Tips for making jointer fence more rigid...

[Michael Dunn]

I have the Bridgewood BW-8J. I've had it since March. I'm pleased overall especially for $300 on CL. Anyway, after my recent shop move I just had to adjust the outfeed back into coplanarity with the infeed. This got me thinking about how often I have to measure and adjust the fence for squareness to the outfeed table. After just one or two passes its typically out by 0.3 degrees (wixey digital angle gauge). This is quite visible when double checking with a reliable square.

So I was wondering what, if anything might be done about making this fence more stable. This design is quite common in many jointer models from this sub $1500 (BNIB) price range. So I figure some other people have had the same issue and tried to resolve it.

Any thoughts?

[Michael Dunn]

Here's a pic...

[Michael Dunn]

What's ironic, and downright perplexing is that it is out of square opposite of the direction that I push a board against the fence. How the heck?!?

[Peter Quinn]

.3 degrees........not relevant to me. I joint one board face in, one face out, error gets canceled. On straight edge joints for non glue purposes, fractions of a degree are pretty hard to spot by eye, so those I just ignore. I set the fence by eye to a decent square, which takes. Little tighten and bump on a mid grade jointer, good enough for my needs.

[Jeff Duncan]

A couple thoughts off the top of my head….

Add a slightly larger handle so you can torque it down a bit more…..don't kill it, but just a bit snugger;)

Second thought is……don't sweat it, .3 degrees is pretty small amount of error and in many cases won't affect the final product. Heck I'm not sure my jointer fence has ever been that accurate:rolleyes:
edit…looks like Peter beat me to it!

good luck,
JeffD

[joe milana]

Pretty common for that fence design. Even right out of the box. Locking mechanism wants to "walk" when you tighten it down. Might try taking the locking mechanism apart & look for uneven wear. A light filing/stoning may help.

[Michael Dunn]

.3 degrees........not relevant to me. I joint one board face in, one face out, error gets canceled. On straight edge joints for non glue purposes, fractions of a degree are pretty hard to spot by eye, so those I just ignore. I set the fence by eye to a decent square, which takes. Little tighten and bump on a mid grade jointer, good enough for my needs.

Well, these particular boards are for a large panel glue up. I suppose as a quick fix (of the boards) I could rip a hair off the jointed edge on the TS.

[joe milana]

If all else fails, talk to this guy...:D

276804

[Alan Bienlein]

Well, these particular boards are for a large panel glue up. I suppose as a quick fix (of the boards) I could rip a hair off the jointed edge on the TS.

Why would you joint it then run it on the table saw again? You are over thinking this.

Layout your boards and mark them. Joint the first one with the marks against the fence then take the next board that butts against the first one and joint it with the marks facing away from the fence. Take that same board and on the opposite edge joint it with the marks facing the fence.

Doing it this way will cancel any error that the fence is out.

[johnny means]

Micheal, even with a perfectly square fence it is a good practice to joint opposite edges facing opposite faces towards the fence. That way any angle in the fence is cancled out. As far as making your fence more reliable, I would just work around it. In other words joint one edge, ROLL the board towards the fence and joint the other edge.Joint then rip then edge plane using the ripped edge as your reference. Then edge plane the opposite edge. This yields me nice square edges and actually makes for a cleaner, less scallopped edge.

[Jeff Duncan]

Yup, you've gotten your answer but just to clarify, take 2 boards that are layed out side by side, flip them up together like a sandwich, run them over the jointer together as the sandwich, then flip them back down and regardless of what angle your jointer is set to, the boards will mate up perfectly;)

JeffD

[Myk Rian]

Yup, you've gotten your answer but just to clarify, take 2 boards that are layed out side by side, flip them up together like a sandwich, run them over the jointer together as the sandwich, then flip them back down and regardless of what angle your jointer is set to, the boards will mate up perfectly;)

JeffD
^^^This^^^

[Peter Quinn]

On most jointers I've encountered square is also relative to the spot you measure in. Even good ones are rarely perfect. We have a big ole 12" SCMI at work whose tables are dead flat and co-planer, but the fence is a wreck. It's twisted over its length...its aluminum, not sure why Italian companies have a fascination with aluminum hoods and fences, but they all suck. Anyway, I learned the hard way from an older mechanic, its irrelevant. I tried to set this fence up square, joints terrible. You put a machinist square just past the cutter head on the out feed table and set that point as square as you can get it, put a light behind the square if your in a dimly lit shop, done. Boards come off the jointer perfect, glue ups are perfect (and I've done some pretty big ones...15' long, 50" wide). One board face in, one face out; look like they grew together. I wouldn't set up to machine parts for the space shuttle that way, but for wooden parts, quite sufficient.

I have a friend, mechanical engineer with a firm that make formula 1 parts among other things. We were talking about tolerance once at a cocktail party...I know, nothing more stimulating than a brisk discussion of machining tolerances. He mentioned specifications, how modern measuring equipment can measure very tight tolerances that would have been possible but costly to even measure using older methods, so designers specify very tight precise but largely irrelevant tolerances relative to the product simply because they can be measured. You have the capacity to measure, so measure, even if its meaningless. We may be at that point here with the jointer fence. I've used an angle box to set a "relative" angle that was easier to hit on a jointer, for that I love them. But I don't stay up nights worrying about each fraction of a degree the thing blips out of 90.

[Don Morris]

Michael, I've got a Gteech jointer with the same mechanism. Let me warn you the "Locking Link" is cast pot metal. I torqued mine down and cracked it. Geetech isn't in business any more. Fortunately, someone pointed out that the "Jet" jointer uses that same mechanism and I ordered one from them. Perfect match, different color. Just be careful about "torquing" too much. I have the same problem as you but have learned to "live with it". That's the only problem and it's minor for the type of work I do. Short of coming up with a Rube Goldberg contraption bolted to the back of the fence, joining it to the base and/or table/s, I'm not sure now what to do about "stabilizing" the fence.