jet, or a Laguna?

Just wondering about the thought process and your pros and cons that you saw in the various machines.

Thanks.

Hi James. I am a long time Grizzly customer, but with that being said, this planer is made in Taiwan in the same factory that makes the Powermatic planer. I suspect the Laguna and Jet are also manufactured in that same factory. I've personally had great service from several other Grizzly machines and look to them first for my machines. I actually spoke with Shiraz Balolia from Grizzly before I made the purchase and he told me that he had dealt with this factory for nearly 40 years and their machines were top notch. Plenty good enough endorsement for me.

[Terry Hatfield]

'Tis a beast for sure! Congratulations!

Thanks Jim! I'm very pleased with it.

[James Cheever]

Thanks for the insight, Terry

[Rod Sheridan]

Terry....I don't know which to be jealous of in your shop...your new planer....your beautiful shop in general...or that you have such great access to hardwoods?

Congratulations on the new planer!

Living in the Carolina forest system, I often forget how lucky I am to have access to free hardwood Ken.......Regards, Rod.

[Jim Andrew]

When I was looking at planers, the person I talked to at Grizzly called the G1033 a "finish" planer, and the G0454 a " rough cut" planer, and wound up with the G0453px. It does leave some roller marks on the lumber, does your G1033 have smooth rollers?

[Terry Hatfield]

When I was looking at planers, the person I talked to at Grizzly called the G1033 a "finish" planer, and the G0454 a " rough cut" planer, and wound up with the G0453px. It does leave some roller marks on the lumber, does your G1033 have smooth rollers?

The infeed roller is serrated and the outfeed roller is smooth. I've not seen any marks left on the wood at all.

[Craig Day]

When I was looking at planers, the person I talked to at Grizzly called the G1033 a "finish" planer, and the G0454 a " rough cut" planer, and wound up with the G0453px. It does leave some roller marks on the lumber, does your G1033 have smooth rollers?

Jim,

I purchased the G0454Z last year (delivered early this year) and the outfeed roller is smooth. So far it's been an excellent planer and leaves a glass smooth surface regardless of the wood I put through it. I routinely put cheap (and soft) Lowes/Home Depot 2x4's through it and it leaves absolutely no marks no matter how light or heavy I take the cut.

[Jim Andrew]

I just cleaned my cutterhead a couple days ago, and was wiping off and blowing off the rollers, and my outfeed roller is machined to have sharp grooves. Works fine, but does sometimes leave a little imprint on the boards.

[Jason Ramey]

Beautiful planer and shop!

[Terry Hatfield]

Continuing in my normal mode of not leaving well enough alone, I decided that I "had" to have the Wixey WR550 digital readout for the new planer. $70 to my door off Ebay was the best deal I could find. Arrived in good condition a few days ago and I got it installed today.



First order of business is to decide how to mount it to the planer. There are supplied universal brackets in the kit but I could not see a clear, secure path to using just those to properly mount it. I finally decided to use a 3 1/2x2x2 piece of aluminum angle to attach the lower bracket. The kit comes with self tapping bolts and the proper drill bits. I drilled into the lower part of the casting and mounted the lower bracket.





Here you can see how using the piece of angle allowed me to get clear of the corner bolt mounting the center casting to the base.



And the unit mounted.



Next was to mount the upper bracket that holds the reader. There is a handy flat boss on the table that I had determined would be right in line.



i picked this spot on the opposite side of the table to mount the readout itself. I turned the bracket up side down and it worked out perfectly. The readout is below the top of the table so hopefully out of harms way.





The kit comes with some self adhesive tabs to secure the data cable so I rolled it up and used some zip ties the tabs to hold the cable to the bottom of the table.



Wixey has an interesting method of calibrating the readout to the actual thickness being planed. You plane a board to less than 1" and then place it in a calibration gauge on the unit and zero to that thickness.





I made a few passes checking each time with my mic and all were within a couple thousandths. I'd say that's good enough.





All in all I'm quite pleased with the Wixey readout for $70 and a couple hours work.

[Ronald Blue]

Congratulations on the new planer. I'm like Ken though it's tough to know what to be jealous of. I can see why your shop looks so perfect however after looking at your Wixey install photos. You go to great lengths to make everything as neat and tidy as possible. You might be OCD lol. Just kidding. What a great shop and machine. I hope you share many more photos with us. Makes me realize how much I need to do to get better on my end. Thanks for sharing.

[Terry Hatfield]

Congratulations on the new planer. I'm like Ken though it's tough to know what to be jealous of. I can see why your shop looks so perfect however after looking at your Wixey install photos. You go to great lengths to make everything as neat and tidy as possible. You might be OCD lol. Just kidding. What a great shop and machine. I hope you share many more photos with us. Makes me realize how much I need to do to get better on my end. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! There is so much in life that is dictated by others rules, or external circumstances or demands. Inside these 4 walls all of that goes away and I'm free to do what I want the way I want when I want and how I want. In here all is well and I can bask in my OCDness.

[ChrisA Edwards]

I've been following this thread, love the pictures of your impeccably tidy/clean/organised workshop, but now it's time to see your clutter room...

[Terry Hatfield]

I've been following this thread, love the pictures of your impeccably tidy/clean/organised workshop, but now it's time to see your clutter room...

Look Chris, there will be none of that. I have a reputation to maintain. lol...

[Nick Decker]

I very much want to live in that shop.