Anyway on to the jointer itself. As I said it come in two boxes: roughly 22x17x29 and 48x21x14. The smaller box contains the base and most of the nuts and bolts, while the larger houses the jointer itself along with the fence and handles. It’s worthwhile to note that neither box, although heavy, is really worthy of lift gate service; so if I had to do everything again I think I would simply skip the extra cost. Packaging seemed ample and well thought out. No pieces were marred or dented in any serious way.

The instructions to put the unit together are at times slightly incorrect (regarding hex bolt head size or example) but seemed adequate to me. You can download the instructions ahead of time from Grizzly’s website if you want to study up a bit before delivery. One thing I would add to the list of tools is a box of rags to wipe the grease and oil from the parts. This stuff is necessary to protect the iron during storage and transport, but takes a bit of work to get off. I used CMT bit cleaner to do a final wipe down of all the parts that will be handled or will contact the workpiece. After assembly I protected the machined surfaces with a coat of sliding lubricant.

I’m now in the process of tuning the machine up to work on some projects. So far, so good.

Here’s a LINK which may be somewhat useful to anyone tuning up their jointer. Keep in mind that he appears to be using a parallelogram jointer, which is very different than something like the G0452 which rides on dovetails.

For anyone unfamiliar with the EB4424 I will provide a little intro. Essentially it’s a combination oscillating spindle/belt sander. Unlike other units however, this one does not do both at the same time. Instead it sort of , transforms back and forth with the aid of removable throat plates and what appears to be the guts of a portable belt sander. It has an adjustable table making the unit capable of mitered sanding, something you don’t often get on units at this price point. It’s light enough to make it portable,largely made of heavy plastics and aluminum, but somehow maintains a good bit of hefty feel and strangely little vibration in many operations. Having said that, there are some operations that will vibrate your arm off if your not careful.

I hate to start with the negative but I’m going to anyway because that’s how I am. In my opinion the belt sanding function is a throwaway. It does work, but after a while it starts to wear out, and unlike a real belt sander it doesn’t have a cork backer you can simply replace. It’s also very loud, and very VERY sensitive to adjustment. You also have to be extremely careful to adjust the belt correctly. Because the belt runs right to left across the table surface AND oscillates up and down, it is possible that a gap will appear momentarily between the table the the lower edge of the belt, thus creating a potentially hazardous condition in which a bit of the workpiece may get stuck. It’s not fun when it happens. In addition I have yet to find any grits other than the one supplied with the unit which do not result in rubbing or excessive wear to the throat area.

All that said if you get the belt adjusted properly and are quite careful, it does do a marvelous job rounding off corners, sanding edges, and generally shaping. Just be careful you don’t catch and launch anything off to the side. ALWAYS move the piece against the direction of belt rotation, slowly and evenly applying pressure at the beginning and ending of the “cut”.

I think, for the money, there may not be a better value when it come to the spindle sander. I mean the thing is darn near perfect for my work. True the largest drum you can put on it is only 2 inches, but that’s pretty good for something with a motor this small. Also true is that the dust extraction leaves something to be desired, but again not enough to make me really care. The action of the spindle stroke is smooth and more than enough to keep the drum cool to prevent burning. Drum changes are relatively quick and strait forward, just take off a little pressure nut (with padded grippy knob) and replace. The unused drums are stored on board in individually sized cut outs along with their throat plates and washers.

So to sum up: spindle good, belt sander… who cares.

In the mean time I’m prepping lots of projects, including several I hope to have up for sale sooner or later on my Etsy shop. I’ll post a link to that when I get some content in there.

UPDATE: I’ve heard from UPS freight, and the machine should arrive on Monday. It turns out that it comes in two boxes, so I probably shouldn’t have paid the extra money or liftgate service. I guess you live and learn…

I’ll be attending IWF this year, and I hope to use the pad to blog from the show floor. It will be my first year, and I can tell you I’m really excited to have the opportunity to see and touch the products on the cutting edge (pun certainly intended). More on that to come later this month.

This saw has several issues that you have to consider before drawing out your plan. First, consider that this is a contractor saw, which means that the motor sticks out the back. Secondly, it has both a front and rear rail for the fence. This means that any table must not touch the rear rail or else the fence will not slide. I think commercial setups don’t have this problem because their fences are usually a true t-square design. Luckily, Ridgid appears to have considered this little problem, and have conveniently notched the fence, right near the back, so you can get a properly adjusted table a little bit closer.

Tomorrow I will rout two grooves in there to account for the miter guage slots. I stole some leveling feet off another tool…to which I wanted to add casters…and added those so that I can level the table at the corners. A simple block of wood with a hole drilled seems to do the trick.

To be fair, my planer is probably the second or third most used thing in my shop, and it takes a heck of a lot of abuse. Not only does it handle the finer boards, but on occasion it get used for constrution, and handles all kinds of knotty CG lumber (dare I admit the plywood I once sent through) and whatever else I have sitting around.