G0453Z

Pushing this thing around on a hardwood floor is way too hard. The front wheel snaps down by itself, dangerous!

Pluses: This is essentially the same machine as the G0453, but with a pedestal-mounted power switch and a spiral cutterhead that produced the same minuscule snipe and a quality of cut as good as its sibling (though leaving a different pattern on the wood). This model’s cutterhead also generates less than half the noise of the straight-knife model. (A three-decibel difference equates to doubling/halving the sound level.) It has the same workpiece capacities, feed rates, and table locks.Minuses: Changing all the cutters at one time can be tiresome, but turning just a few to counter a chipped edge—the more frequent scenario—takes much less time. Setting up this machine required extensive cleaning to remove the thick rust-inhibitor coating, and we also had to add gear oil (not included) to the crankcase. Although it can plane a full 15"-wide workpiece, its stock-return rollers mount 1/4" below the top of the posts that hold them and can accommodate only a 14-3/4"-wide workpiece.

Ste up was a snap. Fine tuning is necessary to get a perfect run every time. Time spent to fine tune is greatly rewarded. Great machine.

I've bought this planer a year ago as upgrade from a 13" Dewalt DW735X lunch box planer. The Dewalt had 3 straight knifes and cut well, but was loud as hell and ate blades. When the Grizzly G0453Z arrived, it had paint damage on the planer base (grizzly customer service was very cooperative and we got it fixed). As with most new machines these days, all alignments were off and the planer had substantial belt slap when the motor started up. Closer inspection showed the motor pulleys were misaligned and had stretched the 3 belts past repair. Grizzly customer service send new belts quickly and with the new belts the startup slap completely disappeared. I corrected (resp. verified) all the alignments of the planer, added a Digital Readout to it and it was good to go.After the setup, I never had any issues with it. It is extremely quiet (85 dba) and the helical head leaves a fantastic finish with virtually no snipe (less than .001) . So far I have planed over 100 bdft of Walnut, 200 bdft of Maple and 500 bdft of Mahogany. I have not rotated a single carbide cutter insert yet, as they still cut like new. FYI: Mahogany is really sensitive to dulling tools and would directly show if the knifes would be the tiniest bit dull. To plane the same amount with my old lunch box planer would have taken at least 5 sets of blades, 30 bucks each (150$ total). I have yet to see how long the carbide inserts will last, but with the first side still sharp and 3 new sides left, I know today that the inserts outlast hss knifes by 20 times and counting. (Will update this number when I start turning inserts)Btw. I have also planed some wood with large knots (i.e. Cedar) and the carbide inserts cut the knots nicely without pulling them loose (or out), like straight blade planers would do. The same is also true for glue ups which I planed with it.Would I buy it again, Absolutely. I would also not hesitate to buy a larger Grizzly Planer w/ helical head should the need arise. Just plan in some time for any new machine to get it properly set up and verify all alignments. I have a mix of machine brands in my shop and from Grizzly to Powermatic I have yet to find one machine to arrive properly aligned from the factory.

I've had this planer now for three years and it has performed great. The finish cut is excellent and the noise is much less than my old three knife, 12" Powermatic (from the 1960s). My only concern is the motor may not be of the highest quality and will have a shorter life than I would have hoped for. The insulation factor is an "A." My understanding is "F" is the best and "A" is the worst, ironically. So, it remains to be seen if this is a problem down the road. The replacement motor is about $320 compared to the 3 hp motor Powermatic uses in their planer for almost $600.