Old Craftsman Jointer

[Gordon Eyre]

I have an old Craftsman Jointer that I have owned for 30 years or so. It still works fine; however, I notice that it takes slightly more off one side of the edge than the other. This is not good. The outfeed surface is perfectly flat and square with the fence. The infeed surface is flat but not square with the fence. It is out .007" from one side to the other. In other words it leans in slightly toward the fence. This is not something that I have ever adjusted in the 30 + years I have owned this hunk of iron.

Question: Has anyone adjusted this and might have a tip for how to go about this. Looking underneath the Jointer I do notice that it has two shafts that appear to have a large lock nut on them and the ends are a smaller bolt head where a socket or wrench might fit. Before I go ahead and start messing with this does anyone know if that is where the adjustment can be made for the problem I described. I have a digital measuring device so that I can determine when the infeed is completely level with the outfeed and square with the fence. By the way, my problem is not the fence, I have checked that throughly and adjusted it so that it is exactly 90 degrees with the outfeed table. My blades are completely level with the outfeed table as well.

There is not much downside in my just going ahead and doing this but thought I would ask first and see if any of you have first hand knowledge. I appreciate your help.

[Gene Howe]

Gordon,
I think I have the same jointer, or one very similar, also about 30+ yrs old.
I adjusted mine using the nuts/bolts you discovered. Didn't take it off the stand, Did it all on my back. Lot's of ups and downs to check and adjust.
Inspect the mechanism closely. IIRC, there were two adjustment bolts.
My in feed was dipped at the leading edge.
I always check the fence on the out feed side for square. Don't know why, though. Your post has caused me to rethink that habit.:D Thanks.

[Gordon Eyre]

Gordon,
I think I have the same jointer, or one very similar, also about 30+ yrs old.
I adjusted mine using the nuts you discovered. Didn't take it off the stand, Did it all on my back. Lot's of ups and downs to check and adjust. My in feed was dipped at the leading edge.
I always check the fence on the out feed side for square. Don't know why, though. Your post has caused me to rethink that habit.:D Thanks.

Couple of questions Gene, are the two larger nuts in fact for locking the adjustment? Did you loosen both before making the adjustment? I assume that if I can level the infeed table to match the outfeed table I should be fine? By the way, thanks for your response.

Your habit of making sure that your fence is square with your outfeed table is a good one. I only checked the infeed side because I knew that I had a problem. After feeding a piece of wood through the jointer several times it became visually apparent that it was not making a square cut and using a good square proved that. I then bought a digital measuring device for table saw and jointer set up and that was when I could verify that the problem was my infeed table. It was .007 out.

[Gordon Eyre]

Well, I am gradually learning about the Craftsman Jointer that I have. First of all there are four adjusting bolts on the infeed table. They have a lock down nut that is supposed to lock in the adjustment. So far this has turned out to be a real problem for as I make the adjustments and then lock it down it changes the setting. When you multiply this by four you begin to see what I am facing. I have been trying to do this while laying on my back looking up at the underside of the jointer but have decided to take it off of the stand and do it on my work bench. I am getting too old for this.

So far in all of my research on this topic, no one has come up with a good solution other than to cuss a lot. For a good church boy like me that is not much of a solution.