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Thread: My new Shop Fox W1741 8" jointer Gloat/Review

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    205

    My new Shop Fox W1741 8" jointer Gloat/Review

    Hello all,

    As some of you may already know I have been searching to buy an 8" jointer for some time now. After loads of research and a bit of luck I am happy to say that I am now the proud owner of a Shop Fox W1741 8" parallelogram jointer (dj20). For this review I have many pics so please check out the lower posts as well.

    To start out, I was in the market for an 8" jointer and had basically decided on the DJ20 style. I looked at Delta, King Industrial, Steel City, General International & Canada and even contemplated driving to Muncy, PA to visit the Grizzly showroom because their 8" jointer won several awards including editors choice in the 2007 Buyers Guide from FWW. Then I stumbled across the Shop Fox Jointer being sold on Ebay for a great price. Upon closely lookng at it it appeared to be almost indentical the Grizzly jointer. I came to find out later that Grizzly owns Woodstock International who makes Shop Fox. Anyway, I did more research on th e SF W1741 and it just didn't seem to compare to any of the others in terms of features. It either had all the other brands beat or matched what they were offering. I will post specs at the end.

    Here is where the luck came in to play. Shop Fox is not a largely distributed product in Canada machinery wise, but I am lucky enough to reside 30 minutes from one of the SF dealers in Ontario. Ford Machinery. I called them up to see if they could get the jointer and Rob (owner) told me they had one on display. After a few moments of discussion I asked him for a quote and after he punched some #'s he told me he could sell it for 995.00. I was expecting something like $13-1400 for the jointer. Long story short, I told him I wa son my way to view it first hand. On my way down I received a call from Rob stating that he had misquoted the jointer and the actual price he was selling it for was 1295.00. When he realized that he was calling my cell phone and that I was already there practically at the showroom he agreed to eat the differnce and stick to his quote. I was wextremely pleased. Maybe this was his way of marketing to make me think I was getting a great deal but I called Weeks of Waterdown for a quote and they flat out said nothing less than 1299.00. After checking it out I decided to put a deposit down and would pay the rest in full when the unit arrived.

    One week later I was on my way down to Ford to load up our new baby and bring it home to its nesting place. The first problem we had was how we were going to get it to the basement. Four guys later and a fridge cart (and some cold ones) we finally had it in the basement. The jointer was well packaged in the crate and was covered in oil. the base was packaged in a heavy cardboard box with lots of styrofoam surrounding it.

    The first thing I noticed as how well the fit and finish was on the base because we had to start there for setup. The paint job is powder cotaed and has a very nice textured finish to it (pic of it later). Once we got into the manual I noticed it was very well written and very thorough from start to finish. Two and a half hours later and we had it all set up. Everything went together like butter and there were no missing parts. The tables and fence are dead flat (using the straight edge that I have, planning to buy a veritas one at the woodshow tomorrow). This was noted in the buyers guide as the Grizzly tables were ground better thatn any other brand in the test. (note: the shop fox was not included in this test because it is still a new product and was not available at the time that the test was being perfomed.) Everything opertes smoothly and I am very happy with the jointer.

    Now for the somewhat negatives.

    1) During my research I discoverd that the original models of this jointer were prewired with 16awg cord and I had figured that I would have to change the cord to 12awg when I got it. To my surprise, Shop fox had already noted the problem and is now wiring the unit with 12awg wire throughout. Woo Hoo!

    2) After having the jointer set up now and have had it running just for trial, it seems that there is a small amount of vibration being caused from the belt during startup and shutdown. The jointer past the nickel test no problem once running but wouldn't during startup or shutdown. No big deal but I think I will try and get some link belt at the show tomorrow. I have heard mixed reviews about Link Belt but I have read about many guys that tried t and swear by it to remove small amounts of vibration.

    After having the jointer for about a week now I can say that the more I look at it the more I like it. Like I said, the fit and finish is scond to none comparing it with anything from overseas(can't compare with General Canada).

    In total I paid 995.00 plus tax and I think I great deal on a very well equipped jointer. In fact it is the best equipped I have found. Check out the specs below compared to delta. I must say, I had heard some negative things about the customer service at Ford but Experienced it first hand and it was EXCELLENT. I am always on here acting as a spokesperson for Joe @ TJV and still do but if you have the time to spend with Rob @ Ford Machinery, he is a pleasure to deal with. A different style of business from TJV though.Very Cluttered to say the least!

    Shop Fox Jointer

    If you set out to design a full featured 8" Jointer, you couldn't do any better than this. We started with a 3 HP motor and a 4 knife cutterhead and added a precision parallelogram table adjustment mechanism, extra long infeed table, large cast iron center mounted fence, pedestal mounted switch and a built-in locking mobile base. Check out the other features and you'll agree! Motor: 3 HP, 220V, single-phase, TEFC, 3,450 RPM
    Switch: magnetic w/thermal overload protection
    Table size: 8" x 76-5/16"
    Tables: parallelogram design, precision ground cast iron
    Infeed table size: 8" x 43-3/8"
    Deluxe cast iron fence size: 35"L x 1-1/4"W x 5"H
    Cutterhead diameter: 3-3/16"
    Cutterhead knives: 4 (HSS) 8" x 3/4" x 1/8"
    Cuts per minute: 21,400
    Cutterhead speed: 5,350 RPM
    Max. depth of cut: 1/8"
    Max. rabbeting depth: 5/8"
    Max. width of cut: 8"
    Shielded & lubricated bearings
    Precision ground cast iron tables
    Fully adjustable tables
    Single V-belt drive
    Easy access lever adjusted tables with height gauge
    Heavy-duty center mounted fence with angle gauge
    Built-in dust chute with 4" port
    Powder coated paint
    Approximate shipping weight: 600 lbs.


    Delta dJ20

    Motor (Enclosed Stand)
    • 1 1/2 HP, 120/240V, 60Hz., single phase TEFC, 3450 rpm
    Cutting Capacity (max. width)
    • 8"
    Cuts Per Minute
    • 16,500
    Cutting Capacity
    • Width: 8"
    • Depth: 5/8"
    • Rabbeting Capacity: 5/8" Cutterhead
    • Speed: 5500 rpm, 16,500 cpm
    • Number of Knives: 3
    • Diameter: 3 3/8"
    • Runs on Sealed, Lubricated-For-Life Ball Bearings
    Table
    • Length: 76 1/2"
    • Length of Rear Table (outfeed): 32"
    • Length of Front Table (infeed): 42"
    • Height from Floor: 32"
    Fence
    • Size: 5" x 35"
    • Tilts In and Out: 45 degrees
    • Positive Stops: 90 degrees, 45 degrees in and out
    Overall Dimensions
    • Height: 32"
    • Width: 26"
    • Length: 76 1/2"
    • Weight: 394 lbs.

    Enjoy the pics. There are just under 20 of them.










    ____________

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    205

    pics #2




    pic of textured paint






  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
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    pics #3










  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
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    pic #4


  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    East Mountains, Albuquerque, NM
    Posts
    42

    SF Jointer

    Kevin,
    Congratulations on a GREAT score!

    If you hadn't been able to "steal" the Shop Fox, would you have gone with the Grizzly?

    I am a little green with envy.
    Merle
    Thanks,
    Merle

  6. #6
    Hey Kevin,

    Glad you're happy with the purchase. Let me know how the link belt works out for you - I may want to try it on mine if that works.

    John

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    NW Indiana
    Posts
    1,050
    John, I put a link on my G0490, I found it smoothed out the start up. I was getting the "notorious memory" bang at start up.

  8. #8
    Thanks Russ!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    205
    Quote Originally Posted by John Buzzurro
    Hey Kevin,

    Glad you're happy with the purchase. Let me know how the link belt works out for you - I may want to try it on mine if that works.

    John
    Hi John,

    I purchased some link belt at the Toronto Woodshow long enough for the biggest belt on a machine that I had. The Jointer in this case. I tried it on every machine I own and it made a world of difference on my tablesaw. It make a noticeable vibration improvement on each machine. That beng said, each of my machines would pass the nickel test without using Link Belt but the link belt made them that much better. Check out my next post about belt slap. On my jointer I corrected it.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    205
    Quote Originally Posted by Russ Massery
    John, I put a link on my G0490, I found it smoothed out the start up. I was getting the "notorious memory" bang at start up.
    Russ and John,

    I to had the belt slap/bang when I would first start up the machine. after further investigation I realized that the mounting holes for the belt guard were slots and not just holes. I loosened the bolts and tried repositioning the guard but I just couldn'tn get it quite right.

    So, I pulled the belt guard off and over to the vice I went. After clamping the guard in the vice I continued to gently bend each side of the guard out a little bit. Basically to provide more clearance for the belt. I then reinstalled the belt guard and it worked beautifully. No beltslap on startup or shutdown. Now I can't decide if I want to run Link belt on it or not. It did make the minor vibration a little better but not sure if it is worth the cost for the belt. And it made the jointer run with a little higher pitch. In my situation the belt was hitting the guard. If yours is hitting the frame of the cabinet maybe try tightening the belt. There is a good chance it is hitting the guard as it is narrower than the cabinet clearance.

    Hope this helps.

    Kevin

  11. #11

    Having a problem viewing the images....

    I was reading Kevin's posting and hoping to check out the images. The image posts appear empty to me. There is a short description (i.e. pic1, pic2, etc.) but the actual image is not there.

    Anyone else have this problem? If not, anyone know why I might have this problem?

    P.S. Very nice buy, Kevin! For a veeerrrry nice jointer.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Pacific, Mo.
    Posts
    2,835
    Quote Originally Posted by Quesne Ouaques
    I was reading Kevin's posting and hoping to check out the images. The image posts appear empty to me. There is a short description (i.e. pic1, pic2, etc.) but the actual image is not there.

    Anyone else have this problem? If not, anyone know why I might have this problem?

    P.S. Very nice buy, Kevin! For a veeerrrry nice jointer.
    Me too
    Making new friends on SMC each and every day

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Keswick, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    205
    Sorry that you are having these troubles view the jointer pics. Thaey are ok on my end.

    Kevin

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    S.W.Wisconsin
    Posts
    62
    They look fine to me,a fellow W1741 owner by the way!

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
    Posts
    16,622
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Dunn
    Me too
    Me three. Getting the dreaded red X here.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
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