I Finally Bought a Jointer

A few weeks ago, I bought a 6" jointer. I've been putting off buying a jointer for the last few years until I finally have a real work shop, but I decided that I needed a jointer a lot more than I was willing to admit to myself. Using the DJ-20 at WoodCraft on the corner cabinet project just brought it home to me a lot more forcefully.

I went with the 6" because my space is just so small & I think an 8" will take up too much room & make my cramped space even harder to maneuver in than it is now. The 6" seemed like a good place to start. I can always sell it & upgrade to a larger model if I ever have the space of perceive the need.

I decided to go with the Grizzly G1182ZHW. This machine is made in Taiwan, not mainland China. It's been discontinued, but I figured it'd be a good machine to have.

I ordered the machine over the phone on a Saturday morning. I paid for the extra for lift gate service, and I ordered the Shop Fox mobile base that went with the jointer. I heard from the trucking company on the following Tuesday that it was in their depot. I arraigned for it to be delivered on Wednesday between 1 & 5 & I took the day off.

The truck roared past my home at 2:40 pm on Wednesday, went up to the cul-de-sac, turned around, and roared to a stop across the street from my house. The driver jumped out and unloaded the two boxes, one at a time, and dropped them off inside my garage. The only damage to the carton was a small hole about the size of a dime in one corner. After I signed for it & tipped him, he headed on his way.

The jointer went together pretty much without incident. Getting the top (the actual jointer assembly) out of the styrofoam took a bit of effort. There's a lot of cast iron in there! Mary & I got it out with only a little difficulty & were able to put it on top of the stand without any problems.

The cosmoline seemed to have dried out while the unit was at the Grizzly warehouse. It took a lot of WD-40 to soften & remove all of it. Eventually I got all of it off, though there may be bits & pieces of crud left in the cutter head assembly.

After cleaning it off, I put on a coat of Boeshield T-9 & 2 coats of paste wax and then proceeded to tune up the tables. It took a while for me to get the outfeed table adjusted properly. I ended up going to WoodNet & I found a posting by Joe Grout that suggested making a 3" or so long partial pass on a stick, turning off the jointer, then raising the outfeed table until it just kissed the underside of the stick. This worked like a charm.

So here are some pictures of the newest addition to the Woodshop!