sticky jointer tables

[joe milana]

I'm trying to joint some 10" wide soft maple boards and I can barely slide them across the jointer. I put a coat of johnsons paste on & that didn't help, so I cleaned the tables with MS and then re-waxed. That didn't help. Waxed again....that didn't help. Cleaned again...waxed....and so on. I don't use a lot of soft maple. Is it the wood? I think it's the smooth ground surface on these Chiwong machines causing drag & suction, but what do I know:confused:

[Don Jarvie]

You may want to check the setup to make sure everything is square and the beds are lined up. Paste wax usually does it for me and I have used soft maple on it.

[glenn bradley]

Silly question but, you are buffing the wax, right? If you run your hand across the tables are they slick? How deep is your cut?

[Myk Rian]

10" can be tough to slide across a jointer. How much are you removing at a time?
Make small cuts.

[Chuck Wintle]

I'm trying to joint some 10" wide soft maple boards and I can barely slide them across the jointer. I put a coat of johnsons paste on & that didn't help, so I cleaned the tables with MS and then re-waxed. That didn't help. Waxed again....that didn't help. Cleaned again...waxed....and so on. I don't use a lot of soft maple. Is it the wood? I think it's the smooth ground surface on these Chiwong machines causing drag & suction, but what do I know:confused:

it might be the wood is sticking...have you tried another type of wood to see what happens?

[Jim Matthews]

Is this the first pass, or after the boards are quite flat?

You could be generating a vacuum on the outfeed side.

[joe milana]

Ok, I've checked everything. One thing I found was the outfeed table was about .001 high (according to my one way gauge) Not much, but I tried running another board, and sure enough, I felt a little catch. I dropped the outfeed table to about .001 below the knives, and that helped some, but it still feels "draggy". I take heavy passes, light passes, doesn't seem to make much difference.

[gary Zimmel]

Another silly question. Do the knives have a good edge on them?

[Myk Rian]

The SHARP knives should be even with the out-feed table.
A high table produces a wedge. A low table produces snipe.

[Jay Jolliffe]

I think it would be kinda hard to adjust something .001".

[joe milana]

I think it would be kinda hard to adjust something .001".

Its a parallelogram bed, & Byrd head with fresh inserts. With a one-way gauge, you can rotate the cam bed adjuster & dial it in pretty close. Point is, dropping the outfeed slightly seemed to help, but it's still sticky. Even dragging the wood across just the infeed or outfeed table doesn't feel quite right. It's gotta be the wax.

[Myk Rian]

Lee Valley sells Waxilit paste. 7oz for $16.
It's usually put on edges before glue-up. Keeps squeeze-out from sticking , so you can pop the glue off. Works great on tables, too.
You can't buy it during the winter, so get some now.

I also use paste furniture wax, but I use a heat gun to melt it into the surface before buffing it.

[joe milana]

Definitely wax build-up. I thought re-applying wax dissolved the old. Now that I think of it, I jointed some 2 x 4's last week for something & maybe that caused a resin build-up that I then just waxed over, causing the build-up. Anyway, I threw everything I had chemical-wise at it. I should be high as a kite by now :p , but the top is clean. A thin coat of JPW & I'm up & running again. Geeze...It's been one of those weeks...

[John Coloccia]

I recommend Bostik Topcote.

[Keith Westfall]

I recommend Bostik Topcote.

+1 on this - it works great

And though I'm far from an authority on such things, I didn't think you wanted the out-feed table lower than the knives and I can't imagine that would improve the cut in any way...

[joe milana]

+1 on this - it works great

And though I'm far from an authority on such things, I didn't think you wanted the out-feed table lower than the knives and I can't imagine that would improve the cut in any way...



I used the topcoat for a while, but I was still getting a bit of rust, so I switched to wax. Plus it's kinda spendy.
Keith, .001 below the table is just the reading on the gauge, and within the margin of error. Important thing is, I was no longer feeling the board catch on the edge of the outfeed table.

Update: I just surface jointed about 12bf more of the soft maple, and the tables are getting "draggy" again. Even edge jointing against the fence is difficult. :mad: I tried some hard maple & some walnut with the same result. All the woods dry, and been on the rack for at least a year. It's gotta be the wax.

[Myk Rian]

It's gotta be the wax.
Did you melt it into the table as I suggested?

[Mel Fulks]

One property of the old Mechanite tables is they are slicker ,just as a piece of oak is slicker than a piece of poplar.I like Ballistol for spraying tables,just buff it off before jointing an edge that is to receive glue