Received a new tool, one that I have been pondering over for over a year. Several years ago, I had purchased an older 6” delta jointer, and it did a great job, but it had been abused. It was impossible to adjust and keep in alignment. Some of the pieces seemed to be missing. So, sold it for the ridiculously low price I got it for and planned on a replacement. That machine had taught me how to adjust knives, though, and thought hard about getting one with the new helix head and inserts. One year later, the G0490X gets ordered.
Load up of the 8” Grizzly G0490X Jointer went well. I mean that receiving the two boxes at the UPS Freight Terminal went well. The gents there used their fork lifts and some muscle to help me load the boxes that I could barely budge by myself. I would have had the crates delivered to my house, except that their big trucks can’t make up our windy and narrow gravel county road. Some new tie down straps, rated for thousands of pounds, then secured the load, from sliding, or tipping, for the 45 mile trip.
Down load of the crates was more exciting. One box containing the jointer itself, weighing around 450 pounds, and about 8 feet long, banded and raised up forklift blocks, was the first obstacle. The boy and I were able to raise the box up using some 2x4s as levers and then place long 2x4s long-ways under box, along with some 1 inch dowels. Then as I pushed the box and rearranged the dowels, the boy played out a safety rope on the back so that the box didn’t take off as it hit the ramp. Worked like a charm. One done, one to go.
The second box contained the stand and motor. Bulky, but the weight label says it is only 78 kilograms, lets see, 2.2 pounds per kilogram, that is about 175 pounds. The boy and I were able to just roll it off, end over end.
The manual is fairly clear on set up, except that there is a separate page, a manual update. The update should say “do this page first, before anything else.” I figured it out. The motor is now bolted to the top of the stand and has to be repositioned on the mounts. So the stand is turned over and the two retaining nuts taken off. Now, why isn’t there four bolts in the parts kit? Then it dawns on me that the two bolts under the stand, with a loose motor, are the other two. Getting the bolts and mounting the motor is not an easy task for one person. I again had to seek out the boy to get the bolts while I leaned the stand and he then put in the bolts while I held the motor. This is when we encountered the first problem here. Only three 5/16” nuts, for the four bolts. No problem, just got one out of the parts bin. Mounted the caster wheel assembly with no problems. It was about at this point, when the I was admiring our work, when I realized that both sides of the stand came off. So I took them off. Why that sure opens up the area and makes it easier to work on the motor.
Next chore is placing the jointer on the stand. Now the boy, and wife, were just not up to doing that task, so I had to go borrow two manly neighbors. First lift went well, except the box was bolted to the bottom of the jointer. Wished that been mentioned in the manual. Fortunately, the bolts came out with the fingers and did not need any wrench action to loosen. Now, the jointer was smoothly lifted up and placed on the stand. All of the holes lined up perfectly. The 8mm allen wrench bolts (called cap screws in the manual) only had a lock washer, I would have preferred these bolts to also have washers. I may have to add when I can get the correct size.
Aligning the motor and putting on the V-belt was simple. The factory setting of the Outfeed table was still perfect. The extension table for cutterhead guard was already installed. The carriage and fence installed as advertised, as did the guard, the pedestal switch and dust port. Setting the 45 and 90 degree stops went fairly well. The factory settings here were not as precise and needed some adjustment.
The manual now says to do a test run. Thinking this might be a bad idea, with all of the cosmoline still on the cutterhead and tables, I went about clearing that off. I’ll bet the gent that follows the manual explicitly gets a good splattering of grease everywhere. My fingers took a beating during the cleaning of the cutterhead. Must have been a quart of cosmoline on it alone, but my fingers took a nick, or slice, each time I ran the cloth around one of the forty carbide inserts. I kept thinking that I should go in the house and get a box of Cutips, but being impatient, I just kept cleaning. Had to wash real well later and apply a bandaid. We will see if I still have use of my cleaning fingers in a few days.
Installed the plug on the cord. The test run went well, that is after I figured out the start panel. The start button, no start the motor. I like light in the Stop button, wonder that arrow means on it. Turn the stop button and the light goes out. Hope I didn’t trip the fuse or something, but now the start button works. No vibration. The sound was much less than I expected of the 3HP motor.
Well, I just happen to have a rough piece of wood here. Let’s set the infeed table to take off 1/16”. Tables are perfectly parallel. That’s a relief, I sure didn’t want to get into aligning the tables. I sure do like the handle adjusters, I have always used wheels, but instantly, I prefer this table lever system. Run the wood through, twice, and the edge is superb, perfectly 90 degrees, smooth as a baby’s bottom. Other side comes out the same.
If there is one small gripe, it is that supplied parts are not checked closely enough and the tool kit is not adequate. Missing one nut, and I am still wondering where the small extra washer was supposed to go. The supplied allen wrenches and box end wrenches worked well, but often I needed to pull out my own wrenches to adjust/tighten the bolt and nut at some points. Also, the wrenches supplied are metric, while some of the bolts sure seemed to be SAE. I guess after my lifetime, our using of two systems will finally resolve itself into one.
Bottom line, this is a beautiful machine. It works perfectly. I really like the built-in wheel system. I am glad I didn’t get the 12” one I was looking at, this one was as heavy as we could handle!
06-22-2009, 12:07 PM
" I get knocked down but I get up again" - Chumbawamba 
I said the same thing when I got mine. 
Linear Mode
