This week I set aside my other projects and spend a day tuning up my jointer. Like many of you, I do not enjoy machine maintenance but realize it is a necessary evil of woodworking power tools. Once you have the tool tuned and running properly though you wonder how you ever worked with it in the old condition. So I correct my jointer table alignment and blade alignment and I love my jointer once again.
Not that I haven’t loved getting to know my handplanes better over the last month of hand flattening boards on the Roubo, but being able to flatten a face and edge quickly with the power jointer is a nice advantage when dealing with so much lumber. The handplanes will definately stay close by since my jointer is only 6″ wide and hand flattening a board is just way too much fun!
A special thanks goes out to Rick3ddd over at Lumberjocks for giving me the tip to shim my outfeed table instead of my infeed table. Considering he repairs machinery professionally I figured he was a trusted source.
I did my best to capture this entire process on film but I am sure I missed something. Please let me know if any questions come up from this episode.
The blog of the week is Parings, Chuck Bender’s blog. Take a peek into the mind of a master period craftsman and be amazed. You can find his site here. Also be sure to check out his class schedule and take advantage of his wealth of knowledge by taking a class.
Enjoy the show!
7 responses so far ↓
1 Araldite // Mar 6, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I have exactly the same problem with my Delta 6″ jointer and thought it was my technique. I’ve checked the coplaner and knife hight from outfeed several times but never thought thousands of an inch made that much of a difference. I’ve studied all of the links on your Lumberjocks thread and watched your video and now I have new hope that I can make my machine work. I think I need to set a day aside and work on nothing but my jointer. Thanks for all your work, I’ve learned a lot.
2 Shannon // Mar 6, 2009 at 8:32 pm
So glad this will help you. Send me an email if I can help in any way.
3 MDF // Sep 17, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Thank you for the information. My jointer is one of the 6″Asian imports that ENCO sold about 16 years ago. It was a gift and has sat unused since then My problem was just the opposite of yours- the outboard end of the outfeed table was higher than the end near the cutter head. A straight edge that was flush to the infeed table and just touched the outboard end of the outfeed table had a .013″ gap at the cutter head.
For the moment I temporarily shimmed the outfeed ways with paper- I wanted to try some test quick cuts. I face jointed a 5″ x 24″ board for several passes. My cuts are now cleaner, but now show a taper across the WIDTH of the board. After 5 passes I ended up with a .030″ difference side to side.
I used a surface gage and Best Test indicator to swing both sides of the outfeed table relative to the high point of the cutter head’s cylinder – one side showed up about .0005″ lower. Repeating the test for the infeed table I got one side .0015″lower. Both low points are on the same side of the jointer, for a difference of .001″ table to table over a 6″ width.
The test board did have some initial cupping, so I planed it such the concave side was against the tables for stability. I can understand ending up taking a little more off one side than the other taking out the cup, but not .030″.
The only thing I can think of is that one or more of the knife blades isn’t set parallel to the plane of the tables.
Does this seem reasonable conclusion?
Thanks again,
MDF
4 Shannon // Sep 22, 2009 at 1:29 pm
MDF, I am almost certain that your knives are the problem here. I still had to fix the alignment of my knives even after making the tables coplanar. Spend some time getting those at the right height to the outfeed table and parallel and your jointer should be humming.
5 Sundeep // Nov 15, 2009 at 11:40 am
Thank you for the podcast, it was very instructive. I really liked watching it. I just bought my jointer, very similar to yours (a 6″ Delta) and I never thought of the need to check the tables for coplanar. The knife changing process described in the manual is a bit complicated, but that jig makes is so easy – I am going to order one.
6 Eric // Jan 13, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Thanks for the great podcast! Just a tip… if you have an .008″ drop at the end of the table, it takes less than an .008″ shim to true it up (maybe .003″) since the shim location is clover to the pivot point.
7 Richard // May 26, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Thanks a bunch for the video- Just bought a used Jointer and your video along with the woodwhisperer videos are definitely the two best I have found. Yours is the only one I’ve seen covering the shim process. Thanks!
Based on your video I draw the conclusion that the gib screws only tighten the bed and are not really used to adjust it if a corner is off a bit. I had been staring at it a day or two thinking the same thing.
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