This has been on my wishlist for a long time. Lifted it off pallet and onto two heavy duty furniture movers. This bad boy is extermely heavy and one really should have several buddies help. Nonetheless, my ignorance and pride are impatient creatures and I was able accomplished the task solo. The fence installation was extermely easy. Except for replacing the electrical cord, everything on the setup was smooth. The short cord is the one low point for this machine considering the amount paid. Grizzly should have included a 5 to 6 foot cord. The factory installed cord as it utterly unusable. It is so short, that it wouldn't even reach the shop floor. Not even Tyrion Lannister would have mercy for this wee little thing. With the electrical cord issue solved, I plugged it in for first cuts. It is considerable quieter that the old 8" jointer it replaced. Started by face planing a 11" wide blank of English Walnut. What a beautiful job it did! Then edge jointed Beech, Maple, Lyptus, and Thermo-Treated Poplar. Each board came out perfect and smooth! Two minor issues I discovered when jointing my test timbers. 1st, the cutterhead guard needed to be raised up 1/16" of an inch. The carbide knifes sliced off a little snipe, about 1/64" from the guard, It's alumium and shaved it off effortlessly with no damage to the carbide inserts. I had to drop in two shims for the fix. 2nd issue with the cutterhead guard, is that I had to help it out swing out of the way when edge jointing two of the boards. I moved the fence over at different test positions along the 12" cutterhead. It pinched and bound the material agianist the fence when more of the cutterhead is exposed. The greater cutterhead span somehow prevents the cutterhead guard from pivoting out of the way and allowing the board to traverse. Other than those issues, it is a good machine and borderlining on great! If you are looking for a jointer, then get one with spiral cutterhead. It is the best way to go. Not sure why anyone would settle for anything less and can't imagine someone buying the "outdated" knife style machine. Spiral carbide cutterheads are the bee's knees! Other than those three noted issues, this is a mighty fine 12" jointer.

Average, worth the money but an ole Powermatic, SCMI or Oliver would be better.

It's like a small aircraft carrier, this jointer is HUGE!! The hardest part of setting this up was getting it off of the shipping pallet. I used a hydraulic car jack and stacks of 4 x 4's and took my time as I did this without any help. Make sure you buy SJOOW cord for the power cord as what comes with it isn't very long. The packaging was great and saved it from damage as the freight company tried their best to test the durability of the container (but didn't succeed). The settings from the factory were dead on and the directions are very detailed and easy to follow. When powered up it doesn't shake or shimmy, you can stand a nickle on edge on either table while it runs and it won't move. Definitely worth the investment. Thank you Grizzly!

I recently purchased the G9860 jointer and I am extremely satisfied with every aspect of the machine as well as the purchase. To begin with, Grizzly Tools have perfected the online purchase experience; from the quality of their website, the in-depth information available, through the telephone ordering, and to the delivery, everything was professional, efficient, and well done. Being a Canadian customer, I was nervous about potential charges and problems related to importing expensive machinery; there were none - no customs fees or hassles shipping to Canada. As for the machine itself, I feel Grizzly is correct when they claim that it is the best 12" jointer on the market today. Of course it leaves silky smooth finish on all of the surfaces I've jointed so far, why wouldn't it? This is the identical jointer once sold by now defunct General International, and its a beautifully built machine. The 3hp motor has plenty of guts for the job, the beds are polished and dead flat, the crank is effortless; everything about it is good. I particularly like the low stance of this machine. It presents the operator with a large wide low surface to flatten and straighten small and large boards alike. What motivated me to cough up the additional dollars to purchase this machine rather than one of the several other excellent 12" jointers on the market, was its narrow dimensions. This jointer is the narrowest 12" jointer out there; and in my shop, where every 1/16 of an inch counts, I was able to fit a 12" machine in the space my 8" jointer previously occupied. The G9860 is 32" wide (not including the crank handle knobs), yep, that's 2" less than the 34" shown in the specs. This is because it doesn't have a rabbitting shelf, or a rack and pinion tubular fence adjustment mechanism. The set-up was simple, and cleaning the surface protector was easy. I had one issue with an otherwise perfect machine, and that was the return spring on the guard is way too strong. No matter how well I tried to position the guards spring cylinder, it slipped, and the guard slammed with a bang against the fence on its way back. To remedy this problem, I carefully drilled and tapped and added another grub screw on the opposite side of the spring cylinder, before removing the original grub screw that tensions the guard. This released the tension on the return spring by one half rotation, enabling the guard to return at a slower speed with much less force. It works great now. I would highly recommend this product to any purchaser whether, hobbyist or professional.