Shop Fox 8" jointer - W1741

[Monty]

The new Shop Fox W1741 is a relatively new product, and there is not much available in terms of useful reviews of this machine. I have been told that it is the same machine as the Grizzly 0490. Other than what people told me, the details on the Shop Fox version were a little hard to come by. In fact, this model is still not even mentioned on the Woodstock International web site. So now that I have run the machine some, I figured I would offer a little review here.




First, the specifications. Since there was no info on their web site, I emailed WSI and received these specs in a press release format:

MAIN FEATURES:

• 3 HP 220V Motor
• Pedestal Mounted Controls for Easy Access
• Four Knife Cutterhead
• Parallelogram Bed Adjustment
• Built-In Mobile Base with Jack and Lock System
• Available in 2006, this Shop Fox machine is covered by a 2 year warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Motor: 3HP, 220V, 18A, Single-Phase, 60 Hz
• Motor Speed: 3450 RPM
• Max Width of Cut: 8"
• Max Depth of Cut: 1/8"
• No of Cuts Per Minute: 21,400
• Overall Dimensions: 76-1/2" L x 24" W x 48-1/2" H
• Fence Size: 36" W x 1-3/16" W
• Fence Height: 5"
• Fence Stops: 90° & 45° Tilt in and Out
• Knives: 4 HSS Straight Knife
• Knives Size: 8" L x 25/32" W x 1/8" T
• Knife Adjustment: Jack Screw
• Cutterhead Type: Straight Slot
• Cutterhead Diameter: 3-5/16"
• Cutterhead Speed: 5350 RPM
• Table Size: 76-3/8" L x 8" W x 2-3/4" T
• Table Adjustment Type: Eccentric Bushing Structure
• Table Movement Type: Lever Adjust Type
• Table Height from Floor: 32-11/16"
• Construction: Cast Iron Table, Body, Base, Fence
• Cabinet Construction: Sheet Metal
• Coating: Oven-cured Powder Coated Paint
• Blade Guard: Moulded Aluminium
• Parallelogram: Yes
• Dust Ports: One 4"
• Bearings: Ball Bearing Permanently Lubricated
• Power Transfer: Belt Drive
• Electrical: Magnetic Switch w/Thermal Overload
• Controls: Soft-start Push Button & Emergency Shutoff
• Weight: 510 lbs

These specs are pretty much identical to the G0490. Based on a recent review of 8" jointers in FWW magazine, the Grizzly came out looking pretty good. So I was satisfied that the Shop Fox would likely be just fine.

This machine looks very similar to the venerable Delta DJ-20. Like the Shop Fox, the DJ-20 has a parallelogram design, 76" bed length, longer infeed table, same size/design fence. However, the Griz/Shop Fox versions have some real advantages over the Delta. For example, the DJ-20 has only 1½ HP motor, a 3-knife cutterhead, and cuts 16,500 CPM at 5500 RPM. The DJ-20 is also about 100 lbs lighter, which I see as a disadvantage for the Delta. The DJ-20 does not even have a magnetic switch! Now IMHO, the higher HP/knives/CPM of the Griz/Shop Fox is nice, but this only matters in a production setting. In a home shop like mine you can just slow down the feed rate a little and get the same cut quality. But the DJ-20 costs almost $1000 MORE!!! When Gregg (vbgregg) put together a group buy on these Shop Fox machines at a nice price, the choice was pretty clear.

In my research I came across some "issues" with the Griz/Shop Fox machines. I saw spotty reports of damaged crates, bent motor mounts, rough castings, too thin power cord, and a swivel caster problem. So I was looking for these issues on mine. Here is what I found:

First, this thing came in two packages (a box and a crate), which were largely undamaged except for a few minor dings. Inside, the bed assembly was bolted to the bottom of the wooden crate, and was in perfect condition. I think the manufacturer solved the problem of bent motor mounts by shipping the unit with the motor temporarily mounted to the cabinet instead of the motor mounts (click the thumbnails):



It was a PITA to get to those mounting screws, since there is very little clearance between the motor and mounting bracket. Mounting the motor and lifting the bed assembly required two people (thanks again, Woodguy!). The pulleys were hard to align precisely, since you can't get a straightedge to go across both pulleys (see last pic above), but I found that it was easy enough to just "eyeball" it.

A couple of comments about the power transfer. The motor quality is probably OK, but I noticed immediately that it only has one capacitor instead of the usual two. Runs fine, but it's just an indicator of a bit less quality. The power cord supplied was 12/3 gauge - plenty big enough for 18A I think. But it wasn't long enough for me. The cord barely reaches past the opposite (left) end of the jointer, so if your receptacle is on that side, you'll have to lengthen the cord like I did. You need some 14 gauge sized fittings to match what was on the original cord (original cord on the bottom, my replacement on top):




Once I got it all put together and running, I was quite happy about the performance. I have read reports about rough start/stops, etc (on the Griz), but I really think that has to do with pulley alignment and proper belt tension. I know when I increased belt tension on mine, that rattle went almost entirely away. Also, this is the smoothest running tool in my shop right now - passed the nickle test with flying colors! The knives were all set pretty even (though not exactly), and the outfeed table only had to be moved a few thousandths. Based on my 48" aluminum straightedge, I cannot see any problems with the flatness of the beds. They were machined perfectly, with no missed spots or rough castings. Face jointing an 8" wide piece of walnut was a breeze... just a couple of passes totally eliminated the twist, which is the one thing I had the most trouble dealing with on my smaller jointer. And the resulting surface was glass smooth - you know it's smooth when you can feel the suction as you're lifting the board off the outfeed table!

The parallelogram ajustment is smooth and easy - very nice! It has a nice magnetic switch, mounted up on a pedestal. The red light glows, letting you know your breaker is on. It comes with the manual, two curiously yellow push blocks, some wrenches/allen tools, and a knife setting jig. The power cord has no plug, and is at least a couple of feet too short, IMO. Dust collection is good, with the included 4" DC port. The built-in mobile base is great, although it does drop with alarming force if you're not careful. Also, it is possible (if you push hard enough) to move the jointer some even in the locked position.



All in all, I'd say this is a great machine, especially for the price. There are a couple of minor issues, in addition to what I pointed out above. First, my machine does have the wonky caster problem. If you look at this caster (in the raised/mobile position), you can see that the bracket is not level to the floor:



This causes the wheel to preferentially flip around like it is in this picture. This makes steering more difficult than it should be. I have read on Woodnet that Grizzly plans a correction/replacment for this, so I expect the same from Shop Fox as well. I will report this to WSI and see what kind of response I get.

Another thing I don't like (this is just a personal preference) is that you have to use an allen wrench to adjust/remove the blade guard. I'm just used to the Jet version, I guess.




And, of course, I got the ultra-limited edition Model W 741, instead of the standard W1741!!!

[mshel]

Monty,

Great review. Question, how did you and WG lift the bed. Heard it is not good to lift on the ends so wanted to know how you guys lifted it. Knowing I will have to recruit some help, I want to be sure we don't mess the thing up before I have a chance to turn it on. lol

MIke

[Monty]

Yea, two people can lift this bed assembly, but you have to be careful. Use standard safe-lifting practice if you do this. Use four people if you are not sure. There really is no way to lift it other than by holding the beds. I tried to lift a little away from the ends, but that doesn't make much difference. The problem with applying pressure on the ends is it can mess up the alignment and force you do redo the setup. I think every jointer has to be moved this way once, but then after it's set up in your shop, you don't want to move it that way again. Best I can tell, it didn't seem to affect mine.

[mshel]

Thanks for the info, hope mine get here Thurs. or Friday. You think Klingspoor would mind if I camped on their doorstep. Can you tell I'm excited.

Mike

[Monty]

LOL!!! I think it's definitely worth the wait! I showed this pic in my other thread, but I wanted to put it here, too, for the sake of completeness. I think it's pretty self-explanatory:

[mshel]

Monty,

I have been surfing the web for some extra blades and Sunhill has them but they are laminated. Not thrilled about that. I sent Infinity an email asking for a price on a set of 4 and will let you know what I hear.

Mike

[toolferone]

Monty, nice thorough review. We all appreciate the time you put in to it. I still saw you glued that nickel down to the bed !

[D L Ames]

Great review Monty, thanks for putting it together and sharing it with us.

D L

[sapwood]

Roger

[Tarhead]

Monty,
Thanks for blazing the trail on the assembly and awesome job on the documentation! I can't wait to get back from my business trip in Tejas and get started on mine. (gloat intended)

Mark

[woodguy1975]

I knew you'd get that puppy running before the weekend was out. LOL

[michaelgarner]

monty,
congadulations,,what a blesseing. Happy saw dust making friend. Be blessed

[vbgregg]

Monty suggested that I post my comments in this thread. There were 5 of us who bought these jointers as part of a group purchase, and I'm the last to get mine set up. I picked mine up a few weeks ago, but then I went out of town and just recently got around to setting it up and powering it on.

Despite reports from others (not us 5) of damaged shipping crates and boxes, my crate and box were in pretty good shape, as were the contents. Perhaps this is at least partly due to ordering 5 at once, since they came strapped to pallets. The store loaded the heavy crate into my friend's small pickup truck. When we got to my house, I invited 2 others to help, though the biggest guy did most of the work and the rest of us cheered him on. The crate with the jointer beds weighed about 425 pounds, but much to my surprise, the hand cart I bought at Harbor Freight handled it just fine. Since the tables were bolted to the crate, we could stand the crate on end and the tables did not slide around.

A few weeks later, two of us lifted the bed assembly onto the base. I'm not the biggest and strongest guy around, so I was pleasantly surprised that this was possible without too much trouble.

Even though I don't know much of anything about wiring, I was able to replace the short power cord with a longer one and add a plug. I was confused at first, as there was a 1-page insert which claimed the wiring was different than in the manual. This made me think that I would have to rewire things, since the wiring seemed to match the manual, not the insert. But Monty and Mike both assured me that I could simply replace the cord, which is what I did, and all seems to work. I guess I still don't understand why the wiring does not match the insert. Anyone know?

As others have said, the jointer was fairly noisy at first. My Ridgid 6" jointer (which I just put up for sale!) purrs like a kitten, whereas this larger jointer makes a lot more noise. I guess I should expect some of that since the motor is larger. I increased the belt tension, as suggested by Monty, and that helped a lot. It's still a little noisier than the Ridgid, but not bad.

As many others have reported, the caster with the foot pedal does not work very well, in the sense that the bracket is not parallel to the ground and thus wants to go to one particular position all the time. I called Shop Fox and they said they had a newly designed bracket that they would send me. Hopefully that will help.

Overall, the finish on mine was pretty good. There are some places where a little of the paint is blemished or flaking off, but mostly it is fine. The beds themselves look fine -- no areas which seem poorly ground.

I need to get some feeler gauges (where is the best place to get these?), but I think my outfeed table is fine, whereas the infeed table and possibly the fence appear to be a little out of line. There is a way to adjust the infeed table, but I have not tried this yet. I've never done this and I'm worried that I might make things worse. If I get the infeed table adjusted, that might take care of the fence appearing to be less than perfectly flat.

This may just be me, but I was a little disappointed that part of the fence sits directly on the outfeed table (there is one small 4-5" section of the fence which is purposely lower than the rest). When sliding the fence back and forth, it seems like this will surely scratch (and possibly put grooves in) the outfeed table. Does anyone have any suggestions? The guy at Shop Fox said to try some teflon tape, though I wonder how well that will stick to the curved bottom of this piece of the fence.

One last minor criticism. The cutterhead guard on my jointer does not move very smoothly. I could try adjusting the spring tension, but the tension does not seem to be bad. The guard just does not move very smoothly when I push a piece of wood through it. I don't think the tension needs to be increased, since that would make it even harder to push the wood through, and the guard already moves back to the fence. Maybe I need to decrease the tension, though I don't want to keep the guard from springing back to the fence. Does something need some lubrication? Any suggestions? Maybe I am just used to the guard on the Ridgid jointer, which springs back to the fence well, but also moves very easily.

That's it for now. Overall I'm happy. It looks like we got a good jointer for a good price. I just thought I'd mention a few of the little things that I noticed in the process of getting my jointer set up.

Gregg

[Monty]

Thanks for the update Gregg. Glad to see you got yours running. I should have updated this post but I haven't had a chance yet - I got my replacement bracket in the mail this week. I will see if I can install it this weekend if I have time, and will post pics.

I think my fence does contact the outfeed table when it's loose. I didn't think about that causing problems, though. I'm not worried about scratches... but I'll take another look at mine and see if there is something that can be adjusted.

Regarding the blade guard spring tension, I try to keep mine adjusted so it hits the fence lightly. I didn't notice mine being difficult to move, but I'll take another look.

[Tarhead]

Gregg,
My guard was a little stiff at first also. This responded to a liberal dose of WD40 and working it back and forth 20 or so times. Works well now.
Mark