Vibration/Cut-Off Problem with Grizzly 490X Jointer - Problem Solved

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
My jointer is relatively new (13 months). Initially, I did have an issue with the fence staying square with the table whenever I moved the fence. Grizzly sent a new fence carriage that solved the problem. This morning, I had a new problem; when I started the machine, it vibrated terribly (extremely noisy)! My initial thought was that the belt was loose. When I checked, everything was in order...so, I started it back up, same bad vibration and within 15 seconds it triggered the internal overload switch. A quick check of the troubleshooting section of the manual suggested that one of the causes could be the bearings on the helical cutter. To me, that sounded like a potentially big problem and this close to the holidays, I didn't feel up to taking everything apart to get to bearings, so I simply put an air hose as close to the bearings as I could...much to my surprise a lot of shaving came flying out. After resetting the overload switch and hitting the start button, it ran as quietly and smoothly as a brand new machine! From now on, I will be periodically blowing off the bearings around the cutter...lesson learned!
 

Charlie

Charlie
Corporate Member
Donn, Be careful about using compressed air around bearings. Even though they may be "sealed bearings", compressed air can force contaminates past the seals creating bearing failure. If the overload kicked out I would suspect that the cutter head rotation was restricted, which may have been caused by the shavings discharge being plugged which would overload the motor. Make certain that the discharge chute is not plugging up. Just my guess.

As for using compressed air around bearings, I once did a "great" job of cleaning inside my table saw. I brushed the sawdust from the trunnions, gears, etc. and then blew everything nice and clean. I had to replace the bearings before I could use the saw again.
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Donn, Be careful about using compressed air around bearings. Even though they may be "sealed bearings", compressed air can force contaminates past the seals creating bearing failure. If the overload kicked out I would suspect that the cutter head rotation was restricted, which may have been caused by the shavings discharge being plugged which would overload the motor. Make certain that the discharge chute is not plugging up. Just my guess.

As for using compressed air around bearings, I once did a "great" job of cleaning inside my table saw. I brushed the sawdust from the trunnions, gears, etc. and then blew everything nice and clean. I had to replace the bearings before I could use the saw again.

Charlie, thanks for the warning, I would not have thought about that as an problem, but it does make sense.
 

Charlie

Charlie
Corporate Member
You may want to close off the open ends of the jointer under the tables as I did to get the dust control air to flow around the cutter head. If I can help, let me know.
 

llucas

luke
Senior User
Charlie, do you have a picture of how you closed of the open ends of your jointer? May be something I want to do as well.
Thanks, Luke
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
My jointer is relatively new (13 months). Initially, I did have an issue with the fence staying square with the table whenever I moved the fence. Grizzly sent a new fence carriage that solved the problem. This morning, I had a new problem; when I started the machine, it vibrated terribly (extremely noisy)! My initial thought was that the belt was loose. When I checked, everything was in order...so, I started it back up, same bad vibration and within 15 seconds it triggered the internal overload switch. A quick check of the troubleshooting section of the manual suggested that one of the causes could be the bearings on the helical cutter. To me, that sounded like a potentially big problem and this close to the holidays, I didn't feel up to taking everything apart to get to bearings, so I simply put an air hose as close to the bearings as I could...much to my surprise a lot of shaving came flying out. After resetting the overload switch and hitting the start button, it ran as quietly and smoothly as a brand new machine! From now on, I will be periodically blowing off the bearings around the cutter...lesson learned!

Trying to interpret how sealed bearings can be affected by sawdust and cause vibration?

Perhaps the cutter-head was running against a sawdust blockage?

I have one of the older 8” Grizzly jointers, after about 15 years and one belt change it has not missed a beat. It gets used just about every day, never had an issue with blockage or vibration.
 

Charlie

Charlie
Corporate Member
Luke, I covered the end opening under the outfeed table with magnetic sign material cut to fit and inserted foam rubber into the infeed table opening which still allows the table to be adjusted.
Before doing this I would guess that 70-80% of the dust control air flow was through those openings, bypassing the cutterhead. After closing the openings most all of the airflow is around the cutterhead.
 

llucas

luke
Senior User
OK
Thanks Charlie...I think imma gonna do that too. I get a lot of chips and dust back upwards off the cutter head, so that may solve that problem.
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Charlie, I will be looking at ways to close off the jointer to improve the efficiency of chip removal, I value your input. As to Willem's comment, since I never actually took the jointer apart to expose the bearings, I really am not sure what was happening. That said, I did place an air hose in the general area of the bearing/shaft and blew out a considerable amount of debris. I can report that the evening before I noticed the problem the dust collection system appeared to be functioning well, based of observing chips falling into the barrel (I have a clear hose going into the dust barrel)...however, I may not be getting all of the chips, thus the need to improve efficiency.
 

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