Fellow woodworkers:
Mine is a small shop producing low volume, high cost custom woodworking. Three years ago I set up this shop and purchased all of my equipment from one manufacturer. Since then, my equipment has been reasonably reliable. Until now.
One of my most important pieces of equipment is my 20” planer. Several days ago while planing a modest walnut board a weld on the chip breaker broke. This resulted in the top of the planer blowing off and shooting parts into my shop; no one was injured.
After several hours I had a list of parts that needed replaced and contacted the manufacturer stating that even though the planer was beyond the 1 year warranty, welds shouldn’t break like they did. The cost of the parts is only about $150.
I maintain my equipment very, very well and the board that I was planning had no knots and was on it’s third modest pass through the planer.
I explained to the manufacturer’s customer service on the phone and in two emails that my shop is almost exclusively their equipment, I’ve had no warranty claims in three years, and I even have a link on my website giving them a favorable recommendation.
The weld on the chip breaker that broke is not recommended to be inspected in the manual, yet failure of this weld could cause severe injury.
I appeal to the opinions of my fellow woodworkers as to whether you believe that the manufacturer should bear the cost of the repair. I purposely do not reveal the manufacturer’s name so that bias cannot take part in your feedback.
Replies
Being this was a very dangerous failure of a part that should never fail, I feel that the machine's maker has an obligation to give you the repair parts at no charge.
A properly designed and properly made weld should never fail, especially in such a critical application, so the weld's cracking clearly suggests, based on what you've told me, that the fault was with the manufacturer. The fact that it took three years before the weld broke doesn't completely absolve them of responsibility no matter what the warranty says.
Being there is a real safety issue here, you might want to also report this to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
I would be interested to know the brand and model of the machine and how the manufacturer responds.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
John,
Grizzly Corporate has gotten back to me regarding the G1033 planer of mine. They seemed generally concerned about the broken weld and agreed that they are shipping out replacment parts at no charge to me. They also have requested that the part with the broken weld be sent back to them for engineering analysis.
I couldn't ask for a better response.
Thanks for your input
I'm glad to hear that you have gotten a good response from Grizzly. The company seems to be making a real effort, just in the last couple of years, at having excellent customer service.
John W.
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