Grizzly Planer: G0544 20" Pro Spiral Cutterhead Planer

submarinesailor · January 09, 2009, 06:56:15 AM

Me thinks its time for a short road trip. ;) ;) Dan is just up the road. I wonder just how much black walnut and cherry the 250 can carry????

Hey Dan.......................... ;D ;D ;D

Bruce

Norm · January 09, 2009, 07:23:22 AM

Way to go Dan!

I'm amazed they had it in stock. Almost everything I've ever bought from them was on backorder for some time. The last tool I bought from them was my planer. Sure enough they said it's backorder for a month. I said enough of this if you list it you need to stock it, cancel the order. Then about a month later here shows up this semi with a huge crate on it. I couldn't stand to see it sitting there in that cold truck so I brought it home. :D

TexasTimbers · January 09, 2009, 11:07:34 AM

Norm you canceled the order and it came anyway. ???

Norm · January 09, 2009, 01:18:43 PM

Yep, but I'm a soft touch....how many of you could turn away a lonely planer. :D

Dodgy Loner · January 09, 2009, 03:00:50 PM

Nice looking tool! 8) I want one :-\

TexasTimbers · January 09, 2009, 06:15:34 PM

Good thing you had not got one elsewhere in t he meantime. Oh well t hat wouldn't be a problem. How many shops have His & Hers planers. You could have painted one pink and enscribed across it Patty's Pink Planer. ;D

Don_Papenburg · January 09, 2009, 09:14:33 PM

You causin trouble Tex . Now Norm will have to buy a new planer and paint it pink

Don_Papenburg · January 09, 2009, 09:28:05 PM

My buddy in the UP has a General 12" jointer with spiral insert cutter . He has had it for five years now . It gets used almost on a daily basis. He told me that he has changed once . He also said that you will not get to use four sides as the wood will wear on the side of the cutter also . It may be ok if you do not work highly figured woods like he does . I can tell you that even if you only use two sides of the cutters it would be worth every penny to be able to slide a 10or 12" board over the cutter and not have it beating your hands as the blade makes contact and doing it quietly and effortlesly.

WDH · January 09, 2009, 10:56:29 PM

Pecan is killing (has just about killed) my little Dewalt portable planer. It is on its last legs. I am going to have to buy a real planer. Dan, that is a real planer ;D.

TexasTimbers · January 10, 2009, 12:19:35 AM

Don that is an interesting tidbit. Had I known that maybe I should have turned my inserts 180° instead of 90°. Then the wear would be closer to even for the third turn of 90°, and then 180° for the fourth. Theoretically, but it would not work out that way of course as far as dead even wear.

I have to say though, I do not have any lines or weird patterns from just having turned them 90°.

crtreedude · January 10, 2009, 04:52:56 AM

We have both Helix spiral and the Grizzly (the Grizzly is an 8 inch joiner) - and we rotate the inserts, no problems that anyone has mentioned.

A lot of the wood we pass through would never go with a regular head.

BBTom · January 10, 2009, 07:49:12 AM

It has been my experience that carbide edge will last 10 - 20 times what a steel blade edge will last. Now multiply that by four sides of the insert and you should agree that carbide inserts are inexpensive.

Dan_Shade · January 11, 2009, 08:43:17 AM

This thing is nice, I got it wired in yesterday and took a video of the first "full length" board to go through it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAhzLBtbR-s

this one is a little shorter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uUJbfvJdrQ

pigman · January 11, 2009, 08:58:56 AM

Well Dan, I can't see the video until I get to the library since I am on dialup , but I got to ask, do you like the planer.

Dan_Shade · January 11, 2009, 08:59:55 AM

I wanted to plane every board I had, a complete opposite feeling from using the old delta 22-580!

Norm · January 11, 2009, 09:06:25 AM

Nice! But now I have planer envy. :D

What size of dust collector are you using and do you feel like it was enough?

Dan_Shade · January 11, 2009, 09:14:31 AM

The planer is in a friend's shop, he has a Bill Pentz style clear cyclone with a 5hp (I think) motor on it.

the chips built up in the first video because I forgot to open the gate... they disappeared after I opened it. I think the dust collection is adequate, it's running through a 6" pipe to the planer.

the only thing I don't like is the gauge is hard to read, and from what I figured yesterday (need to look at it again), 19 turns of the wheel makes an inch... stupid metric system....

TexasTimbers · January 11, 2009, 02:09:45 PM

Quote from: Dan_Shade on January 11, 2009, 09:14:31 AM. . . . 19 turns of the wheel makes an inch... stupid metric system....

Dan,

I hooked up a spare 1/2" variable drill to my hand crank (cut the two 90s off the handle). Talk about fast.

Dan_Shade · January 11, 2009, 03:00:23 PM

I don't care about the speed, my complaint is 1/19", it would sure be nice if one crank were a 1/16" inch

TexasTimbers · January 11, 2009, 05:13:22 PM

Sometimes ya gotta spell it out for me. I didn't stop to think that 19 turns per inch, would equal 1/19th of an inch per turn. :

It's Sunday. A day of (brain) rest.

tim1234 · January 11, 2009, 06:56:20 PM

Nice Planer.

I've got the 15" with the spiral cutterhead (GO453Z) and have not used it much yet. I had dust collector issues. I had chips coming down on top of the board and getting mashed into the wood by the outfeed roller. I noticed a little bit of chips at the end of the first video, but you said you didn't have the gate open so I assume that is why you had some chips on the board.

Since then I re-made my home made cyclone seperator top and adjusted fine tuned all the rollers using a dial indicator and the video someone posted about making the little triangle jig. worked great. I just got a grizzly dial indicator from my kids for christmas so I don't have to borrow it from work again.

I was getting the lines from the outfeed roller on the planed stock as mentioned on the fist page of your post, but I havn't run a board since I adjusted the pressure on the infeed and outfeed rollers. Do you see any marks from the rollers? They are really sharp on the grizzly's.

Tim

Tim

Dan_Shade · January 11, 2009, 07:20:18 PM

the outfeed roller has a machined surface. I've barely used the machine. I'll report back as I use it more.

Dan_Shade · February 17, 2022, 08:59:19 AM

I've been using the planer for about 12 years now (minus a few years that I had to put it in storage).

It's a nice planer. It will trip the breakers, but I think I need to rotate the inserts.

Keeping the table waxed helps a lot.

flatrock58 · February 25, 2022, 09:54:37 PM

I have that planer and the only problem I see with it is the outfeed roller. It is a slick steel roller that will slip at times. I would much rather it be a rubber coated roller

Brad_bb · February 26, 2022, 12:51:35 AM

I bought the same planer and it arrived first week of January. Still in the crate though until we get more building materials out from being stored in the shop.