I have owned four jointers; a Delta 4", Jet 6", PowerMatic 6" and now a grizzly 8". The first three, Delta, Jet and PowerMatic all shared the same fault, blade changes that would make the Pope cuss a blue streak. Maybe I am to anal but I had to spend an insane amount of time changing and adjusting the blades before I was satisfied. :BangHead: I tried every jig I could find and even resorted to the insanely expensive Dispoz-a-Blades. Nothing worked well enough to suit me so I guess I settled for whatever I could get which was not to my liking.
After I wore the PowerMatic out in 4 years, I purchased a Grizzly GO490Z 8" jointer with a spiral head. I assumed the cutter change would be easy but.....:dontknow:
After running about 2000 bd ft or more of lumber through the jointer I was feeling some drag during face planing and decided it was time to turn the cutters. *Dread!* All I could do was hope the indexable cutters would live up to their hype. So I started loosening and turning the cutters, all 40 of them. I spot checked some of the cutters to be sure that they were still level with the outfeed table. A test piece once I was finished told me I had made a mistake. Instead of having a smooth cut I had ridges. What had I done wrong?
What I failed to do was remove the cutters and clean the backside and the slot they fit into. Once I did this the cut was as smooth as a baby's behind and the drag I felt when planing disappeared.
So, valuable lesson, remove and clean the back side of the cutters and their slots. I used a piece of 320 grit sandpaper on the infeed table to clean the cutter and a toothbrush the clean the slots. A little extra labor but nothing as compared to the chore of changing old fashioned planer knives.
Another lesson, hold on to the cutters as you reinatall them. I had two disappear under the infeed table and I sure didn't want to disassemble the jointer just to recover them.
All in all I was back to work in less time than it would have taken to remove and reinstall one knife. For me the lessening of the downtime is terrific. Enough so that I will order a new planer this week from Grizzly - with a spiral head and indexable cutters.
After I wore the PowerMatic out in 4 years, I purchased a Grizzly GO490Z 8" jointer with a spiral head. I assumed the cutter change would be easy but.....:dontknow:
After running about 2000 bd ft or more of lumber through the jointer I was feeling some drag during face planing and decided it was time to turn the cutters. *Dread!* All I could do was hope the indexable cutters would live up to their hype. So I started loosening and turning the cutters, all 40 of them. I spot checked some of the cutters to be sure that they were still level with the outfeed table. A test piece once I was finished told me I had made a mistake. Instead of having a smooth cut I had ridges. What had I done wrong?
What I failed to do was remove the cutters and clean the backside and the slot they fit into. Once I did this the cut was as smooth as a baby's behind and the drag I felt when planing disappeared.
So, valuable lesson, remove and clean the back side of the cutters and their slots. I used a piece of 320 grit sandpaper on the infeed table to clean the cutter and a toothbrush the clean the slots. A little extra labor but nothing as compared to the chore of changing old fashioned planer knives.
Another lesson, hold on to the cutters as you reinatall them. I had two disappear under the infeed table and I sure didn't want to disassemble the jointer just to recover them.
All in all I was back to work in less time than it would have taken to remove and reinstall one knife. For me the lessening of the downtime is terrific. Enough so that I will order a new planer this week from Grizzly - with a spiral head and indexable cutters.
