Replies

1. 
   Chairwright | Jun 10, 2006 04:48pm | #1

   I can't find the model you refer to in my 2005 Grizzly catalog, but I have quite a bit of experience with Grizzly.  Some of it good, just so you know I'm not one of those purists who has nothing good to say about Grizzly.  My good experience, though, is on machines like table saws and jonters where there are very few moving parts and I've been lucky enough to get nearly dead flat surfaces.  I did purchase their 20" planer and my experience was not good.  The first problem I encountered on the planer is that the drive chain gears on the rollers are not steel, but cast, so they sheared right off the bat and I replaced them with real gears.  The second problem I had was that the bed rollers are pretty  much worthless.  You  have to set them with 4 small set screws which hold a cam in place to raise the rollers.  The first time a board knocks into the rollers, it overpowers the set screw and the roller drops to table level and you have to literally force the piece through the planer.  Grizzly offered to solve that problem for me by selling me a silicone spray - thanks a lot!  I use a lot of wide boards - believe me - you won't be satisfied.  One of my friends purchased a wide planer from another seller of imports because it had level adjustable bed rollers, but he experienced the same problem, the lever tightener wouldn't hold up to the force of the wood hitting the bed roller.

   Do not dispair, there is (for me at least) a practical solution.  I sold the Grizzly and purchased a 1970's vintage 20" Powermatic, wrestled with it for a week or two and got it in good working order (I paid $10 on Ebay for the operator's manual - best $10 I ever spent) and it works like a dream.  All the gears and chains are real, and the bed rollers are on jack screws cleverly linked togeter with steel swivel arms so - with no tightening at all - they stay put.  So my recommendation is to run away from the Grizzly and all similar machines and buy an old Powermatic - the ones made in Tennessee, not Taiwan.  You'll pay up to 2 or even 3 times more, but you'll have a real machine.  As a hobbyist, the last thing you want is misery on account of a poorly designed machine.  Yes, it does weigh about 3,000 lbs. but if you are not in a basement, you can easily move it around with a long handled Johnson bar.  Chairwright

2. 
   dave7085 | Jun 10, 2006 07:21pm | #2

   Thanks for the reply.  This model is in the 2006 catalog, and is a new model.   Is it possible that this problem has been fixed?   I looked at the manuals on-line for the grizzly, jet, and powermatic (a new model) 20" planers and they seem to all have the eccentric shaft with setscrew to adjust table rollers.

   Dave

1. 
   Chairwright | Jun 10, 2006 07:59pm | #3

   Dave:  It may be a new model number but it looks pretty much identical to my old Grizzly.  I don't doubt that the Jet and the new Powermatic have the same eccentric shaft and set screws, but I do doubt that they would work any better because they have the same flaws on the bed rollers I mentioned earlier.  To even have a chance to achieve the same quality as the old Powermatic you'd have to go with the G9740 in the Grizzly line, and then you'd be spending at least $5,400 and for about half that money you could  have an older model Powermatic.  Good Luck on whatever you decide to do.  Chairwright

3. 
   JMartinsky | Jun 11, 2006 01:46am | #4

   How about Woodmaster? Widths up to 25", American made. Prices are not bad either. I have been using a friends' Delta and the experience has left me underwhelmed. For me, when it is my $, I will probably go with the Woodmaster.

   John