Official Luthiers Forum!

Owned and operated by Lance Kragenbrink
It is currently Wed Jul 23, 2025 12:50 pm


All times are UTC - 5 hours


Forum rules


Be nice, no cussin and enjoy!




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 40 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Author Message
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 3:48 am 
Offline
Koa
Koa
User avatar

Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:41 pm
Posts: 708
Location: Bothell, WA USA
First name: Jim
Last Name: Hansen
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
I've never purchased any large machines from Grizzly. Maybe a Table Saw someday if I can boot a car out of the garage =)

I have ordered smaller items from them many times, and never had a single problem. I've also driven up to the Bellingham show room and purchased some bench tops and legs. The place is always clean and well organized. The people are friendly and knowledgeable, and the turnaround time for pulling large items from the warehouse is always quicker than I expect.

My Dad had an old Grizzly Planer and Tablesaw and never had any problems with either of them.

I will say that their instrument kits are pretty bad. The guitar kit has a butt jointed neck. But that's a ' you get what you pay for' situation.

_________________
Jim Hansen


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:37 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:21 am
Posts: 4915
Location: Central PA
First name: john
Last Name: hall
City: Hegins
State: pa
Zip/Postal Code: 17938
Country: usa
Focus: Build
Status: Professional
I have a shop full of Grizzly product. I can say that I did business with them from the time they started in Williamsport in the 70's. I have a full shop of the tools and my history with them is that the service is fine the product has fallen . My sander and 18 inch belt sander had 3 motors replaced . They gave me the first one but not the others , I had an issue with that machine from day one. Finally we found that the controller base was cracked, Paid out of my pocket and I know Others with the belt sander issues.
Most of the stuff is ok and to be honest , with the amount of product they sell they are as good as what is out there . I do think the motors and bearings could be better . If you upgrade to the Shop Fox brand it is the same product with better motors . Like I said it isn't just Grizzly most other companies are the same

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 7:24 am 
Offline
Cocobolo
Cocobolo
User avatar

Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:44 pm
Posts: 217
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
It is expensive to do proper quality control, like actually testing each product before shipping it. So to be profitable, they skip assembling and testing things, hoping everything is ok, and end up mistreating some loyal customers that have dropped a bit of money. What is so hard about asking every customer "what are we doing right ? what are we doing wrong ? how do we improve ?" IMHO if they don't care, they shouldn't be in business. But it may not be a profitable business if ran correctly, many modern consumer electronics companies are in that category.

I work in software and often see device schedules slip, and the testing at the end gets cut. That is why you see 10-15% failure rate in cellphones, and at one time a 51% failure rate in X-Boxes. I hate to say it, be if you look at the way our economy works, it is a race to the bottom, and the only option is to lower one's expectations. Medical devices and avionics products are usually exceptions to this.

If someone is having a bad, unresolvable experience, I would like to hear about it. Hopefully we are not violating any forum rules. Just this week I had a premium priced tool fail on me, I will try to resolve it with the seller.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:49 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member

Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:41 pm
Posts: 312
Mike R wrote:
Okay. You want the story, I will sit down and type it out. I ordered a surface plate about a year ago, and also the stand for it. When it arrived, it was stained all over, by something that left white stains. The plate is black granite, and it looked pretty bad. I complained about it, and before I could talk to someone, they shipped another one. Then I had two plates. Not what I was after, but it worked. I would have been happy with a discount on the first plate. So for a year I have been tripping over the extra plate. So about four months ago, I ordered another stand and figured I could use it for something else. I have plenty of room for two of them. The stand was back ordered for over two months. It finally arrived this week. The stand was drilled wrong and cannot be assembled. I complained, and their plan was to have a truck pick up the old one and return it. Then when they got the old one, they would ship a new one. I could not agree to such a waste of truck, fuel, and resources. So they made me buy another stand, and the same truck that delivers the new stand will pick up the old stand. There was a time in the past that this would not happen. I have thousands of dollars worth of Grizzly tools, and for them not to trust me is insulting. I even sent pictures of the problem with the stand.

By the way, I am asking for positive or negative posts on this blog. I am not asking anyone to "trash" Grizzly, I am only asking for your honest post relating to your experience with Grizzly. Why someone would find anything negative about this post is beyond me. And also, anything you post on a public forum needs to be true. You could be liable for anything that you cannot prove. I thought that this forum was a good venue for this type of experience, but it appears that it is more of a personal blog now. I think I will stick to the woodworking forums in the future. It appears to me that there are a group of people on this blog that just want to criticize every post that is made.


You've GOT to be joking...Like a friend is fond of saying, "Some folks wouldn't be happy if ya hung 'em with a new rope!".

_________________
https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:41 pm 
Offline
Cocobolo
Cocobolo

Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:15 pm
Posts: 475
Location: Santa Barbara, Ca
First name: John "jd"
City: Santa Barbara
State: Ca
Focus: Build
Status: Semi-pro
My first big stationary tool purchase many years ago was a jointer from Grizzly.

It arrived missing some key parts and included other parts that didn't fit. It took over a month to get it running. They were able to work thru the easy stuff like the missing belt and fence parts while I spend hours re-drilling, filing and shimming to get it functional. To this day is remains in my shop as a reminder - the supplied guard has never worked correctly despite them re-machining some parts and it now has a wooden shaft and a bungee cord to make it functional.

That was my last purchase from Grizzly.

...but this post has me thinking about ordering a surface plate from them.

-jd


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:37 pm 
Offline
Walnut
Walnut

Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:56 am
Posts: 23
Focus: Repair
Status: Amateur
B. Howard wrote:
A few years ago another shop in my area purchased a 25" industrial thickness planer from them, a little over $10,000. He was going to do some things for me on a subcontract basis that were beyond the capacities at the shop I run. That particular piece of equipment never manged to satisfactorily plane a single piece of lumber. It had a severe chatter and sniped like all get out. Some of our rough sawn lumber actually looked better. He called Grizzly to see about repair or replacement or return and they told him absolutely no replacement and no returns. He could crate it and ship it back and they would repair it and ship it back to him, warranty would cover repairs only, no freight and no timetable for when the equipment would actually be returned. He did not like the idea of being out all that cheese with nothing to show for it and argued with them for about a year over the matter, affectionately referring to the thing as "the POS in taking up the middle of my shop". Don't know what became of it, he has moved to a new location and that piece of equipment is not there and I still do all my wide surfacing by hand.


I've read a lot of reviews (too many) of Grizzly both positive and negative and the one thing that seems to come through consistently are issues with return shipping of large items. That seems to be one area where they won't budge or at least do everything they can to avoid that cost.

I've only bought smaller things from them and have never had any problems, but I won't buy larger equipment from them because of their reluctance to pay for return shipping on warranty claims, or simply manufacturer defeats from the start before equipment is even put together. If I'm going to put down several thousand dollars on a piece of equipment, I want guarantees that the company will stand by that product in full, including the costs of getting it to and fro.

I've read positive stories about return shipping as well, but those like B. Howard describes are just a little too frequent for my comfort level.

_________________
Forever a student, always learning.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:19 pm 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:52 am
Posts: 4524
First name: Big
Last Name: Jim
State: Deep in the heart of Bluegrass
Country: usa
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
Can we summize from the fact that Mike R's name is now in black at the thread posting that He took his ball and went home ??

:( :( :( :(

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:34 pm 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:12 pm
Posts: 3308
First name: Bryan
Last Name: Bear
City: St. Louis
State: Mo
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
WudWerkr wrote:
Can we summize from the fact that Mike R's name is now in black at the thread posting that He took his ball and went home ??

:( :( :( :(


I feared we were too hard on him. I sent him a fruit basket, but it didn't have enough pineapples in it so he sued me.


Edit: for the record, I was joking about the fruit basket and pending litigation. I don't need a lible suit on top of it.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:32 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:25 pm
Posts: 7207
Location: United States
He didn't complain about free stuff, but about then ordering a bench/stand for the first Slab O' Granite which came in machined incorrectly. I get that, but this is fairly trivial, and certainly not worthy of airing it on a public forum.
Recently, I ordered a magnetic switch from Grizzly for my cnc spindle which came without the strain reliefs. I called, they sent them out and I had them in a couple days. As long as they are willing to fix a problem, That's good. I bought a jointer a few years back made by an American company, and the fence was twisted slightly. They wouldn't replace it. I learned to live with it. Stuff happens.

That said, I do believe and it is fairly common knowledge that the motors on a lot of Grizzly products aren't all that great. It's indicative of all of the motors coming out of the region where they are made. I hate to say it, but you're getting that machine for cheap money for a reason. Plan on replacing the motor with a Baldor or a Leeson at some point, for a lot of money.

It is what it is.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:23 am 
Offline
Walnut
Walnut

Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:24 am
Posts: 16
In my experience with Grizzly you get what you pay for. I've purchased several routers from them and they all worked as advertised. The only time I didn't get what I paid for was when I ordered a 1" Japanese chisel ($10) and was sent a set of ten($100). I notified them of their error, and they were willing to return the set and send the chisel I ordered. I like the chisel I got, but would have been happier if they had thanked me for returning the set- but I did get what I paid for.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:26 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:15 pm
Posts: 1701
First name: Joey
Last Name: Holliday
City: Palmetto
State: Florida
Zip/Postal Code: 34221
Country: United States
Focus: Build
Status: Semi-pro
Love by 19" Grizzly extreme bandsaw. Cuts like butta. Given the right blade, it could easily turn your granite table into several pieces. laughing6-hehe

My question is- why didn't you just re-drill the holes for the base in the proper place?


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:30 am 
Offline
Walnut
Walnut

Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:24 am
Posts: 16
In my experience with Grizzly you get what you pay for. I've purchased several routers from them and they all worked as advertised. The only time I didn't get what I paid for was when I ordered a 1" Japanese chisel ($10) and was sent a set of ten($100). I notified them of their error, and they were willing to return the set and send the chisel I ordered. I like the chisel I got, but would have been happier if they had thanked me for returning the set- but I did get what I paid for.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:33 am 
Offline
Cocobolo
Cocobolo
User avatar

Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:44 pm
Posts: 217
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
Quote:
Only in America can you be sued for sending a fruit basket.

The reason for the litigious culture is that in our society, corporations are allowed to run wild in some ways (as compared to Europe for example) and the corrective mechanism is supposed to be the lawsuit. Combine that with the fact that many legislators are lawyers.

Of course, the trick being played on the consumer is that more and more business require the signing of an arbitration clause, leaving the consumer in a very bad position. It is good to ponder these things, as our system is going over a cliff, and that can be an opportunity to fix the broken parts.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:45 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:52 am
Posts: 4524
First name: Big
Last Name: Jim
State: Deep in the heart of Bluegrass
Country: usa
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
I bougt a grizzly and Im not happy , he eats to much !!!

Attachment:
Grizzly.jpg



But Hey !! his nuts Line up perfectly !

laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:13 pm 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:06 pm
Posts: 2739
Location: Magnolia DE
First name: Brian
Last Name: Howard
City: Magnolia
State: Delaware
Zip/Postal Code: 19962
Country: United States
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
WudWerkr wrote:
I bougt a grizzly and Im not happy , he eats to much !!!

Attachment:
Grizzly.jpg



But Hey !! his nuts Line up perfectly !

laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe



How much bearclaw spruce can he make an hour? laughing6-hehe

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 40 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 37 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
phpBB customization services by 2by2host.com