Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Would you buy a jointer
Barry Irby
that has been in a fire?
Going tomorrow to look at a 8" Grizzly jointer G0656 with a spiral head. Supposed to be brand new except it went through a shop fire. Scorched badly enough the paint is missing.
As nearly as I can tell it would have been about $1500 new.
What should I expect? Bad Motor?, bad bearings? Warped castings? What else???
Would you buy it at all?
Re: Would you buy a jointer
Dave's Not Here
Hard to tell without actually seeing the tool in person. Kind of a gamble at best anyways so maybe for like 10¢ on the dollar it might be worth that gamble.
Plan
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
on rewiring and replacing the switch and, most likely, the bearings on both the cutter head and the motor are cooked. Take a good straightedge.
Scrap steel is 2¢ a pound
Re: Plan
Pete in Holland MI
Motor is questionable. Wiring is questionable. Iron castings may be warped. Any zinc/aluminum castings could be weakened. Any heat treated portions that exceeded 500F could have the temper drawn. That includes springs. It will need a total tear down, as I assume rust is growing everywhere.
Replacement parts are always expensive.
Expect a lot of work with the potential of a so-so machine at the end, although, you might get lucky.
Keep us posted if you do pursue it and what your experiences are. This is not the first time this subject has come up.
Re: Would you buy a jointer
William Duffield
IMHO, you would probably have fewer problems with a cold war era Soviet nuclear submarine. 
Re: Would you buy a jointer
Ralph Lipeles
Let your eyes be the judge. If it doesn't look too bad, the fixup should not be too bad. If it looks like the fire was big and hot, I would pass on it.
Many years back the neighbor's boy was looking at a car to buy. I was doing a lot of car work at that time so he asked me to go with him to the local used car dealer. With the hood up it was apparent that the inside of the hood had been repainted. With the hood down the repaint was not so. I recommended that he not buy it but he really wanted it so he did. As I helped him with the subsequent repairs it became obvious that there had been an engine fire.
Re:Depends Barry
Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana
It would take a bit of "inspection" first. Did it get hot enough to burn off the wiring? Is the paint burned off of the entire unit or just a side facing the fire? Does the off/on switch function? Are the "ways" and /or the table surface pitted / badly rusted? Take an accurate straight edge and determine if the beds are warped or straight, try the adjustments, are they free? Note that cast iron is normally stable until it reaches about 800F.
It is kind of like a home inspection, say the roof is leaking - you would determine how bad, how long, and did it damage the rafters / joists / ceiling etc.
If I could see the unit (and the shop it had been in during the fire) it would be fairly easy to determine how much damage the unit actually has. One other factor the
Carbide inserted head is worth a few hundred alone if it has not been damaged.
So, I went and looked at it...
Barry Irby
Definitely been a hot bad fire. The Grizzly bandsaw that was about five feet away got so hot it fell apart. Aluminum melted.
The paint on the jointer is completely gone, all the way around. The door panel warped. Any plastic parts are gone. The motor is seized. The outfeed table still adjusts but the infeed table is stuck. The switch is burned up and so is the wiring. The cutter head spins freely and the inserts appear OK. The seller said when it came the fence was warped and Grizzly sent him a new one, also warped. He put the spiral head in it himself.
The thing weighs about five hundred pounds. I am not really tempted to go get it, scavenge the head and scrap the rest. The machine with the head in it sells for about $1600. The seller lowered his price to $200, but there is a lot of work to do to either resurrect the machine or even scavenge the head.
There is a lesson in this for all of us. Be careful with fire and your heat. Maybe film your shop and all the drawers and cabinets for insurance and be sure your insurance is up to date.
Re: Would you buy a jointer
Jesse Cloud
Nope! This falls into the "Life is too short...." category.
Re: So, I went and looked at it...
Bruce, a MN Galoot
You might be able to make something of it, but try to imagine how much time it would take and what else you could do with that time. Not worth it.
If you have a really big boat...
David Yoho
Well, you know 
Remember ...
AZ in Colorado Springs
You like to work with your tools, rather than working on your tools.