Terry, I reluctantly gave Grizzly a shot a couple of years ago. Motor failed in less than a year because a sheer poor quality, and rather than get prompt service from grizzly, they told me to deal directly with the motor manufacturer. This meant being without the tool for weeks. Never again...inexpensive stuff always ends up costing me much more in the long haul than biting the bullet and purchasing quality, or buying used and reconditioning(my time is the expense). I always get much more for the money buying good used stuff and reconditioning it. My planer is a 60's vintage heavy cast iron Delta 13" finish planerwhich I love. I changed/resized the infeed roller to allow me to kiss off thousanth when making splines etc. The weird thing is, as I work through retooling my shop to deal with the woodworking end of piano rebuilding, I find that the workhorses of sash making/ fine millwork, like the planer are becoming less important than they once were. In any case if I were to look for a planer or jointer now, I would want one with an indexable head and cheap throwaway knives, so I could quickly change from steel to carbide knives. Performing secondary work on laminated items with all those glue lines blows good steel knives right out the window. Which brings me to a question for you Terry. What kind of drum sander are you running? Does it tend to create a slightly convex surface, or some other slighlty non-flat surface? Jim I
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