Roger T Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 Morning all, I've had my shop set up for a long time, and bought what I thought was quality equipment to put in it. Well all of the bad original machines are now long gone, replaced with better machines. My one problem, since bringing it home has been my jointer. A Jet 6". No matter what I did, I just could not make my jointer cut a straight edge. I spent countless hours using a magnetic base indicator on getting the knives set. Still no diffence in cut quality. And then, a couple of days ago, I ran across Marc's Jointer tuneup video. So once again, I renewed my efforts to get this to work the way it was designed. First off, I ordered a 50" precision ground straight edge from LV. Since the Jet has only the adjustments for the beds on one side, I was not sure how this all was going to come out. Using feeler gauges and my new edge, I found that the tables were in fact co-planar. Tho the infeed side had a small dish in it of .0015 yep, one and a half thousands. I can live with that. Now, using a starrett 12" ruler, I tried to get the outfeed table adjusted to the knives. The worst knife would move the rule about 3/16" on the fence side and about 1/8" on the outside. The rest of the knives were all good using the ruler jump method. All about 1/8th" Test cuts ensued. There will be no joy in Mudville as the Mighty Casey has struck out. As we have a Woodcraft locally, I made the run and bought the Oneway Multi Gage. Slick piece of tooling there. So $100 lighter, and with my new slick gage, I set about seeing just what was wrong. 3 blade cutter head, and the knives are in pretty decent shape. Checked all the jack screws, and locking nuts on the blades. All ok. Find TDC and start measuring. Worst blade is .0025 side to side. The other 2 blades are at .001-.0015 All three blades fall within a .0025 tolerance across the outfeed table. So at this point this is good enough for the girls I go out with. More test cuts on pine and oak. More disappointing results. Middles look good, but the first and last 2 inches of the boards are showing light. Damn, Damn, Damn. So back out comes the Multi gage and I adjust the outfeed table to be absolutely planer with the highest point of the one rogue knife. I moved the table exactly .003" Test cuts. Wow I finally got this figured out I think. Running 2' long boards thru, no light shows anywhere. Grab a 4' piece of cherry and some rock hard White Oak that I have. Same thing. No light at the ends!! I am a happy camper now! All this is in preparation of starting my workbench in a week or so. Also did a couple of 8' 2x4's just to prove to myself that this is not a fluke and I can actually joint wood the way it was meant to be. I would have never bet that moving that table .003 would fix this machine. So, I guess the whole moral of the story is if you are having trouble with your machine, and just cant get it figured out, you may want to consider spending the money and getting some decent measuring tools. After $180 I can finally be happy. Thanks for reading, and I hope my post helps someone sometime. Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sac Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 congrats on getting the new tools all setup. I know that it is a pain. I spent 3 days trying to get my TS all setup. But in the long run, it is better that you spent all this time figuring it out. you probably learned a few things, and the results will show in your work. Just out of curiosity, what were the old tools that you got rid of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger T Posted November 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 congrats on getting the new tools all setup. I know that it is a pain. I spent 3 days trying to get my TS all setup. But in the long run, it is better that you spent all this time figuring it out. you probably learned a few things, and the results will show in your work. Just out of curiosity, what were the old tools that you got rid of? Well lets see, started off with a Craftsman bandsaw. That didnt last a week in the shop, took it back and got my money back, bought a Jet 14" CS w/riser block and carter guides. That has since been replaced with a MiniMax MM20. Bought a Jet 1236 Lathe, that has gone bye bye, replaced it with a Oneway 2436. Couple different routers, drills etc. Had a Skil 10" chop saw, replaced with a DeWalt 12" SCMS. Had a Craftsman 1950's era table saw, dangerous tool.. Replaced that with a Ridgid. Will it ever end????? The Jointer would have been next, and still may be when I get back to work. I have to many hobbies that cost to much money. lol Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben H Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 Good story Roger. I think my jointer lay dormant for more than year before I took the time to set it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Congrats on getting your jointer tuned up! It's a task that takes a lot of patience, but is worth it in the long run. I would have never bet that moving that table .003 would fix this machine. 0.003" seems like a ridiculously small margin of error, but the 0.003" that you moved the table at the end near the cutterhead probably moved the end of the table more than 1/64" relative to the knives, which is enough error for you to see daylight under a straightedge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nateswoodworks Posted November 25, 2010 Report Share Posted November 25, 2010 Man, .003 does sure not seem like a problem maker! Glad you got it figured out. Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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