Setup problems with my FS41.

[Chris Livingston]

My jointer tables on my FS41 were not parallel to each other so I was getting poor results on shorter stock and I've been working on adjusting the tables and have run into a dilemma.

Last night I shimmed the hinged side, adjusted the other side and got it to where my 4' Starrett was very flat from the infeed table onto the outfeed table about a foot and called it good. Put the fence back on, adjusted it and then ran an 18" long ¾" thick board through and it was as if I hadn't done any adjusting.

I then pulled out my 24" straight edge and putting it centered over the cutter head it rocked back and forth just like before. I gave up and went to bed and today I "mapped" out the table tops. It turns out both sides dip in starting about 2 inches away from the cutter head and come back up several inches from the ends leaving a dish in the middles of the tops. The infeed table has a 28" long full width of the top.004 dip and the outfeed has a 30" long .007 dip across the width. They follow fairly closely the surfacing lines. Is this excessive by manufacturing standards especially if it is causing noticeable problems when jointing?

While this is a concern for the obvious reasons the problem I've got at the moment is that I can set things up so that over the length of the tables long boards will be fine but then the short ones won't come out right. If I adjust things so that short stock comes out ok won't it affect long boards?

I don't want to be one of the way to picky engineer types that
want .000000000001 perfection in woodworking but when I can't joint an 18" long board isn't that bad?

Thanks guys.

Chris

[Jim Becker]

Yes, it's not right. Call MM and have them get it taken care of for you. My tables are absolutely flat and yours should be, too. If I happen to actually remember to do it, I'll mention it to Sam and Jim tomorrow at the show...but no guarantees on my memory!

[Chris Livingston]

Thanks Jim. I also found that the aluminum "fingers" attached to the tables where they meet the cutter head were way off and helping to throw off my setup. The ends of the table were not ground to 90 degrees along the entire width (or they were and something warped) and these fingers weren't true so I took them off and now I'm attempting to adjust again. Arg! Getting no work done this weekend.

Chris

[Chris Livingston]

[Jim Dunn]

Chris, that table dosn't look like it's been ground to me. Is it smooth? Looks like they forgot part of the finishing on the tables. Grinding will take care of the flatness problem.

Jim

[Jim Becker]

Jim, the table is ground. It's just a different style...not smooth and shiny. The ridges allow the material to float a lot easier as you move them and it's especially important for wide boards...they can actually "stick" once they are nearly flat on a piece of smooth iron! I really LIKE this kind of surface, too, since I've had the experience of using it on my own J/P. I don't recall the name for this particular kind of grind, but there is one...