Quick & Easy setting straight jointer knives

[Tom King]

Tools needed:  angle hook pick to pull knives up above final position if they drop too low when putting them in behind the gib

                          wrench to fit gib screws

                          strip of the hardest wood you have.   I don't know what size this piece of Boxwood is, but it's a good size for the job.  A wood not so hard would need to be a little thicker so it could push the knives down without such a large dent sliced into it.

The trick is to install the knive so the gib will hold it where you put it, but not slide up, or down without help.  Tighten until you feel a little resistance, and then back off a hair.

Wrench starts on one of the center gib screws, and rotates the head back and forth.  Tail end of the wood stays down on the outfeed table, so it can't possibly push the knife down too far.  Rotate the head back and forth while gently pushing down each end of a knife.  When you can rotate the head, and feel the knife brushing the wood, ever so lightly, on each end, tighten that screw that the wrench is on, and then after checking both ends again, tighten the other screws.

Same for the other knives.  Keep moving the position of the wood so the knife is not resting in any tiny groove.   Takes maybe 20 seconds per knife, if you don't get in a hurry.

No need to measure anything, or how far the knife can pull the wood.

Test run a piece through the jointer.  Some people I've taught this to end up with a little snipe.  That's why jointers have adjustable outfeed tables.  I use that adjustment a lot more than most people I expect.  One reason some like to leave the knives proud of the outfeed table plane is so as the knives wear, you can still straighten a board.  I just adjust the table at that point, but run it back up the next time I set the knives to the point where both tables are in the same plane, to start over again.  To adjust the outfeed table, learn which way it goes while you have knives out.

I wouldn't mind having one of those Byrd heads, but the time necessary to change those cutters would be a little maddening for me.  This way, if you need to run finished sides on the jointer, it doesn't take long to change a set, and saves a lot of time sanding.

Picture of wood is piece of Cypress run against the grain.  Freshen up the edges of your setting strip while the knives are fresh, so it will be ready to go next time.

[pkinneb]

Thanks for sharing Tom! Great info and results 

[Tom King]

This works for handheld power planers too.   That's really how I started setting knives this way.

  Way back when I first started, I bought several type of dial indicator holders for setting jointer, and planer knives, but the trouble with them is finding exactly where top dead center is, which is a time wasting hunt.  I get better surface finish results on wood, which is really what should matter, with this method, than I ever did with dial indicators.  I haven't used those things in decades.

If you ask me how many thousandths proud the knives are of the outfeed table, or if they're flush, I don't know, and I don't care.   I only care about results, and wasting no time getting to those results.

When you are getting set up to change knives, run the infeed table up to where the depth indicator reads zero, and the outfeed table up flush with that, if you have moved it, or think maybe you did since the last knife change.  Otherwise, you end up having to fiddle with the indicator later, of live with it being off.  

If both my jointers were in the same place, I'd keep one for general use, and one for finishing.  These will take over general duty pretty soon, and it won't be long after that that I will probably drop the outfeed table a hair.