Extend power cord on PM 60HH jointer

[Charles Coolidge]

Don't forget you need a male twist lock at the machine end unless you really want to do a non-standard implementation that could be dangerous if the cord is plugged into the wall and disconnected from the saw. Those prongs would be, um...uncomfortable...to touch.

Ha yeah that would be a bad idea good catch. I'll just add a 12 foot SJOOW twist lock cord to the machine. Also this morning I scoped out running conduit so I have more places to plug in the 220v machines. Right now all my 220v outlets are at the far back corner next to the main panel. Getting tired of stringing 25 foot cords across the floor.

[David L Morse]

Ha yeah that would be a bad idea good catch. I'll just add a 12 foot SJOOW twist lock cord to the machine. Also this morning I scoped out running conduit so I have more places to plug in the 220v machines. Right now all my 220v outlets are at the far back corner next to the main panel. Getting tired of stringing 25 foot cords across the floor.

There's this or this.

[Malcolm McLeod]

... Those prongs would be, um...uncomfortable...to touch.

Occasionally, I'll make something odd like this for 1-off testing of equipment. Carefully.
Any male-to-male cord set, or even male-to-stripped/loose ends is called a "suicide cord."
Not recommended for civilians. Or anything else with a heartbeat.

[Jim Becker]

Ha yeah that would be a bad idea good catch. I'll just add a 12 foot SJOOW twist lock cord to the machine. Also this morning I scoped out running conduit so I have more places to plug in the 220v machines. Right now all my 220v outlets are at the far back corner next to the main panel. Getting tired of stringing 25 foot cords across the floor.

You could do that but if you want the potential occasional convenience, just put a short pigtail with a male twist lock on it. You cord can be "right sized" and just have a male for the wall and a female for the machine end to connect to the pigtail. Yes, the up-front cost is an extra pair of twist locks...I just bite the bullet and do it anyway because it's worked very well for me. It's actually been a boon in my current temporary shop as it makes for easy sharing of an outlet as I'm constrained on that for the time being.

[Charles Coolidge]

You could do that but if you want the potential occasional convenience, just put a short pigtail with a male twist lock on it. You cord can be "right sized" and just have a male for the wall and a female for the machine end to connect to the pigtail. Yes, the up-front cost is an extra pair of twist locks...I just bite the bullet and do it anyway because it's worked very well for me. It's actually been a boon in my current temporary shop as it makes for easy sharing of an outlet as I'm constrained on that for the time being.

I have to step over the cords to get to the shop lights, it's a miracle I haven't tripped and taken a dive into the tractor front end loader bucket yet. Probably going to run the conduit. I have an acre of land, one day I should just build a proper work shop.

[Alex Zeller]

Just and FYI. SJOOW has a thinner outer jacket. For a home shop it's ok to use it as an extension cord or cable for a tool. But it's not as protected from shorting if the edge of a sheet of plywood or something else accidentally got dropped on the cord. SOOW will be not as flexible and slightly larger diameter but it'll stand up to abuse better than the SJOOW. I usually go with SOOW if it's going to lay on the floor.

[Charles Coolidge]

Just and FYI. SJOOW has a thinner outer jacket. For a home shop it's ok to use it as an extension cord or cable for a tool. But it's not as protected from shorting if the edge of a sheet of plywood or something else accidentally got dropped on the cord. SOOW will be not as flexible and slightly larger diameter but it'll stand up to abuse better than the SJOOW. I usually go with SOOW if it's going to lay on the floor.

SJOOW is tough it's not going to short as you describe, have you tried to strip that stuff?

[Charles Coolidge]

I hope it is pretty close to tuned when I get it, well at least pretty flat tables that are parallel.

Well Jason sadly mine arrived NOT tuned. Nothing on this jointer was adjusted correctly so far. Electrical box crooked. Rabbit/blade guard table uphill out of plane with the table about .125 inch. I had to remove sheet metal to adjust it. Finished wiring the cord just now and started checking the tables with the 48 inch Starrett precision straight edge...the outfeed table still contacts the cutter even at the highest table setting. Infeed table is sloped downward toward the cutterhead like a ski jump, by eye I'd say minimum .015 to .020 inch. So the sheet metal has to come off and I'll be spending my time doing the setup the factory should have done.

Hey factory, you are lazy and sloppy. Go take another coffee break you are about useless anyway. With that rant out of the way lol here's some wiring pics.

The factory cord, stiff, bent, I don't know mount in on a wall as modern art?

gj01.jpg

The plastic factory electrical box is designed for some kind of rectangular press/snap/hammer in cord grips. Rather than mess with it I installed a steel box below. Cut the factory cord off leaving a foot or so which I ran into the steel box. That cord grip is 1/2 inch for .300 to .375 inch cord. The factory cord is 14awg about .365 inch in diameter. For the new cord I used 12/3 SJOOW sourced at Lowes. It's about .450 inch in diameter. For it's cord grip I used also a 1/2 inch but for .375 to .500 inch cords. I threw just 8 feet of cord on the machine and a 20amp 250v twist lock plug. I'll be using a longer extension cord between it and the wall panel. My bandsaw will be using the same outlet and extension cord. It came with a 15amp 220v plug, naturally different than the jointer, yet both recommend a 20 amp breaker.

gj02.jpg

It looks pretty, that's about all I can say so far. I was about to haul the crate to the dump, now I may hold off until I try to get this crooked thing adjusted. Already wishing I had spent another $2,500.

gj03.jpg

[Jason Evans]

Well Jason sadly mine arrived NOT tuned. Nothing on this jointer was adjusted correctly so far. Electrical box crooked. Rabbit/blade guard table uphill out of plane with the table about .125 inch. I had to remove sheet metal to adjust it. Finished wiring the cord just now and started checking the tables with the 48 inch Starrett precision straight edge...the outfeed table still contacts the cutter even at the highest table setting. Infeed table is sloped downward toward the cutterhead like a ski jump, by eye I'd say minimum .015 to .020 inch. So the sheet metal has to come off and I'll be spending my time doing the setup the factory should have done.

Hey factory, you are lazy and sloppy. Go take another coffee break you are about useless anyway. With that rant out of the way lol here's some wiring pics.

The factory cord, stiff, bent, I don't know mount in on a wall as modern art?

gj01.jpg

The plastic factory electrical box is designed for some kind of rectangular press/snap/hammer in cord grips. Rather than mess with it I installed a steel box below. Cut the factory cord off leaving a foot or so which I ran into the steel box. That cord grip is 1/2 inch for .300 to .375 inch cord. The factory cord is 14awg about .365 inch in diameter. For the new cord I used 12/3 SJOOW sourced at Lowes. It's about .450 inch in diameter. For it's cord grip I used also a 1/2 inch but for .375 to .500 inch cords. I threw just 8 feet of cord on the machine and a 20amp 250v twist lock plug. I'll be using a longer extension cord between it and the wall panel. My bandsaw will be using the same outlet and extension cord. It came with a 15amp 220v plug, naturally different than the jointer, yet both recommend a 20 amp breaker.

gj02.jpg

It looks pretty, that's about all I can say so far. I was about to haul the crate to the dump, now I may hold off until I try to get this crooked thing adjusted. Already wishing I had spent another $2,500.

gj03.jpg

Well that's pretty annoying. Thanks for the info and the warning Charles. I didn't really have my hopes set too high really though. I thought buying a jointer made in Taiwan would make a difference, but I guess not these days. I'm interested to see how you adjust the outfield table to go higher. Mine will probably be the same since we bought them at similar times. The same people probably made them.

I bought a 10/3 extension cord because the outlet I'll be using it on is an L6-30 and the 10/3 cord has that plug size on it already. I'm going to cut do the pigtail style that a few people recommend and cut the cord short so the connection isn't on the floor.

[Charles Coolidge]

Well that's pretty annoying. Thanks for the info and the warning Charles. I didn't really have my hopes set too high really though. I thought buying a jointer made in Taiwan would make a difference, but I guess not these days. I'm interested to see how you adjust the outfield table to go higher. Mine will probably be the same since we bought them at similar times. The same people probably made them.

I bought a 10/3 extension cord because the outlet I'll be using it on is an L6-30 and the 10/3 cord has that plug size on it already. I'm going to cut do the pigtail style that a few people recommend and cut the cord short so the connection isn't on the floor.

Yeah they just slapped the hot mess together and shipped it to the customer to deal with, shocker. Mine is dated manufactured 08/2021. That the tables are not in plane with one another on a parallelogram jointer is concerning. So is the outfeed out of whack, the infeed or both. This will require ripping the sheet metal covers off the front and back. Ha trying to pry out the plastic push in buttons covering the screws again will get me cussing. lol I have the measuring tools to dial this thing in but I shouldn't have to fix Grizzly's lame ass job of assembly. Wait, how did this thing pass "Taiwan" level QC? I was thinking the same thing you did, been there done that on a CHINA Grizzly jointer GO490. I had higher hopes for this Taiwan unit.

Hear you on the 10/3 cord and twist lock, but what's the breaker rated for 20amp or 30amp? I almost installed an L6-30 outlet and a 3rd 30 amp breaker but thought better of it. I want it to trip at 20 amps not 30 amps. So I left the 20 amp breaker in my panel an installed a L6-20R 250v outlet.

[Jason Evans]

Yeah they just slapped the hot mess together and shipped it to the customer to deal with, shocker. Mine is dated manufactured 08/2021. That the tables are not in plane with one another on a parallelogram jointer is concerning. So is the outfeed out of whack, the infeed or both. This will require ripping the sheet metal covers off the front and back. Ha trying to pry out the plastic push in buttons covering the screws again will get me cussing. lol I have the measuring tools to dial this thing in but I shouldn't have to fix Grizzly's lame ass job of assembly. Wait, how did this thing pass "Taiwan" level QC? I was thinking the same thing you did, been there done that on a CHINA Grizzly jointer GO490. I had higher hopes for this Taiwan unit.

Hear you on the 10/3 cord and twist lock, but what's the breaker rated for 20amp or 30amp? I almost installed an L6-30 outlet and a 3rd 30 amp breaker but thought better of it. I want it to trip at 20 amps not 30 amps. So I left the 20 amp breaker in my panel an installed a L6-20R 250v outlet.

Jeez, what a mess. Maybe I'll start at thread on my new one to compare experiences. Now I'm wishing I had bought a better jointer, but which one, I don't know. I researched until my eyes bled and my brain gave out and this seemed like one of the best options. People say powermatic has gone down hill, and baileigh, and laguna are just the same Chinese machines as grizzly sells. Who knows, maybe there isn't a good choice.

One reason I bought a new jointer is that my 6" dovetail jointer tables keep going out of plane, and I have to spend forever getting them straight again. Such a tedious process. I'm hoping that at least once it's tuned it'll stay that way for a long time. I didn't ever like changing the depth of cut on my current jointer for fears of knocking things out of whack.

The ironic thing is right after I ordered the new one, I finally got the old one shimmed pretty good again and it's cutting like it's supposed to, mostly anyway. I was trying to get it tuned to sell.

I'm kind of worried about using a 12 amp 3hp machine on a 30 amp breaker, but I have 3 220 outlets already and didn't feel like having another installed. I feel like it's pretty unusual for these motors to have overload problems, knock on wood, so I guess it'll be ok. Anybody have an opinion on oversized breakers being used on 12 amp tools?

[Greg Funk]

I'm kind of worried about using a 12 amp 3hp machine on a 30 amp breaker, but I have 3 220 outlets already and didn't feel like having another installed. I feel like it's pretty unusual for these motors to have overload problems, knock on wood, so I guess it'll be ok. Anybody have an opinion on oversized breakers being used on 12 amp tools?

Most larger machinery includes overload protection on the starter so you shouldn't need to rely on the breaker. The breaker protects the wire and the Overload relay on the machine protects the motor.

[Jason Evans]

Most larger machinery includes overload protection on the starter so you shouldn't need to rely on the breaker. The breaker protects the wire and the Overload relay on the machine protects the motor.

Thanks Greg.

[Greg Funk]

I'm not an expert on the NEC but if I read it correctly the maximum size for a breaker protecting the circuit is 250% of the FLA. In your case that works out to 30A. The overload relay on the jointer would have a lower setting sized to the motor.

[Jason Evans]

Great. Sounds like I’m good either way. Thanks again Greg.