Thread: jointer - just cant get it straight

Hi and welcome,
It sounds to me that your cutter is above the height of your outfeed table. Basically, the difference in height between the infeed table and cutter is the depth of cut and, if the outfeed table isnt at the same height as the cutter, when you transfer your weight the workpiece rocks over and you actually cut a shallow v as you have described.
Fletty

thanks for the advice. I rechecked my in feed table and its about 1/16 lower then my blades. My blades are level with my out feed table. Now i've tried a few things and i think i have it. If i keep my weight even when pushing my wood through the jointer i get a nice straight edge. If i do like all the vids i've watched and transfer my weight to the out feed table i still have the same problem. I guess it just might be thats how this old machine works. I see that busy bee has a sale until Oct 11 here is canada. the price for an 8" jointer is 788.00 does anyone have any experience with one of these machines? thanks again.

Originally Posted by TheWesternCanuk

i've double checked for square and checked to see if both the in feed and out feed are aligned and they seem very very close. there does seem to be a 32nd difference front the end of the infeed table to where it is closest to the blades. here is the problem, when i'm jointing my wood it always ends up shaving down the first half of the wood and i slowly creates a v shape instead of a straight edge.

Both tables have to be exactly parallel.
If the infeed is lower at the front you are effectively cutting uphill. When you transfer the pressure to the outfeed table you are changing the angle of attack and producing the typical V shaped cut.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix the difference in the table. I've taken the in feed table off the jointer all cleaned all surfaces hoping there might be something that was causing the difference. Reassembled to the same problem. there are no adjustments i can see for that problem. Is this machine toast?

There are usually 4 dovetail or rectangular shaped bars that the beds slide up and down on, these are called Gibs and have Gib screws for adjusting. There are usually 12 screws, three per side for each bed, which are adjusted to align the beds.

PM me your email address and I will send you a pdf showing setting up and using the jointer which might help you.

My interpretation of what Sprog wrote is that both tables are parallel but then you adjust the infeed table down with a winding mechanism according to how much waste you want to remove and then applying the feed action you described at the beginning of your post.

(You will need to adjust the tables using the grub screws) (on Chinese models to get that parallel)

Originally Posted by jow104

My interpretation of what Sprog wrote is that both tables are parallel but then you adjust the infeed table down with a winding mechanism according to how much waste you want to remove and then applying the feed action you described at the beginning of your post.

(You will need to adjust the tables using the grub screws) (on Chinese models to get that parallel)

The depth of cut is adjusted by raising or lowering the infeed table.

Before that though the tables have to be parallel in the horizontal plane or you will never get a straight cut.

The original statement "there does seem to be a 32nd difference front (from) the end of the infeed table to where it is closest to the blades", would suggest that the tables are not parallel.

Adjusting this is different to adjusting the depth of cut. It is the GIB (not grub ) screws that adjust both the infeed and outfeed tables and have been part of jointers long before the manufacturing in China

Sprog the grub screw I am referring to are not the ones that raise the blades up and down but raise the table levels to their correct position.

I had a problem with my jointer a little while back and spent weeks adjusting grub screws and removing and cleaning the dovetail keys.

My boards were being tapered.

After much frustration, I lowered the outfeed table.
Now it works like a charm.
Somewhere along the line the outfeed table ended up level with the cutter blades. It must be just a little below the cutters.

The grub screws basically snug the tables against the dovetail slides.
If the tables aren't parallel you need to shim the problem dovetail slide.

Good luck. I understand your frustration.

Originally Posted by Scally

I had a problem with my jointer a little while back and spent weeks adjusting grub screws and removing and cleaning the dovetail keys.

My boards were being tapered.

After much frustration, I lowered the outfeed table.
Now it works like a charm.
Somewhere along the line the outfeed table ended up level with the cutter blades. It must be just a little below the cutters.

I had always thought that the outfeed table is supposed to be perfectly level with the cutting blades. If its a little below the blades won't u get a slight rocking action as boards pass over the blades?????

Originally Posted by Rattrap

I had always thought that the outfeed table is supposed to be perfectly level with the cutting blades. If its a little below the blades won't u get a slight rocking action as boards pass over the blades?????

I would have thought that too.

Originally Posted by Rattrap

I had always thought that the outfeed table is supposed to be perfectly level with the cutting blades. If its a little below the blades won't u get a slight rocking action as boards pass over the blades?????

Blades below the outfeed table produces a taper.
Blades above the outfeed table produce snipe.
Blades level with the outfeed table produces a straight cut.

I agree with your post above Sprog, thats how I set my P/T, however the manual states to place a straight edge on the outfeed table and turn the blade and it should make the straight edge travel 5mm towards the infeed end, but this is not my way.

Sprog, thank you for your attachement, I printed it out and attached to my P/T.