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Grizzly 24” planer vs Woodmaster 725

Started by dean herring, August 05, 2018, 10:54:34 AM

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dean herring

Got to get a new planer and need advice.
Grizzly 24", weighs 1130# and only planes boards.
Woodmaster 725 weighs 693# and planes and has gang saw option which is good but just how good is the sawing capability? Being basically half the weight of the Grizzly how much vibration? How thick and how many can it rip at once?
I will be needing it to plane hardwood countertops, some of which will be hickory.

Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

pineywoods

No experience with the grizzly, but I just finished re-building a woodmaster 725 for a neighbor and I have a 718 with the gang rip. The saws are 4 inch which limits the thickness to under 2 inches. The blades are mounted on a husky steel shaft, as many as you want, the option comes with 2 blades. You are welcome to come hands on mine, or I can take you down to the neighbor with the 725. Also have in my shop for rebuild a 712 with the dual router option, but it's in un-usable condition...
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

uler3161

Can't comment on the 725, but I have the 718 which I imagine is somewhat similar. Gang saws take very little power relative to planing, so you should be able to run as many as you want. As for thickness, the 718 has 1" and 2" saws. I don't know if that's the same on the 725. I usually only saw finished dimension (3/4 or 1 1/2). I did run some that I think were around 1 3/4 and they barely were able to cut through.

Never really noticed vibration problems, though I'd recommend anchoring it to a concrete slab. 
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

dean herring

Thanks  
Mr. Piney if I can get caught up I would love to come visit.
Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
How does the Woodmaster do as a sander?
Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

Southside

Can't tell you about the gang rip on a 725 - I use my Riehl for that sort of work, but as a planer she is quite the machine.  I had the same exact concerns with the weight - it's a non issue.  I use mine to pre-size material going into my 4 head, so when working she sees a continuous feed of 1" or 2" ash, oak, pine for the most part, 4" wide to 10" wide, almost always over 8' long, a lot push 16'.  Zero vibration issues and I don't have it bolted down.  I have fed some 25" material through it with no problems as well, other than making sure it was perfectly lined up and I had to remove the poly side guides.  I did have mine upgraded to the farm duty motor and have the traditional planer blades - I personally prefer those since I can sharpen them myself.  

Actually have to run a bunch of pine tomorrow 11" and 8" wide, 12' and 16' long through it.  
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

opticsguy

I own and use a 20" grizzly planer and am very impressed with how solid the machine is.  I use this as an amateur woodworker, not a pro.  The 20" will plane up to 8" thickness.  No experience with a wood-master.
TK 1220 band mill,  1952 Ford F-2, 1925 Dodge touring, too many telescopes.

teakwood

A rule of thumb on planers is the heavier the better, although i don't know any of the mentioned machines. I also have a 20" grizzly and would often love to have a bigger, heavier more powerful machine. If professionally used segmented infeed rollers are a must!  
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

Brad_S.

 This isn't directly related to your question  but I'm throwing it out as a price consideration point. 

I have had a grizzly 20 inch planer on order for over four months. It was due to ship next week but I just got a notice from grizzly that the price is going up due to the tariffs on Chinese imports. That may make a USA made machine look better. 
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

Southside

I was on that same list for 6 months, then got another delay notification. Cancelled the order and in 18 days my 725 was in the driveway. 

I bought a big Grizzly bandsaw about a decade ago and have been very happy with it, so I went back to them initially. Things appear to have changed there. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

dean herring

Thank you all for the information 
I'm going to look at a 725. I hope I like it I sure like the fact that Woodmaster is built in the America 
Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

opticsguy

The situation with Grizzly is fairly simple. 
The company and companies that produce machinery for Grizzly are in the midst of upgrading their facilities and are now dealing with environmental requirements to reduce pollution in China.  Thus machinery has not been in production and Grizzly does not have some machinery to sell.
The recent increased tariffs has also resulted in increased prices for us consumers as machinery becomes available.
Machinery in stock comes in at the catalog price. Items coming in after the tariffs are activated will be about 25% more in Cost. 
Grizzly is simply stuck in the middle. 
TK 1220 band mill,  1952 Ford F-2, 1925 Dodge touring, too many telescopes.

low_48

I had miserable luck with an 18" bandsaw from Grizzly. They should never have shipped that machine, both cast iron wheels were so far out of balance, nothing would stay on the table. In fact the castings were so bad, they were only partially machined. Lost all confidence in their quality. They can sell cheaper because the customer is their quality control and machine repairman. Go with the Woodmaster, they are much more likely to have one is stock.

By the way, Grizzly isn't happy with me repeatedly telling this story on the internet. I am now black balled there and they refuse to sell me anything else. At least we both are in agreement with that policy.

Brad_S.

Dean,  did you make a decision yet? I am still vacillating on whether to swallow the tariff charge or cancel my grizzly order and look at another machine.  Even with the tour of charge, the grizzly seems like the biggest bang for the buck that I have seen.  And money is very tight these days so price point matters. 
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

Southside

Ironically I had a siding order last week that was different enough from the standard clapboard I make that I could not make it work on my re-saw and was too thin for my 4 head. A light bulb went off in my head and I ordered a moulding blade for my 725, did the job perfectly and I gained a valuable customer and a whole new siding market. I never intended to use the 725 for anything more than a planner and could not have made that order on the Grizzly I had planned to buy.
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

dean herring

Hadn't yet ,just can't seem to make up my mind. 
Woodmaster is made in America and I like that and does more than just plane boards. I found in my research that the drum sander that could be better.
Would like to see how the gang saw works. Just how many can you saw at once.
Grizzly is made in China or Taiwan,I don't like that. Its heavier than the Woodmaster and actually looks better built. So I just don't know 
Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

YellowHammer

Is it the Grizzly with 5 Hp?  I have a 201HH Powermatic, with 7.5 hp, Byrd spiral head and I would not want any less horsepower.  If you are surfacing hickory countertops, full width, it will take all the power the machine has.  Of course, you can take smaller bites, but my guess would be 1/16" or less at full width with 5 Hp.  

A very useful feature of a larger planer is segmented infeed, which allows feeding of different height boards, simultaneously.  That's also where hp makes a big difference, these bigger planers don't have to be fed one board at a time, usually they are fed as many as they can hold, so in practice they will plane 3 six inch boards at one time as opposed to one six inch board at a time for 3X production rate.  That takes power because they can be fed max width, all the time.

Snipe is a constant issue and will butcher the last couple inches of a board or your countertop if the machine doesn't have and adequate pressure bar adjustment.  Problem is, the heavier the piece, the important the strength and adjustability of the pressure bar come into play.  

Adjustable bed rollers are critical, in my opinion, as sometime they need to be pulled down into the bed for finish planing, but need to be quickly raised a little for better feeding of rough sawn or uneven boards.  

I believe, and I may be mistaken because I looked at them several years ago, but the Grizzley 24" is based on the old style Baker planer, which was a workhorse.  Of course, the newer Planer's have gone away from that design to the more upright design, but it's still a good design.  I don't know anything about the Woodmaster.  I believe @WDH has a Grizzly like that, but I'm not sure the size, but he has planed a lot of wood with it.  

I've had another Grizzly Planer before and thought it was pretty good, although underpowered.  Personally, I wouldn't want any less Hp for a heavy duty planer than 7.5, which is adequate in my Powermatic, but I'd rather have 10hp, but that requires 3 phase.  

Just some thoughts to probably confuse the issue.  

 


YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

teakwood

National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

WDH

My Grizzly GO544 has been a real workhorse.  Planed close to 80,000 bf through it and I am only on the second set of inserts.  Mine is 20" capacity with a 2 hp feed motor and a separate 5 hp cutterhead motor.  This one of the largest Grizzly planers that operate on single phase.  The next level requires three phase.  

The 20" shop planers with a single 5 hp motor are underpowered for a production planer.  
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

DR_Buck

I have the Woodmaster 718 and have not had any problems in over 15 years of use.   I replaced the blades with the spiral head option about 10 years ago.  It sure speeds up planning and gives a real nice finish.   I have run my gang saw setup with 3 blades on stuff up to 1.5" at max feed speed.  I have also done a fair amount of molding for window and door casings and baseboards using the molding head or regular blade roller with pattern cutters installed.     Occasionally I use the drum sander option, but not often enough to make a judgment call and since I never used any other drum sander I can't compare.    I recently purchased the router attachment option to do 3 sided molding for making flooring.   I have not used it yet.

I am really happy with the quality and support Woodmaster provides.   I would recommend it to anyone looking for a planer/molder.
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

dean herring

Thanks to all of you for the info
It is VERY helpful
Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

ljmathias

I have the Grizzly 20" planar with 5 hp and spiral head- that head makes all the difference (on us humans too). Planar makes some nice flat and smooth lumber but not without labor. Can't take off very much with each pass- more a feed issue than power problem. Boards get stuck if they're just a little too thick to start. Means I have to make lots of passes to get wood where I want it, even with soft wood like cypress. With oak, even worse.

Overall, for a shop planar, the Grizzly has been worth it. I looked at the Woodmaster hard before I went with Grizzly- just couldn't see myself using the other features much so not worth the extra dollars to me. But then, I'm not a pro wood worker, don't sell much of anything and don't do high production, just for fun and family.

One thing smart I did (and since I don't do many of those, I'll brag on this one): got the dust collector for it. Wow, does a planar make a lot of sawdust and wood chips. I fill up a garbage bag in a couple of hours use. Better in the bag than all over the floor where I have to walk through it and sweep it up.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you find and buy.

LJ
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Brad_S.

Quote from: ljmathias on August 18, 2018, 07:57:07 AM
One thing smart I did (and since I don't do many of those, I'll brag on this one):
:D
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

teakwood

Quote from: ljmathias on August 18, 2018, 07:57:07 AMI have the Grizzly 20" planar with 5 hp and spiral head- that head makes all the difference


I have the same planer also with the spiralhead that i installed afterwards. i can feed mine with thick wood, no problem. it will eat 5mm per pass on a 8" wide board. The grizzly is ok for a shop planer but isn't a production planer. it also lacks of a separated infeed roller and 5hp isn't enough to feed wider boards with deeper cuts
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

123maxbars

Quote from: WDH on August 14, 2018, 10:03:41 AM
My Grizzly GO544 has been a real workhorse.  Planed close to 80,000 bf through it and I am only on the second set of inserts.  Mine is 20" capacity with a 2 hp feed motor and a separate 5 hp cutterhead motor.  This one of the largest Grizzly planers that operate on single phase.  The next level requires three phase.  

The 20" shop planers with a single 5 hp motor are underpowered for a production planer.  
Danny I am looking to buy that same planer, and will probably do it now while I wait on my new mill to be ready.
Is it sill holding up well? Also is there a separate plug in for the feed motor? By reading the specs it looks like it has a 220 and 110 plug.
Are you skip planing your boards on this planer right out of the kiln? @WDH 
Sawyer/Woodworker/Timber Harvester
Woodmizer LT70 Super Wide, Nyle L53 and 200 kiln, too many other machines to list.
outofthewoods
Youtube page
Out of the

WDH

Nathan,

One plug.  Both motors run on 220.  Pulls 35 amps at 220 if I remember correctly.  I have been happy with it, but of course, I wish that I had one that would plane 24" and had more power, but that would require 3-phase.  For standard 4/4, 6/4, 8/4, etc it does fine. When maxed out at 20" wide with a big slab heavy slab like pecan, I cannot take off more than 1/16" per pass, and if the inserts are getting dull, I take off 3/32 per pass.  The finish is excellent.

If you try to hog off too much, it will bog down and trip the motors.  That is not good to do on a regular basis.  I did it one time too many and the cutterhead motor got too hot and I had to replace it.  My fault entirely.  On a max wide slab on the first planing pass, if there are any high spots on the slab, you have to be careful as you might be going along just fine then hit a high spot where your saw blade waved up over a knot, etc.  You have to be quick on the draw and raise the head to keep from bogging down and tripping the motors.  It is easy to quickly raise the head with that big wheel.  When I hear the planer bogging down, I quickly turn the wheel a couple of turns and keep on going.  Once the slab has been through the planer the first time, then everything goes along smoothly after that because the slab is an even thickness from one end to the other.

I use a hydraulic lift table to catch the slab on the outfeed so that it is easy to roll the slab back to the front for another pass without having to lift, tote, or carry a very heavy slab.  This keeps me safe from the old Jake Dean adage of never picking up a slab both ends at the same time :)

With the wide head, you need a 30" planer like Jake's :)
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

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