G0490 Lifting the Beds

[Marty Baucom]

Ok Grizzly suprised me Thursday with an e-mail that my G0490 had shipped which followed by a call from Overnite they can delivery Monday. My question to everyone that has assembled a jointer, how is the best way to hoist the beds onto the base? I will be lifting them from a beam in my shop with a cable hoist. I have a friend that can help but I think this is too heavy for two people to handle. Can I run a pull strap around the meat of the beds in the middle and lift it by this? I am sure someone has been in this same situation before. Thanks in advance for the help.

[Mark Pruitt]

If you have a cable hoist and a beam in you're shop you're most of the way there already. Your jointer should be in a carton that you can run a cable beneath it. Just keep it balanced and lift it to proper height, then move the base beneath it. One thing I would NOT do is have two people stand at opposite ends and lift it by the beds.
Enjoy your jointer!

[Allen Bookout]

Yes you can. No problem. Even if you lifted more toward the middle you would still have to lift using the beds to get the straps from underneth to set the bed unit on the base. I used basically the same method as you are going to except with an engine hoist. However, I think that two guys could just hand lift it up onto the base.

One thing that is easy to miss is that it is bolted to the shipping case with one bolt and nut on each end. You may have to lift the crate a bit to unbolt it as well as I remember.

You are going to like it.

Allen

[Dev Emch]

NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER EVER EVER lift a jointer up by its beds. Get some slings under the MAIN BODY and lift the main body into the air with the hoist.

[Marty Baucom]

Dev I didn't know if there is anything I need to know about the parallelogram beds. The center section of this jointer looks different than a standard jointer. I need to know what part of the main body is ok to strap to. Thanks for your help.

[Mark Pruitt]

Marty,
You should be able to run the cable for your hoist beneath the entire crate. When I got my Griz jointer last year, I removed the top, sides, and ends from the crate, then hoisted the jointer, sitting on the bed of the crate, to a height that I could then slide it onto its base. Unlike you, I didn't have a cable hoist at my disposal. I used a floor jack and placed 2x4s and cinder blocks beneath the jointer as I raised it. Once I got it tp proper height it was an easy slide over onto the base. What I am saying is, basically, you're not lifting the jointer alone--you're lifting the crate with the jointer sitting on it. This could actually be done by one person but I would definitely have one or two people there to help if needed.

[Allen Bookout]

NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER EVER EVER lift a jointer up by its beds. Get some slings under the MAIN BODY and lift the main body into the air with the hoist.

That would be nice but with the GO490 there are no reliefs in the base so it would still be necessary to lift by the beds at some point to remove the sling unless you made some sort of something to allow the removal of the sling and then finish lowering it onto the base. At least by lifting as close to the center as possible you are not putting pressure anywhere near the ends. There are some cautions in the manal but no refference to this.

I think that one thing is that this unit is not really that heavy, compaired to a large Oliver or simular that you are used to dealing with, and any stresses would be minumal. Of course the ultimate would be to have lift bolt holes in the base so that you could bolt a chain and lift it like an engine or lift rings but no luck there.

In any case I used a sling as close to the center as possible and gently lifted it to the base and then measured with an very accurate 48" straight edge and there is no real measurable inaccuracy across the entire unit. Also the table heigth adjustment works very smoothly. Therefore, I do not believe that any damage was done by using this method.

Mark's method would work if you are really concerned. I had not thought of that.

How did the rest of you GO490 owners do this dirty deed?

Allen

[Thad McCulloch]

Used a chain hoist and a couple of nylon slings under the 490's base (not the infeed and outfeed tables), and put it on the cabinet with a couple of 1/8-1/4" thick pieces of scrap wood between the top of the cabinet and the bottom of the jointer to give me sufficient clearance to slip the slings out from under after I got a couple of bolts in. Lifted each end separately up just enough so the wife could pull the scrap wood out and I then lowered it fully onto the cabinet. The 3 or 4 bolts I had started kept it from getting misaligned during this operation. Doesn't take much effort to lift one side at a time when you're only going up a fraction of an inch, and there was no effect on infeed & outfeed table alignment.

[Allen Bookout]

Welcome Thad! Allen

[Rob Nolan]

I used an engine hoist to lift mine onto my stand. although I have no doubts that two moderatly strong guys could lift it onto the stand. I didn't have someone to help me so i rented an engine lift for $25. It went very well ... I must say that the engine lift was heavy though.

[Dev Emch]

Used a chain hoist and a couple of nylon slings under the 490's base (not the infeed and outfeed tables), and put it on the cabinet with a couple of 1/8-1/4" thick pieces of scrap wood between the top of the cabinet and the bottom of the jointer to give me sufficient clearance to slip the slings out from under after I got a couple of bolts in. Lifted each end separately up just enough so the wife could pull the scrap wood out and I then lowered it fully onto the cabinet. The 3 or 4 bolts I had started kept it from getting misaligned during this operation. Doesn't take much effort to lift one side at a time when you're only going up a fraction of an inch, and there was no effect on infeed & outfeed table alignment.

This is indeed the correct way to do this operation. Good Job Thad.

[Thad McCulloch]

Thanks for the accolade Dev. Putting it on the base was the easy part. The real fun was getting it from the bed of my pickup down a flight of stairs into the basement!