Thread: New guy needs advice please

Welcome TW
Can't help with your jointer.

Originally Posted by Tomm Williams

Is there a cure for this on a fixed outfeed table or did I waste my money ?

What sort of knife setting jig do you have for it? Is it accurate and does it have micro-adjustment for each end of the knife being set?

So long as the in-feed table is co-planar to the out-feed (this is must on every jointer!) then you should be able to adjust the knives to suit.

For a concave cut, the knives need to be set just a smidgin lower than they currently are. If it's a convex cut, then they need to be set a poofteenth higher instead.

In theory, if you rest a short steel ruler on the out-feed table, overhanging the cutter block, and turn the cutter-head by hand in the operating direction, the blade should just catch the ruler and move it towards the in-feed by a mm or two. This is a handy method for getting the approximate knife height setting if you don't have a jig... but obviously it's accuracy and repeatability leaves much to be desired.

I'd recommend the two-piece, micro adjustable blade setting jigs rather than the generic one-piece jigs often provided with many units. They allow you to set each end of the knife independently of t'other, which has it's advantages. 'Tis a good idea to mark one of the jigs so that it is always the one used on the fence side of the knife.

That would be allow you to set all of the knives approximately, position the jigs and set them to that knife height then do a test cut.

Concave test cut? Adjust both jigs the same amount lower and repeat the test. Rinse and repeat until you have it dialled in, then lock the jigs in position and carefully store them somewhere safe where the settings won't be accidentally changed.

Even if it takes all day to get it set to your satisfaction, it's worth the while; you can simply use the jigs at the locked, final setting for all further knife resets. Unless you want to go through the whole laborious process to 'get it right' every time?

FWIW, if you need to set the blades so low that when doing the 'ruler test' you can actually see a gap between the ruler and the knife when in it's top-most position then stop, give the machine a long, hard look... and look up the phone no. for your nearest metal recycler. That'd be a bag of headaches sitting there and not easily fixed, if it's possible at all.

Also be aware that if you run a significantly softer - or harder - piece of timber than you used for setting up, then it may not come out perfectly flat. This is not the jointer's fault, it's just a property of timber and all jointers do it; it's usually not noticeable and can be ignored... but sometimes, well...

Still, 'tis best to use a length of whatever timber you expect to use most frequently when making test cuts and not just some random, disposable off-cut.

Ok I think I found at least part of the problem...............utilizing a straight edge I can see that the infeed table has two issues. 1-it's higher in the back 2-it's sagging ever so slightly in the middle.
As I raise the infeed to attempt to check level between the tables, it actually engages the end of the fence and pushes up on it ever so slightly before it finally moves forward to a "level" position relative to the outfeed. I have my fence making firm contact with the outfeed at a 90 which I assume is correct? There would not be a gap between the fence and outfeed would there?
Then once I see the daylight close at the "cutter end" of the infeed, I still see daylight in the middle of the straight edge on the infeed, but not at either end .............. Pretty sure you cant adjust a cast iron solid object............is it junk?. I'm only into this for about $250, I really don't want to jump down a rabbit hole of repairs.

Welcome to the forum Tomm.

Ross

OK, that's a problem.

A sagging infeed doesn't necessarily make the machine unusable, but it would certainly not be a good 'first' jointer.

There are workarounds which'd sorta get around the issue, but you shouldn't need to learn them at the same time as coming to grips with the basics.

FWIW, I won't label any machine junk unless I've actually eye-balled it (and poked grubby fingers into sites unseen) but it sounds like that machine is closer to the 'parts' side of the scale than the 'user' side.