New machine on the way...

dave g · Nov 22, 2011

So after about a one year break from making proper wooden ukes (as opposed to banjo ukes) I've started back up again with a couple concerts begun this past weekend. It only took half an hour or so of hand feeding my home made thickness sander to convince me that I need to upgrade (what a PITA standing in front of that thing is!).

This morning I'd narrowed it down to the Jet 10-20 and (as a distant second) the Grizzly G0716. Spent a couple hours reading manuals and reviews and in the end went with the Grizzly.

The biggest apparent drawback to the Grizzly, as far as luthier work is concerned, is the published 1/4" minimum work thickness. I think they are just being overly cautious or something though - according to the manual there is a stop screw which you can adjust to "keep the drum from hitting the belt" (I'm paraphrasing), and the recommendation is to go with 1/4" clearance. I don't see why it can't be adjusted down to 1/16"... I'll find out soon enough

Other factors: The Grizzly is made out of cast iron and weighs 159 pounds, the Jet from steel and weighs 79 pounds. I like heavy iron things. The Grizzly comes with a stand with wheels, no stand at all with the Jet. Not the deciding factor, but nonetheless a factor, the Jet would cost around 300 bucks more when all is said and done.

Being a holiday week I'm sure I won't get it till mid *next* week; I'll report back then

.

resoman · Nov 22, 2011

I bought that Grizzly thickness sander and it won't go down thinner than advertized even when you drop the stop so I use a carrier board underneath. I haven't had to double sticky tape it but the machine won't take too heavy a cut before it wants to stall out anyways. It's OK for what I am doing and the quantities I am running through it but one of my cabinet friends has a sander that has two rollers on it. One coarse and one fine roller. Very nice :drool:

Pete Howlett · Nov 22, 2011

My Jet 10-20 worked great until the bolts holding the head detached themselves from their fixing. Getting the assembly back in place was a nightmare and now I can barely sand down to 1.85mm with the last 6mm being very 'sticky'. I will have to service this machine thoroughly soon. My advice - make sure it is properly put together and set up. It's a great machine - use only cloth backed sanding paper in it!

resoman · Nov 22, 2011

Changing the paper in the Grizzly was a PITA. Perhaps they have made it easier since I bought mine but threading the end of the paper into the clamp where it needs to go had me pullin my hair. The drive side is the worst and once you figure how it goes it's not as bad but the space is small and if you have big hands it makes it tougher. I had to shim under the table on the drive side to get the table and the roller parallel.

Rick Turner · Nov 22, 2011

Performax?

I used to have a Woodmaster and it was very good for limited production. Now I have a big wide-belt sander, and it's great...but needs a major overhaul after 7 years of hard labor.

Timbuck · Nov 22, 2011

Pete Howlett said:
I will have to service this machine thoroughly soon.

Thats what i've been doing for the last couple of days..oiling and greasing lathe chucks shafts and slides and bearings..adjusting gibbstrips.. replacing dodgy roller bearings..and and removing rust and touching up paint..if you want em to last you've got to look after e'm

One of the lathes dates back to 1912 and still performs great...
And Dave I think i've have gone for the Grizzly myself co's I like cast iron stuff as well but I dont know a supplier in the UK...But my Jet 10-20 still works fine.

Rick Turner · Nov 22, 2011

The issue with at least some Grizzly stuff is not the iron, it's everything else...plastic handles on adjustments that break, underpowered motors, weird internal parts not aligning, bearings going prematurely bad. And sometime it is the iron...like threads in cast iron tearing out. I'm not sure that I'll ever buy any more tools from Grizzly. Jet, even ShopFox, and the import Powermatic and Delta stuff is likely better. I could have bought a Grizzly resaw with all the fancy readouts and motorized conveyor height stuff; ditto on a wide belt sander. I went with more expensive and simpler stuff made in the USA...a Baker resaw and a Halsty (now SafetySpeedCut) wide belt sander, and I'm not sorry for either expensive purchase (actually lease-purchase)...$14,000.00 per machine, and both have paid for themselves. This is kind of like going for Festool hand held power tools. Outrageously expensive...unless you use them every day for years...and then they are inexpensive for how much work you get out of them.

Pete Howlett · Nov 22, 2011

Trouble is I need you here Ken to show me how to do it properly - I'm an autodidact when it comes to this stuff...

dave g · Nov 27, 2011

17 1/2 hours 'till the truck is supposed to be here

dave g · Nov 28, 2011

From the big truck to my little truck, uncrated and lifted up, waiting for me to assemble the stand:

dave g · Nov 28, 2011

So far so good! Adjusting it to go down to under a 1/16" was as easy as I hoped.

resoman · Nov 28, 2011

How did you do that??? Even when I dropped the stop screw I couldn't get it to go anywhere near that low.

Timbuck · Nov 28, 2011

Come on Dave !..You know I like machines :drool: more than ukulele's..More pic's please..I'm waiting for the arrival of an X,Y, milling table to add to my collection

dave g · Nov 28, 2011

More pics!

Ready to lower it onto the stand:

Set in it's place, shop vac connected:

Proof that it will go to a sixteenth:

I dunno - maybe I just lucked out or something, but even if it wouldn't adjust down that far it would be a trivial matter to shim the conveyor assembly up to meet the drum. There are four screws holding it in place; just loosen them and put in four 1/4" spacers to get it up where it needs to be. *Do* make sure the drum can't actually contact the conveyor - that would be bad...

I've snugged up the gibs, and I think it will work fine without using that outrigger clamp thing (I have not been using it).

I'm quite impressed so far - this thing is going to save me a ton of time!

dave g · Nov 28, 2011

Timbuck said:
...I'm waiting for the arrival of an X,Y, milling table to add to my collection

Better than this sort, I hope:

OK for milling wood or plastic I suppose, but trying to do metal with it led me to get this little guy:

... to complement this little guy:

dave g · Nov 28, 2011

... Useful for doing silly things like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtTsjXTqrRA

Pete Howlett · Nov 29, 2011

And what is happening to that monster you built a couple of years ago?

dave g · Nov 29, 2011

Pete Howlett said:
And what is happening to that monster you built a couple of years ago?

I dunno... might stash it away in a corner, might try to sell it. Might keep using it for head stocks only...

Timbuck · Nov 29, 2011

I have one of those Cross vise thingies i bought it a couple of years ago..It was a piece of junk when i got it, until I dismantled it, re-machined the slides.. made new gibbs and replaced the screws..added a vernier rule to it..and now it's ok and I use it for some accurate machining jobs..but the new milling table is going to replace it.

dave g · Nov 30, 2011

Timbuck said:
I have one of those Cross vise thingies i bought it a couple of years ago..It was a piece of junk when i got it, until I dismantled it, re-machined the slides.. made new gibbs and replaced the screws..added a vernier rule to it..and now it's ok and I use it for some accurate machining jobs..but the new milling table is going to replace it.

Is it there yet? Let's see it! :drool:

New machine on the way...

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