Upgrading ailing Grizzly G0454 to Shelix or buy new Powermatic 15HH with Shelix?

[Patrick Kane]

I'm in Pittsburgh with a brand new 4 knife powermatic cutterhead if you are interested. Has the bearings and four new knives. It happened to be cheaper to buy the straight knife version of the pm209 and swap out the cutterhead to a Byrd.

[Curt Harms]

Honestly without pictures it sounds like the pulley was loose for some time and just chewed the shaft up. If that were the case I would just replace the cutter head and the pulley.

That's kind of what I was thinking. But gut feeling enters into it too. If Dale would really like a Powermatic then the repaired Griz just isn't going to satisfy. How sound is the machine otherwise?

[Bob Grier]

here is unused powermatic 15HH. http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/tld/5671692361.html

[dale rex]

Sold the Grizzly on Craigslist for $600. Bought the Powermatic 15HH and have it up and running. Powermatic definitely is much better quality than Grizzly In my opinion. So quiet when first turned on, it purrs like a kitten. Noise levels while planing are much lower also. Overall I am very pleased with my decision to sell the Grizz and upgrade to the better machine. Not bashing Grizzly, I have a Grizzly shaper, dust collector, and 8 inch jointer and all have performed well over the years I have them. Might get a Wixey DRO soon for it too.

[Patrick Curry]

I'd love to do a side by side comparisons of a Grizzly and Powermatic (same size and cutter heads). I'm from the camp that suspected the difference is paint color & marketing but I have no reason to doubt you made the right choice and will be satisfied.

[Chris Padilla]

Have a gander at this:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...5633&p=2585317

You might have some long delays obtaining that head.

[Biff Phillips]

I don't think it is as simple as that. Factories sometimes use the same design but make an A, B, C version with different QC specs. I don't know the specifics here but there are grading systems for castings, bearings, motors, steel, etc. Some companies do hold the supplier to a higher level of quality. That would be my homework. Dave

There are differences on at least some machines. (I don't the percentage) . I spoke with a Jet rep about it once, he ran me through an example of a comparison. I don't remember all the details, so I will not post here.
But when I was planer shopping, I noticed the Grizz had smaller infeed/outfeed tables than a different brand, even though they appeared to be identical.
If they are changing the table size, logically they could be changing internal stuff the customer does not see .

Now, I am not starting an argument about whether it is worth the extra money or one brand is better than the other, but you are right, they clearly are not the same machine just painted a different color.

[Jerome Stanek]

When I was installing Satellite dishes that had LNA's the companies that made them would make all the same and then test them a unit that wasn't up to the highest degree would then be labeled with what ever it came up to. I think that may be how some Chinese companies do it.

[Chris Padilla]

When I was installing Satellite dishes that had LNA's the companies that made them would make all the same and then test them a unit that wasn't up to the highest degree would then be labeled with what ever it came up to. I think that may be how some Chinese companies do it.

Silicon (chip makers) vendors do something similar. Let's say Intel designs a CPU to run at 10 GHz. Now for the most part, a good percentage of the chips that they build will run at that speed but there will be some that run faster and some that run slower. It is just the nature of the business. Slower parts they may sell cheaper and be labeled as 9 GHz parts and the faster part may sell for more and be labeled as 11 GHz chips.

It is all in the quality control and testing and sorting and the number of steps each item goes through before being sold to the customer.

[Rick Alexander]

Boy I wish I had seen this thread sooner. I've got my old head for my G0454 I ended up with when I changed over to Shelix on mine. A shame because the old head was less than a year old (original knives and still sharp) and actually I have the quick change setup for straight knives for it as well. Bearings are perfect - three sets of knives (two quick change type and the original) and a perfect head for sale if anyone else has this problem. Cheap---- I just hate to see that thing sitting over there rusting. I always figured if I upgraded later I would sell the Shelix head separately but I'm happy with the 454 like it is - probably would never upgrade.