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Thread: Planer reccomendations

  1. #1

    Planer reccomendations

    I am looking for opinions on a couple of planers. I have priced a Grizzly 15 inch with Helical head and also a Grizzly 16 inch with fixed table and Helical head. The price difference is insignificant. I have a small 1 man commercial shop and try to buy most of my lumber already milled. This planer will be used for rough sawn material mostly hardwood but some pine. At present I have a 20 year old Powermatic with a Grizzly helical head but it constantly has feed problems that hamper production. My question is will the new planers be an upgrade and if so what is your opinion of each one. Thanks. Bob

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,675
    If you feel that the feed issues cannot be solved with your current machine and it's affecting your business, then I would agree that either of the units you mention would be an "upgrade"...the fixed table sounds like a nice option to have available and it give you that extra inch, too. But I'm not personally familiar with either.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Tacoma, WA
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    236
    I don't have a fixed table but it allows you to set up an outfeed table and leave it. Lumber always comes out at same elevation. The advantage is you can keep feeding lumber into the machine without running around to the other side to catch it.

    The alternative with an adjustable table is if you use an outfeed table, you may have to adjust it between runs or settings.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto Ontario
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    11,247
    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Latourelle View Post
    I am looking for opinions on a couple of planers. I have priced a Grizzly 15 inch with Helical head and also a Grizzly 16 inch with fixed table and Helical head. The price difference is insignificant. I have a small 1 man commercial shop and try to buy most of my lumber already milled. This planer will be used for rough sawn material mostly hardwood but some pine. At present I have a 20 year old Powermatic with a Grizzly helical head but it constantly has feed problems that hamper production. My question is will the new planers be an upgrade and if so what is your opinion of each one. Thanks. Bob
    Hi Bob, are you jointing one face of the material before planing?

    Regards, Rod.

  5. #5
    Assuming you've tried to trace down the problem? I do know at one point I had feed issues and it turned out all it needed was clean the infeed rollers and increase the pressure a little. I also had a feed issue that turned out to be the pressure plate out of adjustment.

    I don't think much as changed with planers. I do know the old ones will have less plastic on them and might be MUSA

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Western PA
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    1,242
    Feeding issues on any machine should start with 1) did you apply wax? If you recently waxed the bed and you still have issues, then i would look at infeed and outfeed rollers to make sure they are set correctly, and if your machine has a pressure bar, confirm it is set correctly too.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    West Lafayette, IN
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    6,529
    If you’re around Indiana I might buy that old non-working PM planer from ya for cheap. ;-)

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
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    2,280
    Are you sure it's a 16" planer? I often look at them as I need something but I'm weak and always switch to looking at the 20" planers thinking that I'm unlikely to outgrow a 20". A helical 15" is about the same price as a straight blade 20" then I debate in my head which is more important. Hopefully you are stronger. One thing I did read, maybe others can confirm, is that by having the return rollers on the top the chip extraction isn't as good as it should be. I even read one person who said they removed the rollers and replaced the 5" rear facing dust port with two side by side 4" dust ports on the top. That was a 20" planer though so maybe a 15" will not suffer. Since i often look at these I also noticed that Grizzly has a number of different helical heads depending on which model. Check the replacement carbide insert costs for each one. One is less than $4 each while the other is over $9. That'll add up when it comes time to replace them. If you're handy you might want to look at the price difference between buying a straight blade planer and a Byrd head (I would think getting replacement inserts should be easier down the road). I think it was one of their 8" jointers that I noticed there was no savings but a 15" vs 8" is a big difference.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Waterford, PA
    Posts
    1,225
    I have the 15" Grizzly Planer, but with straight blades. I can't compare it to the Powermatic, as I've never used one. I can tell you the Grizzly is heavy and works well. It does tend the let the table drift down slightly after you make an adjustment, however.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
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    Central WI
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    A new 15-16" planer won't be an upgrade to a 20 year old planer of similar size, just newer. The head is the only design improvement over that 20 year period. I'd either fix the old PM or upgrade to a better level of new machine. Dave

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    SCal
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    1,478
    I have the PM20" With Byrd head....
    I have issues with lots of machines, underpowered, poor build, etc.
    this 20" planer is a dream machine
    the set up was a bastard, but once u get the tables on the same plane, its rock solid and produces 200 grit quality surfaces with virtually no noise... I can only hear the dust collector, not the planer...
    I know its more $$, and maybe the GRiz is equally as well...but the Byrd heads seem to be much superior than anything on the market. Count the number of cutters per head, as this is the amount of cutting surfacews you have. The byrd is dense, and it you rarely ever have to flip the cutters, carbide is so durable.

  12. #12
    I've got the 20 inch Grizzly with a true Byrd head on it. I just about exclusively use rough sawn stuff off a Woodmizer and this planer has been a work horse for me so far. Going on about 6 years now - probably >2K BF per year - some years more than others. I just think it's the best bang for the buck out there.

  13. #13
    Bryd head is in no way the superior head available now, it's a good budget option, but after that its basically a one design fits all kind of thing.

  14. #14
    My last planer, before I got the 16" MiniMax J/P, was a decades old Grizzly that I bought for $200 and put a Byrd head in it for about $800. While I had the gearbox apart I replaced the bearings and oil seals for another $50. It ran for years of hard use and never complained. That was the 15" head with a 2hp motor. I never hog off that much so 2hp was plenty. If you look at the design of that planer, it's identical to the Jet, PM, Delta, Shop Fox and others. They all come off the same line only with different paint, and maybe different elevation handles. But the guts are the same so if you need parts for a Powermatic, find the machine on Grizzly and get your parts there. Mine had the motor on top so the table moved up and down and it would be nice to have a fixed table, but not that big a deal. Installing a new head, draining the oil, bearing and the like, about a 4 hour job. And the carbide inserts last forever so with 4 edges you'd be good for a long long time.
    Jay

    PS. But on the other hand planers are not that complex. I'd search for the cause of your problem and determine if it then can't be fixed.
    Last edited by Jay Houghton; 10-30-2019 at 4:11 PM. Reason: Additional comment

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
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    Grizzly seams to offer two types of carbide insert replacement heads. One is silver and looks like it's more of a spiral while the other is black and looks to be a clone of a Byrd. Does anyone know if the Byrd carbide inserts will work with a Grizzly head? Grizzly seams pretty good about replacement parts but for a part that can last 20 years depending on how much you use it I would like to know that replacements are going to be available. It seams like most of Grizzly's planers are just clones of another brand and the heads are interchangeable but there's a noticeable amount of difference (price and labor) between just changing cutters and swapping heads. The only opinion I have on the Byrd is it's American made.

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