Pitchin’ a Grizzly tent, part II
(Part I is here)
So we luckily show up right around repricing time, and my buddy finds what looks like a great deal on a longbed 8″ jointer. This normally sells for about $800 and is marked down to $500.
Now the good news is that the white tags on each items not only list the price, but also a laundry-list of defects. Basically, the techs go over each item with a fine-toothed comb before the event and list exactly what’s wrong with it. They’ll tell you if the motor’s dead (or untested), if there’s excessive runout in a drill, if the table is out of true, and anything else. This is very helpful.
But woe betide the one who doesn’t inspect it adequately first, or who doesn’t read the description carefully! After finally getting the jointer home (and me helping him unload all 600 lbs of it), my friend discovered that it had no blades, no pulley, and that the “cracked base” that the description mentioned referred not to the sheet-metal stand, but rather the actual cast-iron jointer base. Since Grizzly sells all parts for all items, this wasn’t a showstopper, but it did add about $200 back to the cost of the jointer–making it a bit less of a bargain.
If this all sounds pretty depressing, he did come out ahead: he picked up a cosmetically-dinged Incra router fence for just $150, a pretty sweet deal. I have one of these too incidentally; that’ll be the subject of another post.
I came out gaining nothing but wisdom, but maybe I’ll try for a deal on a drum sander next year. If you do decide to hit the tent sale, prepare by printing out the parts diagrams of any machine you’re interested in (they’re all available online) and do a thorough checkout before you buy. You’ll thank me for it.
(I did pick up some tung oil and a pair of tweezers with a magnifying glass attached, but that was from their regular store, so I don’t think it counts.)
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