# I like it but need to learn its quirks.



## MedicKen

Burl is really hard to plane, joint etc. The grain is all over the place. I have found for difficult areas or boards to take VERY light cuts, slightly skew the piece or dampen it with water. The water will soften the fibers and not tear as bed.


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## AttainableApex

good tip on the water ken


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## rsdowdy

Bill,

I have the G0490 8" Jointer. When you say: "The safety on the operator side isn't mounted properly so even when fully closed some of the cutter is exposed." You are referring to when you move the fence in a ew inches and then the safety guard won't close all the way, right? In order for that safety to close all the way, the fence has to be towrd the rear of the bed. If you find that you will want the fence foward of the bed most the time you use the cutter, maybe the Safety Guard for a smaller Grizzly Jointer would work? I'm just now starting to use my jointer and have throughly enjoyed it.

Royal


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## dbhost

Well, if you don't like that Planer / jointer combo, you could always store it in my shop! That is on my wish list… But yes, the issue with the guard is a bit of a concern…

As far as the burl goes. you are going to get tear out when jointing / planing. The grain isn't all going one way, and if the grain is going the wrong way the knives will get under it… You are far better off using a thickness sander on burl…


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## schuft

I had heard the spiral cutter was supposed to handle interlocked grain better than a straight blade cutter. Is that not the case, or is walnut burl just that much tougher?


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## bill4123

DANGIT! I forgot about thickness sanding! It's a good thing I can still go a little thinner on these boards so I can run them through the drum sander. It never occured to me to use it since the non-wild-grained parts of the boards had such a smooth finish I was going to go straight to hand sanding.

As for the cutter guard…when the fence is all the way back I have about 1 cutter exposed at the infeed edge of the guard. When the fence is about halfway towards the operator I have maybe 2 cutters exposed. If the guard was shifted to the infeed end but about 1"-2" you would still have the entire cutter covered by the outfeed edge of the guard…move the fence toward the operator and you would still have the whole assembly covered. I intend to call Grizzly with my concern but I can't seem to find the time between work and using this machine  . It bothers me enough that I might try drilling and tapping a hole on the edge of the table further towards the infeed and shifting the guard slightly and seeing how well that works.

My review above is going to be a review in progress so I'll be periodically updating it.


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## charlton

Isn't this the G0634XP jointer/planer instead of the G0634Z?

I have the same jointer and for the most part the machine seems excellent. That said, I'll need to do more tests to give a verdict on the cutterhead. I think the inserts are spaced way too far apart and give you almost effectively just a single blade around the cutterhead. Grizzly changed the configuration of the cutterhead so that it is more like the Holbren in that the blades are actually rotated to give a shearing cut. I'm finding that there is tearout even on non-figured stock which has me a bit concerned.


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## bill4123

Nope, this is definately the G0634Z. Take a close look at the picture of the cutter guard and you'll see the spiral cutter head. There is definately a spiral to the little cutters, however, there is a reason the Jet model costs more…

The Grizzly model has:
22 fpm planer feed rate…too fast for burly black walnut and some parts of a tame piece of cherry  .
32 cutters…the gaps between the cutters leave obvious streaks where the wood is cut slightly differently unless you spend tons of time and money sanding  .

The Jet model has:
12 fpm planer feed rate…yes please! 
56 cutters…yes please!


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## charlton

Is the first photo not a photo of your own jointer? The front of the machine has G0634XP written on it. The G0634XP has an end-mounted fence (as opposed to centre-mounted) and includes the spiral cutterhead.

Agreed about the cutters. 32 is too little.


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## bill4123

Thank you for pointing out the mismatch in model numbers. I have edited the title accordingly. I didn't grab the model number from the front of the machine or the Grizzly site but rather from an ad in the front of a magazine. The Grizzly site shows it as the XP model. Either way, the manual covers both the spiral and 3-knife cutters so the machine is the same otherwise.


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## charlton

Yeah, the Z and the XP are basically the same machine except for the fence being centre-mounted and the XP being end-mounted. Both have spiral heads. The regular 634 (no suffix) has straight knives.


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## JLP

I have the same jointer/planer (Grizzly 634XP). Aesthetically it is a nice machine, and is impressive in weight and fit and finish. However, I am like Bill, the machine has it's little quirks. Snipe is always a problem and surface finish doesn't seem to be what I expected. But, I can live with that. What I don't understand though, is that it clearly says it is a 12" planer, but that is not the case. There is only 11 1/2" between the guard rails on the planer bed. I did face joint a 12" board, but when I flipped it over and prepared the machine for "Plane", my board would't fit. I made a "booster" board to raise the workpiece above the guard rails, and was able to plane it. This was a real dissappointment. I haven't contacted Grizzly about this. Mainly because I don't know what they could do about it, and I don't want to return the machine. For some obscure reason I've grown attached to the machine and will continue to be proud to own it, but if you are counting on a full 12" planing capacity, you will be disappointed. By the way, I have mine mounted on the "Rough Terrain" Rockler mobile base and it works like a charm. joe


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## charlton

Agreed. My comments having used the machine now for quite a bit:

1. Fit and finish is pretty good.
2. I feel they cheaped out on the cutterhead (the number of cutters is way too low and hence the propensity for tearout).
3. The porkchop cutter guard is pretty bad. It clearly isn't the right shape to keep the cutterhead covered over the width of the jointer (I modelled what it should be and the shape is very different). The guard has a ledge and thin stock can sometimes get caught under it. There is also no way to control the spring tension of the guard so it can come slamming back on the fence pretty hard (unless you reposition the guard every time you move the fence).
4. The planer speed, as noted is too fast to yield a truly good finish so the tip provided by Bill is what I do as well. 
5. Dust collection isn't too good in jointer mode as quite a few shavings fall to the table underneath (maybe my DC is too weak).

Anyway, it's got its quirks but I, too, still like it.


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## RCW

I just ordered this machine thanks for the review. I had previously used the Jet 10" bench top planer/jointer combo so this will be much bigger heavier tool to use. It's back ordered until Nov, 05th 2019 and I should have it a week or so after that. I was hoping to get it before the snow falls in N.H but oh well.


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