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All in all, I'm happy with it. Do not try to hog off more than that in one pass, especially with extremely dense woods like Wenge. The knives don't stay sharp very long on the straight knife either, and boy are they expensive. Remember, the straight knife only cuts 4 times per revolution while the spiral cuts continuously. You will seriously shorten the life of your motor if you plane a lot of very dense woods without a spiral cutter-head.- Knife changes take only seconds with the spiral. I know what you're saying, all planers are noisy. I want to say this first: do not buy THIS planer.
The only planer I would buy over this is a large Northfield Planer. The knobs like to vibrate loose if you don't tighten them regularly. On the spiral you just loosen the screw holding it down, rotate a quarter turn and tighten it back down. Instead of ruining a set of 4 knives, you've just ruined one side of 4 or 5 four sided knives.
Here's why.- The straight knife planer is very noisy. I could not believe it. However, I did recently run into a problem that set me back a few days troubleshooting. The lock doesn't feel secure, nor does it work that well.
The G0454z is $800 more than this planer. I always use a dial caliper anyway. Other points:- The fan on the motor came loose after a few hours of use and had to be retightened. I've always thought Grizzly's knife changing system and setting jig are way too cheesy and clumsy. Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time catching and dropping boards on the floor.- The depth indicator is all but useless. I know its $800 more, but trust me, you cannot afford NOT to buy the spiral cutter-head version. The pressure needed to pull through dense jungle woods will dent pine, while the pressure needed to pull through pine is not nearly enough for say Wenge, or Goncalo Alves. If you buy the straight knife version and plan to upgrade to the spiral cutter-head later, it will cost you over $1,000 for the new cutterhead and a few hours of your time.
When you're done, push down on the pedal and wheel it out of the way. Now some other notes about the planer.I've had this planer for a couple years now, during which time I've run a few thousand board feet through it. For the most part, it is a very good, dependable planer. This is the only real issue I've had so far. Unfortunately when I flipped it back on the planer wouldn't start. Not the spiral cutter-head.
Move it where you want, set it down, and start planing. Changing it over is a royal pain. You must have a forklift or skidloader to unload this off the truck, and to get it off the packing crate and bolt the wheels on it.- You need a big dust collector. You simply tighten two t-knobs (front and back). I have a large Oneida Cyclone and I still feel like I'm always emptying it.The feed rollers are hard to get adjusted right if you plane many different types of wood. Say you accidentally run a board with a nail or piece of metal through the planer. DO NOT BUY THE SHOPFOX BASE AMAZON IS TRYING TO SELL WITH IT.
the spiral. It helps a ton.Bottom line, this is a solid planer for a great price. Buy the spiral cutter-head version. This planer is rated for an 1/8" cut. It comes on its own wheel system with a foot operated cam lock. Upgrading to a digital one (if possible) might be helpful.- While this planer is very heavy (around 900 pounds) it wheels around quite easily. I've run everything from very dense exotics to soft pine. I did everything by hand, but a small press would have been very helpful for pressing the bearings on the new cutter-head.
I fried the start capacitor on the motor. I swear I had to unbolt everything but the wheels and the motor in order to change cutterheads. You don't even need earplugs.- You can not plane off as much in a pass with the straight knife as you can with the spiral cutter-head. I rarely use the table height lock.- Get a set of infeed and outfeed tables. Beg, borrow, or steal the extra $800 if you have to. Simple fix.- The height lock mechanism is cheesy. I cannot stress enough about going straight to the spiral cutter-head planer and skipping this one. If you only plane domestics (oak, maple, walnut, etc) it shouldn't be much of an issue.
Tech support was very helpful through all of it. (G0454Z) If I had known 2 years ago what I know now, I would have never bought this version and upgraded the cutter-head, I would have gone straight to the spiral cutter-head version. I promise you won't be disappointed. IT'S ALREADY ON WHEELS.- Like I said, it's very heavy.
Its not a hard fix (pop the fan cover off the motor and adjust it) and it is a known problem. Its not an expensive fix, around $20 bucks, but you still have to wait a couple days for a replacement.
However, at the same time the capacitor blew up, the contact on the motor somehow went out of adjustment. The motor works a lot harder with the straight knife vs.
Wax the table with Johnson paste wax. Hopefully I've sold you.
While trying to hog off too much on some red pine (remember, I warned you), I overloaded it and tripped the circuit breaker. A shop vac or small bagger will not work with this planer.
I cannot say it enough, get the spiral-cutterhead version instead of this, or go the expensive route and upgrade the cutterhead later.
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