I got a used Grizzly jointer, the G1182. I thought this would be a nice upgrade to my newer, but smaller bench jointer that has an aluminum 30″ table. The Grizzly, while older, is cast iron with a 46″ table.
While checking it out after I got home, I noticed the blades were not set very well, up to 15 thousandths off. I got to work setting those, and quickly found out the difference between having some sort of quick set knife system, like I have on the bench jointer, and not having that. On the bench jointer, I was able to set the two blades to within one thousandth of an inch. It didn’t take long, pretty simple with the extra set of screws that would raise and lower the blade. The Grizzly jointer doesn’t have these extra screws, they only have the bolts that tighten the gib, and no way to really raise or lower the blades, other than when it is loose. I tried and tried, and it was very frustrating. The blades would normally be off between 10 and 15 thousandths. It didn’t matter what tool I used to set the blades, because as soon as I tightened the bolts, the blade would move way too much. I was using the Oneway Multi Gauge to measure the blade heights. The Oneway Multi Gauge is what allowed me to easily set the bench jointer blades to within one thousandth of an inch. You won’t need this if you get the Byrd Shelix head, as you don’t have to set the blades. Although you could use it to set the height of the outfeed table. I spend over an hour and a half trying to set one blade in level, and wasn’t able to come close. How I’d ever get the other two blades level and matching the height of that one I don’t know. People have been using the system without the easy set system, so I’m sure somehow it must be possible. Perhaps they never get them set that close though.
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