Grizzly G0453 15" Planer

Kinda makes you wonder how they will improve it so in 20 years you can review your new Grizzly and say how much better it is than the old one :-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Very true…..my old Delta planer is right at 20+ years old…..man I feel like I went from a gocart to a Ferrari lol….20 years from now ???? I couldn’t even begin to guess.

-- Don S.E. OK

Thanks for the review, Don. I have a Delta benchtop now and am considering going with at least a 15 inch model down the road. This looks like a pretty good machine, especially with the spiral cutterhead.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

You done a good deal Don and should be real happy with its performance.

-- I will just keep doing it till I get it right.

I’ve had a GO453 for a while now and I’ve had some problems with snipe. Are you finding any in your work?

-- Measure twice, cut once, buy extra stock.

Rileysdad, No I have not yet. Of course I have not ran all the much through it yet, or it could be the cutter head. I have heard that the spiral cutter head would cut down on snipe.

-- Don S.E. OK

great review – I think the major difference in noise and vibration between this one and your old delta is the fact the motor more than the spiral cutter. If I recall – the lunchbox planers are using Universal motor assembly- which ARE loud and hyperactive. :)

glad you’re enjoying your new board maker.looks like a keeper. I doubt you’ll need to upgrade this one in 20 years.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Thanks Purplev…..I agree, unless it dies out on me…I doubt I will ever need to upgrade…unless it is to “Up” size….I will say one thing….this thing is HEAVY, I am use to me little Delta…this thing weighs over 300 lbs, could be another reason why it does not vibrate, lol.

-- Don S.E. OK

Hey Don
Good Review bud . I’m glad it’s working out for you. I’ve had had the 20” spiral for close to two years and I was amazed at how quite it was and smooth the cut was.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Thanks Jim,
No kidding about how smooth and quite it is…..I was simple amazed….I normally had to put on ear muffs when I ran my old Delta….and NEVER ran it late at night for fear of making the neighbors mad. I have a terrible case of insomnia…..and even though I am known to work in my shop late at night…I never ran any of my equipment that would annoy the neighbors…..As it is with all this new “Quite” stuff….I may NEVER get to bed, lol.

-- Don S.E. OK

Hi Don

Glad to hear you are happy with your new planer. It is kind of nice to be able to buy new equipment. I sometimes wish I could go with some bigger equipment but space is a limiting factor. You enjoy that new piece of equipment!

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Thanks Tom !!!!

I added a warning to my original review, and thought I would re-add it here for those who already read the review, and are thinking of doing the same thing I did…Buying the unit with a bladed cutter head with the idea of changing it out for a spiral cutter head to save money.

I am pretty good in the mechanical area, and could rebuild a diesel tractor engine almost before I could walk, lol. BUT if your not mechanically inclined…do NOT do this !!! Changing out the cutter head is way more complicated than just taking out a few bolts, you will have to strip the machine almost all the way down.

-- Don S.E. OK

I’ve got this planer without the spiral head cutter, and I’m real happy with it. Rileysdad, if you lower the bed rollers down to only about .002” rather than what’s recommended, it will cut your snipe down to nothing, provided your infeed and outfeed tables are aligned correctly. Don, let us know how long those spiral head cutters go before replacement.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

Don,
I have had the G0453Z for about a year now and am extremely happy with it. The spiral carbide cutters are so quiet and smooth. I have run a lot of quarter sawn oak, cumaru, walnut. cocobolo, cypress, pine and other wood and it does such a great job on all with no snipe after playing around with various adjustments of the infeed and outfeed tables.
I know you will be happy as a termite in a sawdust pile with yours!

-- Each and Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. Greg Little

So, what’s the advantage with Spiral-Cutterhead is it worth the extra $$$ ? It seems it would take longer to adjust those?
THX

-- Router è ancora il mio nome.

Routerisstillmyname,
Well it comes out smooth as glass. In the long run from what I hear it is actually cheaper…depending on what you run through it and how much you use the machine…these blades can last for years. As far as adjusting….there is no adjusting…no setting up etc etc etc. Each blade has four sides, when they get dull you just loosen the screws and rotate the blades. If you hit a piece of metal in the wood, instead of changing out ALL the blades, you can either rotate the ones that were damaged…or change out only the ones that were damaged.

Here is a picture of the cutter head on my Jointer, the planer head is 7” wider and about twice as big around, but other than that, they look enough alike to give you they general idea.

Each cutter blade has a little index at one corner, so you can keep track of where you rotated them. And while the picture does not do it justice (Cutter blades look small) each blade is about a half inch across and a 1/4 inch thick, darn thing looks like a meat grinder.

-- Don S.E. OK

Congratulations on your spirals : )
I hope to get at least an 8” spiral jointer by next year …I am also toying with the idea of a 10” or 12” model , but I think I’ll be limited by the size of my shop : (

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

Thanks Dusty,
I love both of my new spirals…I also wanted a ten inch jointer….but space and $$$$ was a big factor.

-- Don S.E. OK

Don, thanks for the great review. I have some questions for you and i think you are the perfect person to answer. I also have been using the dewalt 12 1/2 table top planer for some years now and i am thinking of doing the exact same thing as you did including changing out the cutter heads. A google search led me to your review and lumberjocks. How does the grizzly handle snipe compaired to the dewalt? I’ve read some reviews about the outfeed rollers leving marks on the surface were the dewalt with rubber rollers did not. What was your first reaction to this after living with a planer that did not leave marks?

-- Mike, Westport MA.

Eastside,
Sorry I did not notice your question. I did have a problem at first with the rollers leavings marks….lucky I was just using cut offs to set everything with. If you just follow the directions…there is four adjustments for the roller pressure…once you set it to the factory recomended settings of roller pressure, all you have to do is play with it untill you get it were you want it. after just a few adjustments…..it left no marks at all. But if you run the roller presure to tight it will leave little marks. Also “IF” you buy the Grizzly planer…..the grease the hell out of it to keep away rust untill it is sold. The rollers are coated with grease and are kind of a pain to clean up.

-- Don S.E. OK

Thanks Don, I’ve been researching more about this planer and I think I’m going to order one in the next few weeks. I’m probably going to order the Byrd shelix cutter head which has a shearing cut. It’s on sale now and the company that makes it will match Grizzly’s price and throw in free shipping to! I downloaded the install instructions from Grizzly and it does look like an all day job but doable. I know what you mean about the grease I bought the Grizzly shaper a month ago and it was loaded. I used lacquer thinner.

-- Mike, Westport MA.

I have the planer also. I’m wondering if everyone is buying the Rotatrator from Grizzly to do the setup. The cost is $99 from Grizzly. I experienced the same issue with snipe when I set the bed rollers to .010. I think .002 is correct but hard to measure with feeler gauges.

Thanks
Bob

I own a grizzly 12 inch and a 15 inch had the 12 inch about 10 years had 1 bearing co bad, ordered a new one and it came in 4 days I have had the 15 inch6 years and not a bit of trobble have change the blades one time. I only run hard wood thru it.I needed to run wider lumber thru it . tat is way I got two planers I realy like them both.no snip on the 15 inch at all good luck

Chuck

-- Chuck, wiswood2 www.wisconsinwoodchuck.com

Thanks again guys.

Bob,
I am going to buy a Rotatrator, more and more of my equipment is needing to be fine tuned, so I think it will be a great addition to help. I am lucky though in the fact I have a set of machinest feeler gauges that go down to .002.

eastside,
As far as the H7768 15” Shelix Cutterhead Vs. the H7655 15” Index Spiral Cutterhead, since it is on sale, it sounds like a good deal. but after having two different Grizzly tools with their “In house” cutter head, I could not be more happy with them. I am not saying anything bad what so ever about the Shelix cutterheads as I am sure they are great. But for the preformance I have been getting with the Grizzly heads I don’t think I would even spend the extra $50 for the upgrade. In another review I did over a jointer http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/705, about a third of the way down where Todd A. Clippinger makes a post and for a few down, we talk about the differance between the Shelix and the Grizzly cutter heads.

-- Don S.E. OK

eastside,
I forgot you also asked about the snipe. Before I changed out the cutter head, as I was doing all of the adjustments, I did notice a small amount of snipe. But like has already been said several times, after you do the factory recomended adjustments…then do some playing. The factory recomended setting for the roller table is between .010 and .020…even at .010 it left a small amount of snipe. After I set them between .002 and .004 all snipe disapeard. I then changed out the cutter head for the spirial and everything worked great.

-- Don S.E. OK

Ok it’s settled I’m going to order a new planner and put the spiral heads in. I enjoy reading the reviews and comments from everyone, glad I found lumberjocks. Eventually I’ll put some pictures of work on the home page. Still undecided on the Shelix or the Grizzly head. The only reason for the Shelix is that it cuts with a shearing action and it might just eliminate some chatter but after reading the jointer review Don suggested it seems everyone seems to have no trouble with the grizzly. After saving on shipping it’s just $30.00 more but if it doesn’t come with the T handle and extra cutters like the grizzly then it’s a deal breaker.

-- Mike, Westport MA.

eastside Glad we could help….I am sure you will be MORE than happy with your purchase.

-- Don S.E. OK

Hi all,
I recently picked up the Grizzly G0453Z planer and spent all day yesterday setting it up. I have checked and tuned the infeed and outfeed rollers, as well as the table rollers to factor specs according to the manual. I have run a few test boards through the machine, but find that it leaves marks (run the width of the board all the way from front to back of the board) that look like it’s caused by the serrated infeed roller. Any suggestions or experience dealing with this?

Thanks,
planesmooth

-- Planesmooth from TX

It is the infeed rollers most likely. After running a piece through run it again without changing the table height. The blades won’t cut but you can get a good idea of how much roller pressure is on the board. This should be very minimum but will leave slight marks on pine and no marks on hard wood. You can also see how much the roller lifts by looking at the springs on the end of the roller (that’s were the adjustment is). If they are fine lines then it might be the out feed roller. After that you can always fine tune from their depending on the type of work you do most.

-- Mike, Westport MA.

planesmooth,
I agree with eastside....as has been stated already in this review…..the bed rollers, if set at what the book says (at .010 to .020) will leave snipe…set it between .004 and .002…and the spring pressure for the feed rollers is also to tight (if set at factory specs.)...which is causing your marks in the wood. I just ran scrap wood through mine over and over playing with the spring pressure till it left no marks at all, but still had plenty of power to pull the wood through.

eastside...how is it going with your spiral cutter head….did you get the new one yet…and if so did it make a difference ?

-- Don S.E. OK

Just a note. I purchased the Rototractor from Grizzly. They sure do deliver quickly. It made adjusting the bed roller very easy. However the one of my roller cams must be defective because when I adjust to .002 and tighten down the set screw, the roller moves back to .004. So I set them both to .004. I still get a little snipe on occassion. I also get the feed roller marks on the first pass with pine but it is eliminated with the second and third passes. The surface cut is amazingly smooth with te spiral cutter head. I don’t see a reason to even sand. For me it is important to hold the backend of the board against the infeed table until the board is coming out from the planner.

Eastside and Don K.,

Thanks for the advice. It played with the rollers height and got them to feed the wood without leaving an marks.

-- Planesmooth from TX

planesmooth,
Very glad to here it. And welcome to L/J’s by the way !!!

-- Don S.E. OK

Don,
Thanks for the review. I have been looking for a planer and was trying to decide between a bench top (DeWalt 735) or a stand alone with bigger capacity. You convinced me that bigger is better. I have had limited exposure to Grizzly tools, so this helps a lot. I noticed that Grizzly’s latest add in the November WOOD magazine has the machine on sale for $850 and free shipping. Seriously considering placing that order. Of course, at 675 pounds, I will have an interesting time getting it back to my workshop over 100 feet of lawn.

-- AJJ, Eugene OR

Don
I called grizzly last night and they told me that the planer was on sale for $850 but the shipping cost was $144. Did you order the planer and get free shipping??
I saw the ad you are referring to also in wood magazine.

I just ordered it and you have to call in the order to use the wood magizine issue 194 “pricing code” and I got it for $850 FREE shipping.

-- Jeffrey P

thanks for the info. I will be interested to know now you like your new planer. I am debating on whether to place the order myself. That is a fantastic price. Did they charge extra for a liftgate or was that a concern for you?