Grizzly Jointer Woes

[Michael Disorbo]

Sorry to hear that a few of the 490 folks are not real happy. I picked mine up at Grizzly and everything was fine. The problem is shipping them with the motor attached. According to PaPa Griz, they used to ship tools with the motor bolted to the pallet, but there were to many whiners. So Grizzly tried to make it good and save a little work and this is the result. These shipping companies are very hard on these packages. I just got a package through UPS and there were tire tracks on the box. The box was smashed, but everything inside survived.

All I can say is that if I would have received one with bent struts, I sure would be running it until the new base came. It took me about an hour to assemble everything and with 3 people lifting the table to the base took about 5 minutes.

Make some sawdust with that hunk of iron!! It is a fine machine, best buy out there for an 8" jointer. I looked at them all including Powermatic. Powermatic's six inch is way over priced and the one I looked at was very cheaply made. As far as their 8" with the parralogram beds, come on its not worth what they are asking. You are just paying for the name. Still made overseas and I would put the 490 up against it any day.

If Grizzly is replacing the base everything should be fine and you guys should enjoy the 490 for the rest of your lives. We all took a chance, we knew it was a new product and there would be bugs. I remember some of the early post before they started shipping them and we all had concerns. Most of the problem is with the shipper not the machine. Shiraz will make it right.

I will say one thing, it took a month to dull those knives and that really surprised me. I thought for sure that they were cheap and would be nicked the first day I used them. I was wrong. 30 days later and well over 1000 brd ft of hardwood, they are getting dull but no nicks!!

Good Luck,
Michael

[Allen Bookout]

Sorry to hear you also got a bad one. I was seriously looking at the Grizzly's (G0490) but not anymore after everybody has had the same trouble.

"EVERBODY" has not had the same problem. Some of us received units with no damage at all and worked perfect out of the box. I feel sorry for the ones that got the damaged ones but I do not know what percentage of units shipped were damaged. I think that if you discounted the tool for this reason alone that you could be doing yourself a disservice.

Allen

[Bill Fields]

The problem is in inadequately tested packaging.

I'm in the bicycle business, and 95%+ of cheap bikes are from China (surprise).

The brands (Schwinn/Next, etc.) sold a t mass-merchants such as WalMart/Target learn and react swiftly to unforeseen shipping damage.

When they did not react properly in the past they paid a huge penalty. The bikes in the offending packaging were simply shrink-wrapped, palletized, and returned to the importer --with--a huge charge for damages, pemnalties, shipping, etc.

In an environment where the importer hopes to make $6 or $8 per cheap bike, and suddenly you are losing $20--you learn fast.

BILL

PS:

But, the bike shop bike brands figured this out 20 years ago with Taiwan sourcing. Now a reject is a rare occurence. B

[Dev Emch]

newton was right

F=MA and that seems to be what was not taken into consideration

best wishes
lou

Thanks Lou... I am laughing madly out load. I have not heard that little ditty in quite some time. But hear this... if force is conserved and acceleration is increased, you have but one option.... reduce the gage thickness of the metal (i.e. mass). Hmmmm, strange design principle.

I am wondering if maybe a container got dropped. A number of these reports have surfaced and the lack of explicit damage to the box makes one wonder.

[Dev Emch]

Rob you are so correct. And judging from the number of these units that creekers have bought and the number of units that have had shipping problems with I personaly think that Grizzely needs to look at some serious design changes. I would be willing to bet that of all of the ones bought by creekers there would be more damaged one then not. I can understand if 1 or two were damaged in shipping but this seems like an epidemic.

This just reinforces my personal belief of not buying any major tools if I can't go and pick it up myself.

I would say its hard to acess what is causing this damage. I had an old recipricating hack saw sent by yellow freight. When I got it, it was banded sideways to the pallet and they insisted that it was fine. I had to argue with them that the huge cast iron recip arm that was being held together by the blade incidently, should not have a huge crack in it. The whole arm was cracked. Now this goes beyond a bit of rough handling... this is more like air freight with drop gate service and no parachute!

This jointer problem must be costing grizzly a nice sum of cash bucks. Maybe everyone buying one should insist that any future jointers be shipped with the motor detached. I am still thinking about what type of action could cause this damage.

[Rob Blaustein]

I am still thinking about what type of action could cause this damage.

My guess is that at some point these were laid on their side which would allow the weight of the motor to pull on the struts. I would be surprised if there was enough force to bend the struts if the unit is maintained in its typical upright position, or even in the proper upside down shipping position, unless there was significant lateral force. Grizz argues, and I would guess they're right, that this is an issue of designing it better for shipping, not daily use. When I spoke to them they made it sound like they would be using thicker material in the future and in the mean time they are bracing it as shown in another thread.

[Dennis Peacock]

I looked at them all including Powermatic. Powermatic's six inch is way over priced and the one I looked at was very cheaply made. As far as their 8" with the parralogram beds, come on its not worth what they are asking. You are just paying for the name. Still made overseas and I would put the 490 up against it any day.

I highly disagree.....I've never been a "name" fan.....but I was so impressed with the higher quality of Powermatic...no matter if it's made over the big pond, It's still a very fine machine. If my PM is just like the 490? Then why isn't my stuff bent and twisted? I bought a quality machine....and I got one!!!!

'nuff said. This dawg is bowing out....don't need no more dawgs in this fight.

[Dennis Peacock]

Solution to the 490 Jointer woes.....

[tod evans]

I highly disagree.....I've never been a "name" fan.....but I was so impressed with the higher quality of Powermatic...no matter if it's made over the big pond, It's still a very fine machine. If my PM is just like the 490? Then why isn't my stuff bent and twisted? I bought a quality machine....and I got one!!!!

'nuff said. This dawg is bowing out....don't need no more dawgs in this fight.

this might be like comparing two white bandsaws, both made overseas,on paper the 18" tai/chi offering looks impressive but when it comes down to the n#t cutting the lil` ol` 16" italian unit is chosen by almost every person who has driven both.......regardless of price difference....02 tod

[RichMagnone]

Mine arrived last night and I've been putting it together this morning. No problems with the struts. The wooden bracing was included with mine and there were no problems.

[Michael Fross]

Just to be clear guys, I got the 0452, not the 0490. I wish I had the 0490, but my hobby budget just allowed for the lower cost item.

There were no wooden support pieces in my shipment.

Here is a pic:
G0452.gif

Michael

[Scott Vigder]

Sorry to hear you also got a bad one. I was seriously looking at the Grizzly's (G0490) but not anymore after everybody has had the same trouble.

Rash generalizations like this are uninformed, ill-advised and not helpful.

[Russ Massery]

Scott, I couldn't argree more. My G0490 has worked flawlessly. I can't think of a piece of machinery that's a better value.

[Jay Knoll]

Sorry some people are having problems. My struts arrived in fine shape, there was a bit of a "bend" in one of the panels but nothing that a rubber mallet and a piece of plywood couldn't fix.

The beast has been gobbling up wood just fine when I feed it, which, hasn't been as much as I would like.

I saw a DJ20 at the wood working show in Orlando a few weeks ago. I am so glad that I bought the Grizzly, the fit and finish on the Grizzly was far superior to the DJ20

Jay

[Rob Nolan]

My G0490 is working great ... no quality issues what so ever ... no dents, scratches or bent metal (3 2x4's were strapped around motor). I went and picked mine up at the shipping co to make sure it didn't spend any more time on a truck than it had to.

I also unloaded it from the back of my pickup and into my basement all by myself ... I don't consider myself a strong person either. I used ramps (2x8's with ramp ends) and slid it gently off the truck and used the same ramps to slide it into the basement (5 steps down). Then used an engine hoist to lift the joiner onto the stand. I was sore the next day ... but that's to be expected.

My experiance with Grizzy has been great! I also have a G1023 Cab saw also arrived in perfect shape. You can't beat the price ... it's all by buget will allow.

Good luck getting your jointer base fixed/replaced!