Uphill battle with my jointer

[Eric Roberge]

Ok, I’ve always struggled with my jointer. I can never seem to get a good flat edge on a board. I’ve tried different hand placement, pressure, etc., but 99% of the time I end up with a high spot in the center of the board that I’m trying to get flat. I can literaly rock it on a flat surface such as the outfeed bed.


I know that you start with both of your hands on the stock over the infeed table and as you pass to the outfeed table your hand pressure should begin to focus there (on the new edge) Then when I do get it straight, I rip it a 16th from my finish size and try to clean up the joint and end up with a high spot again….Frustrating:mad:

Anyone have any tips for me? I’m running a delta JT 360 6” jointer and from what I can tell everything is set up correctly. I just think that my hand placement is off.
It has to be something simple that I'm just doing incorrectly.

[Greg Bender]

Eric,
Get a long straight edge and set it parallel to the fence and see if you have and gaps showing.Also check to see if your infeed and outfeed tables are co planar.It sounds like something is alittle out of wack.I have the 6 " Delta Pro jointer and I had issues that I could not resolve.I did not use it for years and finally called Delta Service in Charlotte,they took it in based on the unused appearance and gave it the once over and decided that it was not repairable.They gave me a brand new jointer and it is much better.Check yours out and then call them.It's not worth much to you if you can't get decent, straight boards out of it.Good Luck,
Greg

PS I'm in Mooresville

[Harry Niemann]

I suspect that your beds are not in a straight line. Use a straight edge to check it and add shims if necessary to correct it.

[chris beserra]

sounds like the outfeed table is at the wrong height.

[Jason White]

Depending on the thickness of the stock, make sure you're not pushing down too hard when running it through. Otherwise, you might be "flexing" the middle of the board down, taking too much off the middle. Then, when you check it on a flat surface (I use my tablesaw), the middle of the board will appear higher than the two ends.

Jason



Ok, I’ve always struggled with my jointer. I can never seem to get a good flat edge on a board. I’ve tried different hand placement, pressure, etc., but 99% of the time I end up with a high spot in the center of the board that I’m trying to get flat. I can literaly rock it on a flat surface such as the outfeed bed.


I know that you start with both of your hands on the stock over the infeed table and as you pass to the outfeed table your hand pressure should begin to focus there (on the new edge) Then when I do get it straight, I rip it a 16th from my finish size and try to clean up the joint and end up with a high spot again….Frustrating:mad:

Anyone have any tips for me? I’m running a delta JT 360 6” jointer and from what I can tell everything is set up correctly. I just think that my hand placement is off.
It has to be something simple that I'm just doing incorrectly.

[Howard Acheson]

As Chris has said, the first thing you must do is to assure the jointer is properly aligned. The outfeed table must be in exactly the same plane as the infeed table.

Lower the infeed table and using a long, known straightedge, lay it on the outfeed table. Be sure the straightedge is set so that a free end is positioned completely over the infeed table. Now slowly raise the infeed table until it just begins to touch the staightedge. Sight under the straightedge on the infeed table and see that the straightedge is completely sitting on the whole infeed table. If you see any mis-match, it means that your tables need to be aligned. Check you instruction book on how to perform the alignment.

Once aligned, again try to joint a board and see how it goes. Using a jointer is something that requires instruction and practice.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

How long a board are you trying to joint? Typically, you can only joint a board (effectively) that is twice your bed length. If you're trying to joint a board that is way longer than your jointer, you'll have problems.
Make sure your knives are not too high.

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Chris and Howard; this symptom is often caused by a low outer end of the infeed or outfeed table. Jointing long boards is not a problem if you have proper support and as Kyle points out, brute strength or intense downward pressure doesn't count.

Raise your infeed to be even with your outfeed, rotate the head so the knives are out of the way and lay a long straight edge across the tables. If you are adjusting a jointer and don't have a long straight edge, stop now and go get one; resume your efforts once you're ready.

If the straight edge shows high or low spots, this is your go/no go indicator that you are out of adjustment. There is a list of things to do to check your jointer and this can be found using 'search' here or other places. The point is to stop beating yourself up over your technique if the machine is fighting you.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I have a Jet 6" jointer and was having similar problems. I figured that my tables were not aligned properly, so I spent 8 hours fighting the thing. I still couldn't get them aligned.

I didn't use the machine for 2 months and then decided to try fixing it again. But this time I got a 4' long straight edge from Lee Valley Tools out of Canada:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=50074

From my searching, this was the best value and is actually more precise (according to Lee Valley) than others costing more than double this straight edge. The straight edge will get used for many other things around the shop, so I think it's a good investment.

Jointing is not really all that hard if you understand the concepts (which it appears you do). So it's most likely that your machine is mis-aligned.

First check your knives to make sure they're all set at the same height. Then make sure your outfeed table is the exact same height as the knives at their peak of rotation. If that's all ok, then your tables probably aren't parallel/coplanar. That's where the straight edge comes in. Raise the infeed table so that it's the same height as the outfeed table. simply lay the straight edge down on the tables and you should immediately be able to tell if they're out of whack.

Your condition would be caused by the end(s) of at least one of the tables being too high.

This is where patience comes in. Loosen the jib screws on the back of the machine (your owner's manual will tell you where they are). Once loosened, your table will move around. I suggest starting with the outfeed table. Keep the straight edge on the tables and try to move around the outfeed table until the straight edge lies flat. Use your other hand to slowly tighten the jib screws little by little.

That's all it took for me- I got mine in alignment eventually. I learned that it was best to tighten the bottom and top jib screws first, then tighten the ones in between. Otherwise, tightening the middle screws first forced the table back into its misaligned position... Which was really frustrating.

If this technique doesn't work after doing it for both the infeed and outfeed tables, then you need to insert shims under the table's dovetail ways. I have never done this, so I recommend doing at search if it comes to it.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I got this from the internet, I'm not that smart.

Get 2 boards, teh length of your jointer (or shorter if you like), no need to be straight. Mark the center and near the ends. Screw in 3 screws in each board, at the middle and ends. Adjust the screws so their heads touch. Flip 1 board, the heads should line up. (This is the only critical part) Adjust the screws untill they touch again. Repeat flipping and adjusting, until you can flip one board and the heads still touch. It may be hard to visualize, but once you start, it will make sense. Once you can flip and the heads all still touch, you have a straight 3 point line.

Check the jointer blade height and the tables.

[Dell Moore]

I HIGHLY recommend you get a couple of push pads for your jointer. It solved my problems by helping me evenly apply pressure on the wood as I push it over the blades.