Thread: HABCO 6" Jointer

Fuzzie I have exactly the opposite problem the pin came loose in the guard and went up the blower. If you don't have the other peice, I would grind the entire section that is remaing off and fabricate a new peice with tabs on each side the drill and tap the machine and fix it on with a couple of unbrako's, they are agreat machine I have had mine for nealy 20 years

Thanks China, I was thinking of maybe using a pipe saddle and drilling and tapping holes to fix into, but I'm a bit unsure about how to go about it. I've never done that before, don't have any taps and am a bit concerned I'd maybe crack the rest of the bed if I do it wrong.

Perhaps I need to find a junker hand plane body to practice on first.

Are these any help to you?

Fuzzie, if you want to have a practice on some scrap that is fine, although if you take it slowly you should not have a problem. I personaly would use something with a bit more thickness than a pipe saddle, if you are not good with metal work see if some one you know can make some thing up for you. If you have no luck I will make one for you and post it, you will have to give me the diameter of the pin though, it might not be the same as mine.

Thanks FXST01 for the scans. I also downloaded one of the Grizzly tools jointer manuals. I think I should have enough to work with now

China, thanks for the offer, I might take you up on it eventually. My metalworking skills are pretty much limited to playing with galvanized down pipes. I know how to use tin snips and a pop riveter . However I'm willing to make a first attempt myself and I'll work on making the part before I start drilling holes in the machine.

The body of the jointer actually seems to be fabricated with a thick plate welded to the cast base. The edge of the plate bed is presumably too thin to drill and tap and provide decent support, so whatever is attached will have to slip under the lip and bolt to the body.

My first problem is what stock do I start with? It looks like I would need a solid block of metal say a minimum of a 25mm square and 50mm long. Where do you find that?

Fuzzie no problem I will have a very good look at mine tomorrow and let you know what I think would be the best way to go, my buzzer/jointer is in my carport under cover I have just taken most stuff out of my shed to do sme re-arranging

I cleaned the cutter head this morning, it was pretty much covered in gunk. I was initially looking to see what state the knives are in. They actually look better than I expected.

I had thought it was a 3 knife, but it turns out it has four cutters. I checked the setting and one knife seems to be a fraction higher than the others. No problem I thought juts reseat it. However the problem is I can't seem to shift the screws.

The blades aren't kept in place with a gib and bolts, there are three big grub screws in the head that presumably push something against the blade.

The biggest screwdriver I have seems to be too small and is just going to chew up the heads more than they are already.

I'm not sure if the screws maybe brass or if they have been chewed up before and brazed in attempt to restore them. The ones in the picture arent the worst, they are just the ones on the blade I want to reset. There also seems to be a hole in the bottom of each slot, that perhaps fitted a purpose made tool for removal.

Questions:

1. Would there be a special tool for this?
2. Would these most likely be right hand thread?
3. What's the best way to loosen the screws that will do the least damage to the slots? Get a bigger screwdriver?

After a few diversions , see
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f163/b...ig+screwdriver and
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f154/g...rallel-114035/

I seem to have things back to a working state.

Aligning the tables was a bit challenging but when I tracked down why it was easier to wind the tables down and not up, I eventually found the table adjuster retaining nuts were loose. Tightening these has helped with the alignment at the expense of ease of movement of the tables on the ways. Tightening the nuts pulls the table down on the dovetails and tends to lock them. A bit of shimming with strips cut from an aluminium drink can seem to have done the rest.

I've reset the blades a bit better than when I started, but haven't as yet resharpened them. Blade setting is fun as the head has to be rotated to access the screws that clamp the blade in position. The standard instructions for positioning blades at top dead centre doesn't really work here, since the screws have to be at TDC to tighten them. It also means one of the magnetic type setting jigs that hold the blade at TDC wouldn't be much use.

I'm next going to look into lowering the infeed table and butting the blade, rotated some significant amount from TDC, up to a square held against the fence as an alignment tool. This will keep the clamp screws in play while fiddling with the blade height.

Before Easter I stumbled across a local Bunnings running out Craftright small metric tap and die sets for $5. I figured I was going to need something like that for whatever I was going to do to fix the cutter guard, so picked up a set.

After a couple of false starts trying to shape something suitable from blocks of hardwood, I came up with this idea.

I bought an M12 reinforcing rod connector, a small angle and a short M12 bolt - a couple of dollars all up. I already had a spring and a couple of m6 screws.

Firstly I drilled out the top part of the connector thread so it would take the 1/2" guard post. I filed a V into the stub of the pin hole in the table, lined up so the bolted on connector would be partially braced by the table. Drilled a couple of holes in the table sides and angle, used an m6 tap and voila. The only spring I had lying around looked a bit big, but it seems to work ok. I think it may have been bed springing or maybe off a chair seat.

Great to see you sorted it, have you tried the machine

Originally Posted by China

Great to see you sorted it, have you tried the machine

Only a few test cuts. The guard works smoothly but the spring might be a tad strong. It however feels a whole lot better not seeing the rest of the cutter head spinning while running something across the blades.

I haven't tried to realign the blades again. It cuts fairly when edge jointing next to the fence, but is a bit rougher on a face. At least one blade must be high on the outside.

I haven't decided on blade sharpening yet. I might try something like this.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESRLkrCy5Y4]YouTube - Woodworking Planer Jointer Knife Sharpening Jig[/ame]