Drove down to Pennsylvania yesterday to check out Grizzly. Pleasantly surprised at the apparent quality of their tools. Ordered a 12″ jointer (G9860).
Have been “drooling” at that unit for a while, and the recent discussions here about the upcoming price increase precipitated action. Once the price hits 3k, it would hit a psychological barrier. I had doubts because I have never seen one of their tools and from 10+ years back had the impression that their stuff is not good. However, many people here have spoken well of their experience with Grizzly tools. And, even Delta, Jet, Powermatic, and General all import their tools (most models). So I have gradually come around to the point of view that by itself “import” is not a disqualification. What counts is the quality. Seeing the stuff in the showroom was persuasive. Of course, the real test is when the tool arrives and is operational.
Now the major challenge is how to get it into my shop, once it arrives. Will report back once it is in, uncrated, and working. Am planning to install a Byrd Shelix head in the near future.
Spent about three hours looking around their showroom. Plenty of sales people offer to help. Would have been nice if they were more knowledgeable about the products. The first fella I talked to could not tell me anything about the unit and just asked “What do you want to know?”. Much later I was trying to understand the difference between the two 12″ jointers and a young fella who had offered to help admitted he knew nothing about these products. However, he offered to get me a technical person who could help me. Such a person eventually arrived. Would be nice if they had a way for a customer to be able to ask to have an intelligent conversation with a knowledgeable person, when getting ready to buy a tool at that price point.
Replies
I was considering the Griz 8" Z series with a helical head. Griz boasts that they have offices in Taiwan, that the machine is built in a ISO factory and the tables "are precision ground to incredible tolerances". Since I would be buying sight unseen I inquired what these manufacturing tolerances for this machine where. The first reply said they didn't know! They were sorry if I was inconvenced. I replied that I was not however no info equaled no sale. A couple of days later I was told the tables were +- .002/ft, well this is a pretty long joiner, lol. The Griz is probably ok but I bought a 10" oliver with the spiral head after that exchange.
http://www.equipmentsalesandsurplus.com/productDetail.cfm?type=new&productID=675&categoryID=19
I was trying to buy from my local House of Fools (in Canada). Really bad, was looking at an 18" bandsaw. The trunnion bolts were not remotely tight so it failed the table flex test. The 15" planer I was interested in was covered in packing grease to the extent the I could barely adjust the cutting thickness. The answer to most of my questions was that the outside sale guy could answer my questions but he was on holidays. They had a shot at selling me 4 major pieces, my money will go elsewhere.
Best of luck with your new jointer.
Regards
Riff,
Just looked at the Oliver link, and on their helical, they show 3 knives, which I assume is 3 rows of inserts. I have an old 12" jointer, and had Byrd make me a replacement head. On the Byrd, there are 6 rows of inserts, on a 4.25" round head. Love the Byrd. Would be interested in a comparison on the various helical heads as the Byrd was a bit spendy, and on your Oliver it is only a $300 upgrade. People say that the Byrd is better, but I have not seen any side-by-side comparison literature.Alan
http://www.alanturnerfurnituremaker.com
Hi Alan,
Oliver offers a helical head with insert cutters and a spiral head (their terms) which uses a flexible one piece knife. I intended to get the helical head for ~600.00 but the fella I talked to suggested the spiral would be better form my low volume application. When a sales person is trying to save me money I tend to listen so I ordered the spiral. Hopefully this was the best choice for me. Since I have never used either spiral or helical heads in a jointer or planer faith was a large part of my decision. The spiral knives are self indexing and I'm told blade changes are quick and precise. If your interested follow this
http://olivermachinery.net/machines.asp?machine=4240 and download the owners manual. It shows the spiral head and knife install.I bet your 12" with the Byrd head is sweet, I'm envious. Several years ago friends had an old beautiful old 3 legged 16" inch jointer refurbished with ball bearings and a tersa head. The Tersa head is interesting, the cutter body is made up of dozens of stamped steel "washers" stacked up to make the width. The knifes are small, maybe 3/32 thick and 3/8 wide with 2 ground edges. There is a cove milled down the length of the knife. To install and set the knives you slide the knife and knife holder into the cutter head from the end and turn on the machine. Centrifugal force sets and locks the knife. Seems weird but it worked extremely well.I would be very interested in a comparison of various cutter head options. Perhaps Taunton will throw us a bone?Regards
So what's the tolerance on the Oliver?
Steel prices have been having an effect on the equipment manufacturers and their prices, did Grizzly make any mention on impending price increases?
Jeff: The G9860 went from $2,495 to $2,995. Prior to driving down to PA I had called to ask about the upcoming price increase, but their phone center could not tell me. At the showroom one of the people I talked to had casually mentioned that the unit would be going up by $500 as of 1/1, and so it did.
By the way, my thanks to the knothead who had mentioned the upcoming price increase, in a recent post. It precipitated my talking myself in to going for the jointer.
Riff: Some time back I had considered the Oliver, but folks said that today's Olivers have no connection with those of the past - the name had been sold. So I passed. I imagine that they must be fine units.
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