Jonter fence alignment

[Jesse Tutterrow]

I am doing my yearly alignment of all of the power tools. Today was the Delta 6" Jointer (model 37-190). Everything was aligned perfectly till I got the the fence. Using my machinists' square, I check at the front end of the fence on the infeed table - perfect. I checked just before the blades - perfect. I checked just after the blades on the outfeed table - perfect. Then I checked at the back of the fence, and there was a gap along the bottom of the fence (where the fence met the outfeed table). Looks to be about 0.006 of an inch. So, about 1/128".

So, I checked that the infeed and out feed tables are parallel and neither is tilted.

What do you think, is this too much?

Thanks in Advance

--Jesse

[Van Huskey]

So as I understand it the "bottom" of the fence on the outfeed side is warped away from the outfeed table? I say warped since it sounds like the top of the fence is where it should be.

My question to you is IF the fence is indeed warped what can you do about it? Certainly if it was a high end 12" or so jointer it would be worth replacing the fence but here I dunno.

My second question is what is the product like? Are boards coming out square when edge and face jointed? If so then the .006 is a non-issue, if not then it MAY be an issue.

[Bill LaPointe]

As long as you joint boards thicker than .006 it shouldn't be a problem. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.:):):)

[Chip Lindley]

Jesse, if your fence is square up to the cutterhead, and you press your stock against the fence right over the cutterhead, you should be able to produce 90 deg. edges. By the time the stock reaches the outfeed end of the fence, it's already edge-jointed. Run some test boards and see if you find any deviation from 90 at either end.

[Tom Hintz]

You can get a piece like the jointer fence surface ground at most automotive machine shops.
But, because the fence is out a little on the infeed side, I would let it go unless you are seeing a problem in the finished boards. You should be focusing your pressure/control on the outfeed table as soon as there is enough stock there so the infeed side of the fence will not influence the cut very much, if at all.
Also, you say close to the bottom of the fence. How close to the bottom? if is it just the lower edge or less than 1/2" up, I really wouldn't worry about it unless you run very thin (too thin for most jointers) material that won't touch the fence above that.

[John Thompson]

Ditto Chip on run a board through. If it is 90 now and you have been getting 90 before you discovered you had a .006 gap.. I would not let the fact that you discovered a .006 gap sway me into thinking I now have a problem. The cut tells you yea or nah! Out of 4 jointers in 39 years I have never had a perfect cast iron jointer fence. Jointer fences are thinner than tables by design and cast iron can flex.. the thinner the more likely to do so. Again.. checking the current result of the actual cut will tell you if there is a real problem that needs to be addressed. ;)