Should I be disappointed?

[Randy Red Bemont]

John, I have that same jointer and my boards come out smooth. You may have some tiny metal shavings under a cutter insert from the factory. It is a great jointer and once you get this figured out, you will have an awesome machine.

Red

[John Ziebron]

Thanks Ken, that makes sense. Kind of like a lock nut. But with the 6 set screws I mentioned that weren't tight, I mean they were not even touching the bushing. Some required more than a full turn to lock the bushing. So in those cases I guess the upper set screw served no purpose. But all is good with them now that the bed adjustments are made. Alan, thanks for the push. Tomorrow I'll remove all the inserts and get things cleaned up and put back to try it. If that solves my problem - great. Although I have several other Grizzly tools I've never had a reason to talk to their tech support. But if they are like most companies today I would probably be able to remove, clean and reinstall the inserts while I'm on hold so I might as well bite the bullet and try to fix the problem myself. Your last remark is interesting. And I will get a chance to check it out myself. A few months ago I bought a year old 15 inch Grizzly planer on Craigslist. It has a knife cutter head. But I got such a good deal on it that I did buy the Shelix replacement head from Grizzly, just haven't installed it yet.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

BTW John, I have a G0490X (one of the 2 Grizzly tools I own). The G0490X has a history of arriving with loose set screws. Reading that here, when my delivered, after assembling it I took the time to remove every set screw I could find, and reinstall it with some blue Loc-Tite thread locker. I torqued all the cutters using a torque wrench.

The tool has worked flawlessly for several years now.

[Rick Fisher]

Your going to need to set all the knives. Torque wrench.. Its good practice. Few people who own bigger machines don't pull wrenches at times..

[Cary Falk]

You don't need a $100+ torque wrench. This one works fine.
http://www.harborfreight.com/14-in-d...nch-61277.html
Don't forget to take your 20% coupon.
http://www.harborfreight.com/

[Rick Fisher]

I was thinking about this thread..

When I bought my first 20" Planer, GI . It came with a shorted and fried motor. They sent me a new one, I pulled wrenches.

I bought a new 24" GI drum sander, the conveyor control module burned up the first hour, they sent me a new one. I attached wires, and turned sheet metal screws. They also didn't tension the belts, so I did it.. more wrenches.

This led me to believe I could restore an old Bandsaw.. So I did, turned out I was right.

I recently partially disassembled and changed the capacitors on my Phase Perfect, replaced a faulty starter on my dust collector, and did a total restoration on a Griggo Planer ..

It all started with receiving faulty machinery, and being willing to fix them .. My willingness came from someone on a forum telling me I had taken up owning woodworking machinery as a hobby .. not gold fish, or flying kites..

So I bought a full set of metric wrenches, and never looked back ..

[Kelly Craig]

My G0490X is only a couple months old. Due to circumstance, everything I've ran through it is highly figured walnut and acacia. After the expected adjustments of the beds, and a quick tap of the cutters from my Panasonic, set on low, it spits out faced material with no ridges.

For the heck of it, lay a short straight edge on the out-feed at points where you are noticing ridges and turn the head, as if it were running. See if you notice more click in one area than another. You may get lucky and note the culprits.

[Mike Chalmers]

and a quick tap of the cutters from my Panasonic,

Please explain. Panasonic?

[Kelly Craig]

Impact driver, which can be adjusted for torque.

[John Ziebron]

Rick, I understand where you're coming from. By now I should know better as well. After discovering so many of the bed adjustment set screws loose I decided to check all the other fasteners on the machine that could affect it's operation now and in the future. And then I found that the 4 bolts, 2 on each pillow block, that hold the cutter head in place barely hand tight. Although I don't know what the torque specs are for these bolts I know that they should be much more than they were. So I tightened then all equally. Kelly, after rereading the manual with regard to the inserts they mention to be careful about not using too much oil because if there's too much in the hole the insert screw may not hold the insert tight and oil under the insert can be a problem as well. And this machine came well oiled. So this morning I removed all the inserts and thoroughly cleaned the head. However, I cannot reinstall the inserts yet because I discovered my 3/8 drive torque wrench does not go down to the 48-50 inch pounds specified. I don't live near any big cities but I tried the auto parts stores in the 2 smaller ones by me and none had a 1/4 drive torque wrench. So I ordered one but have to wait until Wednesday for it. Sorry Cary, that looks like a good deal from HF, but none close to me and their shipping is not that fast. Stay tuned; I'll let everyone know by the end of this week how it goes.

[Keith Weber]

Impact driver, which can be adjusted for torque.

Torque adjustment on an impact driver is crude, to say the least. I'll be the last one to recommend anything from HF, but you'd get better consistency with one of their torque wrenches than an impact driver of any brand.

[Rick Fisher]

Hey John..

I think you have a right to be disappointed and annoyed .. Its not that we should expect it .. end of the day, your gonna be pulling some wrenches. I would argue that its not a brand thing.. its a factory thing .. I had similar issues with General International .. At the AWFS show, I cut my finger on a really rough casting on a Powermatic 4 poster planer. If it where mine, I would have to sand off the sharp edge.. on a brand new machine.

I think its just part of the hobby .. it annoys me, but its inescapable, unless you buy Euro stuff.. but even then you hear stories..

[John Ziebron]

Update to my problem. I finally got a 1/4 inch drive torque wrench and so I thoroughly cleaned the cutter head and inserts. I then reinstalled them and torqued them all to 50 inch pounds per the manual instructions. When cleaning and preparing the cutter head I noticed about 3 insert areas where there was a sliver of steel hanging on from machining the insert mounting surface. I couldn't tell if any of them were actually under the inserts when they were installed at the factory but I removed them to make sure they would not be a problem for me. I also noticed the space between one of the spiral rows had some small dimple marks that felt very rough. These wouldn't affect performance but I just think it's poor quality control at the factory. I finally powered the unit back on and ran a few pieces of soft and hardwood on it, including the same hard maple piece that had the ridges. I would say it's still not as good as a knife cutter head but it is certainly much better. I can still see 2 or 3 ridges but they are barely detectable unlike the previous ones. Two swipes on the hard maple with 320 grit made it perfectly smooth. So , in the end, I"m still slightly disappointed but I am willing to make that sacrifice fro the durability of the carbide cutters as I have a few hard maple projects lined up. Someone earlier mentioned that this cutter head is Grizzly's and not a Shelix. As a side note, a few months ago I got a great deal on a 1 year old 15 inch Grizzly planer with knives. Shortly after I bought it I went to Grizzly's web site and bought the Shelix replacement cutter head but have not installed it yet. It will be interesting to see a comparison of finishes between the jointer and planer when I do.

[Andrew Joiner]

I would say it's still not as good as a knife cutter head but it is certainly much better. I can still see 2 or 3 ridges but they are barely detectable unlike the previous ones. Two swipes on the hard maple with 320 grit made it perfectly smooth..

Wow John. What straight knife head are you comparing it to? If two swipes with 320 grit removes all the cutter head marks that's better than I'd ever expect from any jointer or planer.

[Edward Oleen]

A friend just took delivery of a 60C... No problems at all right out of the box.