Replies

1. 
   Bob_Wild | Mar 10, 2002 02:50pm | #1

   *
   Hello Bob,
   I have the Grizzly G1035. The fence is crap, it is made out of some particle board and is definitely not flat. The rest of the machine has performed very well. I have also purchased the router bit spindle and the extension wing. I have built my entire kitchen out of red oak with this machine, which made the panels,stile and rails. It really does a pretty good job. Plus it has reverse, which will make some cutter heads safer to use. For the price, I am very happy with the machine.
   bw

1. 
   Dev_Emch | Mar 12, 2002 04:00am | #2

   *Of the new shapers on the market, the best shaper out there is the hoffmann TFS-1200. But at about 16,500 dollars, its not too affordable.More affordable is the general SS-32. This contempory shaper made by general in canada has to be one of the finest shapers out there. It uses gibbed dovetailed ways to raise and lower the spindle quill and it uses a morse #4 taper with a bidirectional lock so it can run both forward and reverse. Machine work is fantastic. Base is heavy gage sheet metal. Motors are typically 5 horse 3 phase, but you can get it in single phase for more money. I spent two years researching shapers including those from powermatic, delta, grizzley, northfield and some asian ones. By far, this one is the best. The fence system alone is overkill when compared to most american offerings. It has dovetailed ways holding the two fences which are cast iron but can take wooden covers. Also, it has gibbed ways with micrometer adjust to move each fence in and out.If your going to buy a relatively affordable, contempory shaper, this is the shaper for you. You can see a pix of it on the site. http://www.general.ca.By the way, I am not connected with general. I just own a number of their machines since the ones made in canada are tops for their price range.

1. 
   Frenchy_Dampier | Mar 12, 2002 06:52am | #3

   *Hi Bob, I have the cheap Jet HSJ 1089. That was before my experiance with Grizzly. For only a little more than I paid for the Jet 1 hp I could have bought a Grizzly 3 hp. Hindsight is 20-20

1. 
   bckelly1 | Mar 13, 2002 02:44am | #4

   *Bob,I'm also looking at 3 hp shapers. Took a trip down to Grizzly showroom in Williamsport, PA for a closer look. That same day I stopped by a Woodworkers Warehouse to look at the limited edition Delta. Quite a contrast. Delta's apparent advantages included: much more stable/strong looking belt system, the delta had a tubular central shaft that looked like it provided a much stiffer system, nice micro-adjust on the delta, and the router bit spindle seemed potentially much better.On the flip side, a boatmaker friend of mine has used the Grizzly for a fair amount of work and is quite pleased with it. Who knows?BCK

1. 
   Dev_Emch | Mar 13, 2002 04:52am | #5

   *Bob...and the general is even better than the delta. Two quick reasons why.1). The delta uses rolled threads on its spindle shaft and the shaft is limited to 1 inch and not the 1.25 inches you need. Also, it does not use a tapered morse style socket making alignment more difficult.2). The "tubular central shaft" you talked about is a cantelevered cirular way. It has three major drawbacks. First, for this approach to work, the tube must be mouted perfectly plumb to the back of the table. Most are not. You can prove this to yourself by taking a dial indicator and checking for shaft runout. Granted, runnout is an aggregate runout, but you get the point. Second, the length of the slide that moves on the shaft is not long enough to fully counter movement and deflection by the heavy spindle quill and motor assembly. Had they used parallel dovetail ways, then the right way counters the left way and you do not get the cantelever affect. Third, there is no gibbing in this way system.The SS-32 has twin dovetail ways spaced far apart and the length of the female way assembly is fairly long. Also, these ways are fully gibbed and adjustable. Lastly, the spindle is interchangeable and uses a spindle mounting system also used by metal milling machines so you know you get accuracy. I also designed a router spindle for my SS-32. The bearings are also far apart which makes thrust load damage not as much an issue.The closest US made shaper similar in construction was/is the powermatic 28. I would examine the inner workings and make sure you have twin dovetail ways holding your spindle quill.