Charlie, I can do that now. So far we have put about 5 hours use on it so I have a little background to speak fro.
Packing, blah, blah, blah...
Now to the real stuff.
The wide belt was a bear to get off the pallet. First the recesses for a forklift just weren't tall enough so we had to suspend the sander from the ceiling to place it on the floor. It would have been nice to see some lifting hooks on the top of the cabinet. But we go it down and bolted securely to the floor. Why I don't know, the 1500+ pounds of weight should be enough to keep it in place easily.
Then the adjustments started. The pinch rollers were no where near to their working position and that took all of 15 minutes to fix. The directions in the instruction manual were very complete and easy to understand. I determined the table was 0.010 low on the right side and called Grizzly tech support for help. The poor guy on the other end knew little more than I did and all he could do was read the manual. He did tell me that 0.005 was normal. So I read the manual for the fifth time and decided to wade in to the adjustment. The first attempt got the level within 0.003 and when I added the shims under the table supports it was then within 0.001 of even. The digital table adjustment panel was no where near to what the real reading was supposed to be and required a little effort to finally get the panel to read properly. A good set of digital calipers helped me to get the readings the same.
I do like the table adjustment panel, it allows me to raise and lower in 0.005 increments. What I don't like is if I enter a number other in the middle of their stops, it will go to the next stop and bypass my instructions. Belt changes are easy, the operations panel is easy to understand and the sander doesn't make a lot of noise. Dust collection is accomplished by 2 4" ports on top of the cabinet with one directed directly at the belt. Very little dust gets by.
Grizzly gives a year warranty and AmEx will add another year so I guess I am covered. Hopefully I will not have to replace it anytime soon.
So the big question is why did I purchase a Grizzly wide belt sander. 1. Budget! I could afford just so much and I wasn't going to break the bank. 2. I could have used a 37" sander but the cost was more than I wanted to spend. 3. Most of the sanding I do is smaller pieces under 20" wide so I simply didn't need to go larger. 4. The floors in the shop are wood and the 1500 pounds of weight was worrying me. A 37" sander would have been in the 2200 to 2600 pound range and that did worry me. It would have been a sad sight to see the floor bend under the weight.
Come on down when you can and I will let you see how it operates. Maybe in a year i can give a bit deeper review.
