Oliver 10" jointer, is it the same as the Grizzly?

[Jameel Abraham]

Looking at models G0455 and the Oliver 4240. They look the same above the base. I know the Oliver has a Baldor motor. I'm mostly concerned about the jointer itself. The Oliver is about $300 more. Must be the motor. Oliver also has a 2 year warranty vs. 1 for the Grizzly. I bet they are both made in the same factory.

[Jim Becker]

They "might" be made in the same facilities or might not. There's not a huge amount of differentiation in jointer designs "out there"... The similarities are complimented by the differences that each vendor might have in specifications, on-site QC folks and added features, even when the same general facility is involved in manufacture.

[Joe Jensen]

Just because two tools have the same castings and are built in the same factory, it does not me they are the same quality. The castings are all done oversize and machined where the tolerances are important. Machining to tighter tolerances is more expensive, and requires closer monitoring and inspection. Also, Grizzly may have more or less stringent outgoing quality tests than Oliver. Oliver may require tighter table coplanarity, or they may require 100% inspection compared to 1 out of 100 or 1 out of 1000 for other manufacturers.

I have no experience with either Grizzly or Oliver. Just pointing out that a factory can product many different quality levels off the same production line...joe

[Montgomery Scott]

The best way I've found is to ask the manufacturer directly about their product. Here's what Judy Chuang of Oliver Machinery said about the Oliver 4240:

"Our 4240 10" jointer supplier is a Taiwanese manufacturer. My knowledge of our supplier is that the owner has a branch factory in China. However, we came to an agreement that we are only doing the casting and assembly for our 4240 10" jointers over there. We insist and make sure that our spare parts, switches and cuttereheads are 100% made in Taiwan. In addition, we use American made Baldor motors for our jointers. "

[David DeCristoforo]

100% Made in Taiwan! Excellent! And only the "little stuff" like the whole rest of the freakin' machine is made in China? Perfect. After all China and Taiwan might as well be states..... Scheech....

[Frank Drew]

Exactly what I thought, David. And it sounds as if the American end of some of these overseas enterprises accept assurances of quality more readily than some of us might.

As Joe said, tight tolerances require an investment in expensive machinery and the time to operate it correctly; spending more money is basically contrary to the reason manufacturing has moved overseas, and that's not to say that these imports can't be as good as we'd like, but I think that has to be demonstrated, not just alleged and accepted.

[Joe Jensen]

Exactly what I thought, David. And it sounds as if the American end of some of these overseas enterprises accept assurances of quality more readily than some of us might.

As Joe said, tight tolerances require an investment in expensive machinery and the time to operate it correctly; spending more money is basically contrary to the reason manufacturing has moved overseas, and that's not to say that these imports can't be as good as we'd like, but I think that has to be demonstrated, not just alleged and accepted.

I am sure one can get excellent quality from Taiwan, and China, but you must spec every little thing, including the quality of the cast iron, tolerances, bearing brand. And then you need to do pretty high sampling rate testing to ensure you the products meet spec.

I've done a ton of business in Asia and their have some differences in their culture comared to America. Business ethics for example are just different. In Asia it seems that if you let them cheat you, it's your fault. If they don't take advantage of an opening you left, it's bad karma for them. Take the tainted wheat gluten that killed pets in America. The buyer was testing the wheat gluten to ensure it had the right level of protein in it. Higher protein content is more expensive to produce. The manufacturer figured out that if they put Plasticizer (the chemical that keeps plastic flexible) the test would show high protein. I am not saying that the manufacturer knew the Plasticizer was poisionous, but they certainly felt that if the buyer didn't catch them, then it was ok. I've seen a lot of this kind of behavior and it's generally not considered bad form..

It's easy to see how an manufacturer over there might slip in cheaper starter capacitors, and then you have a rash of start capacitor failures like we've seen with some machines. The Manufacturer will try to get away with whatever they can...joe

[Jameel Abraham]

Thanks for the info everybody. Now I want to save my money for something non-Chinese. That's an eye-opener Joe. I have nothing against the Chinese, but that business ethic goes against my grain more than I can express. Not the way MY parents taught me.