Thread: Finger Jointer Fence Faces Bowed

Hmmm. Well I'm going to take the total silence as meaning: we have never heard of this problem and don't know what the $#%#$% you are talking about. So I guess I now have to extract some replacement fences from Triton. Wish me luck...

I am not the most experienced woody hear but I have not had problems with my finger jointer. I checked and the fences are square on mine and I reckon you must have a dud. Surely if the salespeople see it they will replace it for you. If it is not square the fingers will probably not be cut accurately. It also very important that your router bit is sharp and true.

Thanks Fred. If I don't have a clear response from Triton by the weekend I'll take it back to Bunnies & swap over.

Hi Princhester,
I had this same problem with mine and Triton sent me two new aluminium fences. They fixed the problem. More worring to me was the fact that the orange stopper was about 2 inces to short and when I pushed the unit accross to cut the slot in the base of the aluminium fence I almost cut rite through the back of the fence into my hand. They sent a new stopper with the aluminium fences.

I have had the unit a few years now and am quite happy with it. It did take a lot of setting up with files and straight edges to get it all right. I also have made up a quick setup gauge for getting the finger in the correct place.

Originally Posted by Foxtail

I also have made up a quick setup gauge for getting the finger in the correct place.

Sounds great.
Please share more information or pictures.

Well I don't know if I'm unlucky, going mad or what. I took my finger jointer back to Bunnings yesterday evening to swap over. The only other jointer they had there also had bowed fences on the aluminium fences. I went to a different Bunnings this morning. They had one in stock. It also had bowed faces, but they weren't as bad so I took it anyway.

Tonight I put it together: same thing, the fences lean out, away from the workpieces, so they can slop backwards and forwards. It seems to me that it is not just a matter of bowed faces: as best I can tell the bottom of the fences and the face are just not at 90 degrees.

The only way I can get a snug fit on the workpieces so that there is no slop is to undo the knobs holding the mdf fences on, and push the top of the fences in so that they are only touching the aluminium fences at the bottom and are held in midair by the holddown clamps at the top.

It seems hard to believe that I'm the only one who has had this problem given how widespread it seems to be, going by my experience. Or maybe I've just been incredibly unlucky.

Is it just me? Is this a known problem?