Jointer Woes: Fence square at one end and not the other

[jason mowery]

Good Evening-

I have a Yorkcraft 6" jointer that up until now I've been extremely pleased with. Tonight though, I was checking the fence for squareness to the table, and discovered it was off. After making adjustments to the infeed end of the fence, bringing to perfect square, I figured I'd check the outfeed side just for grins. -Turns out the outfeed side of the fence is off considerably, but I have no idea how to correct this situation. It seems to me that there is only one mechanism or avenue for adjusting the fence 90 degrees to the table, and nothing to correct a "one end is, one end isn't" scenario. Has anyone else experienced something similar? If so, can it be corrected? How?
Finally, I just replaced a really crumby tablesaw blade with a new Ridgid 50 tooth combination blade (I know it's not a Forrest or a Freud, but it's way better than I had), but everything I run through the saw leaves burn marks. I've checked the fence for parallelism to the miter slots (good) and the fence 90 degrees to the table (good), and the blade 90 degrees to the table. Is there any chance the coating on the blade is causing this? What about my out of square jointer situation? If I'm jointing an edge first, and it is slightly NOT 90 degrees, and I then run that edge along the table saw fence, could that be causing a pinching situation that creates the burning? Thanks in advance for your help. Hopefully sometime I can reciprocate and offer some useful advice to someone.

[Jason White]

I saw in a book one time they recommended drilling and bolting a flat piece of stock like plywood to the cast-iron jointer fence and shimmed it square along its length. Failing that, you can get the fence ground flat at a machine shop.

Jason



Good Evening-

I have a Yorkcraft 6" jointer that up until now I've been extremely pleased with. Tonight though, I was checking the fence for squareness to the table, and discovered it was off. After making adjustments to the infeed end of the fence, bringing to perfect square, I figured I'd check the outfeed side just for grins. -Turns out the outfeed side of the fence is off considerably, but I have no idea how to correct this situation. It seems to me that there is only one mechanism or avenue for adjusting the fence 90 degrees to the table, and nothing to correct a "one end is, one end isn't" scenario. Has anyone else experienced something similar? If so, can it be corrected? How?
Finally, I just replaced a really crumby tablesaw blade with a new Ridgid 50 tooth combination blade (I know it's not a Forrest or a Freud, but it's way better than I had), but everything I run through the saw leaves burn marks. I've checked the fence for parallelism to the miter slots (good) and the fence 90 degrees to the table (good), and the blade 90 degrees to the table. Is there any chance the coating on the blade is causing this? What about my out of square jointer situation? If I'm jointing an edge first, and it is slightly NOT 90 degrees, and I then run that edge along the table saw fence, could that be causing a pinching situation that creates the burning? Thanks in advance for your help. Hopefully sometime I can reciprocate and offer some useful advice to someone.

[Wilbur Pan]

First thing I would do is joint a fairly long piece of wood with your fence set up as square as you can, and use a square to see if the corner is square along its length. If it is, you have nothing to worry about.

A thought experiment will show why. Suppose you have your jointer fence square over a length long enough to register a board on. That fence will give you a square corner. Now add a curved section of fence to extend the outfeed side of the fence. Your fence will still work correctly, since you haven't changed the part of the fence you are referencing from.

[Cody Colston]

You need to shim the outfeed bed on your jointer to make it square to the fence.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Cody has a great idea!

Is the problem with the fence or is the outfeed bed not totally aligned with respect to the infeed bed?

Now is where a long accurate straight edge would come in handy!

[jason mowery]

Ken and Cody-

I'm not sure about the outfeed table...I'll have to check that tomorrow AM. I didn't even consider that a possibility, but I definitely think it's worth checking out, now that you've mentioned it. I do know that the jointer isn't sitting level (the floor is very uneven), so that might be serving to twist things some and causing (or at least exacerbating) the situation. I'll look into it.

Thanks! Anyone else have any other thoughts or suggestions I should consider? How about the burning blade question?

[Ken Taylor]

Jason,

Still new to most of this, but I had a similar problem when I switched my TS blade... burned like hell...

Stupid me, I put it in with the teeth facing backwards!.

Worked just fine after i turned it around.

Maybe not your problem...but sure sounded similar!

-Ken

[jason mowery]

Ken Taylor-

You know, it's a good thing you mention that, because I wouldn't rule that possibility out, considering how easily I can screw something up!:rolleyes:
I checked first thing this morning, and it turns out I did manage to have the blade on correctly, however, the fence wasn't quite as perfectly perpendicular to the table as I thought, so I made the adjustments (man, I like the Unifence!), and so far, that seems to have done the trick with the burning issue. As far as the jointer goes, I leveled it this morning (the building my "shop" is in is an old hog barn, and he floor is purposely convex, from edge to edge) and either that or a renewed perspective this morning has helped with the jointer fence issue. It's now perfect on the infeed side, and so far "good enough" (but not perfect) on the outfeed. I think I can live with that for a while. Sometimes I guess all it takes is walking away from it for an evening and starting fresh in the morning. Thanks guys, again, for all your ideas and help!

[Rod Sheridan]

Jason, either the fence has a twist, or your tables aren't parallel.

Regards, Rod.

[Stephen Edwards]

I bet that the tables aren't parallel. It happens sometimes. I don't think that the uneven, out of level floor is part of the problem. That shouldn't matter, IMHO.

[george wilson]

How can you shim the outfeed table to match the fence? That is a new one on me. The infeed and outfeed tables need to be parallel with the cutter head,and with each other. If they aren't parallel,you will have all kinds of trouble with the machine jointing wood tapered,sniping,etc..

Jointer fences of the usual type are frequently warped to some degree. This includes old Delta Rockwells. Our old Delta was the same way. The fence is a thin casting,and is prone to warping. The best thing to do easily is to apply a piece of nice,true hardwood to the fence,and shim it square.

I doubt that you could get the fence reground square with success. Plus,it would cost more than the jointer is worth. At least around here it would.

First,though,do joint a board and see if it joints true as suggested above. You don't hold the board to the outfeed side of the fence,only to the infeed side.So,it might not matter. It wouldn't be safe to hold the board against both ends of the fence.

[Stephen Edwards]

On my jointers there are adjustments to get the tables parallel. It's a hassle of a chore, though.

Why is it unsafe to hold the board against both ends of the fence? That's what I've always done. What am I missing?

[jason mowery]

After I got things adjusted as good as a I could, I joined a few pieces and they're right as a rain, so I'm going to cross this off my list of things to worry about. Thanks for the all the suggestions and insight!

[george wilson]

I only wear short sleeve shirts,but would caution anyone who wears long sleeve,or rolled up sleeves to not be reaching over the cutterhead on a jointer.