Jointer adjustment?

[Michael Mayo]

My wife and I moved back in Sept. to a new house which has been great being our first ever home. Lately I have been working on my machines getting them back in perfect working order since the move. Today I decided to sharpen the knives on my jointer. Not a big deal job just time consuming. I have a Tormek Sharpening System so sharpening has become a much easier task. So i finished up the knives and they were razor sharp so I wanted to do a few test cuts to see how they would cut. I immediately noticed some minor snipe at the end of the cuts which I had never had before? So I got out my straight edge and started doing some measuring and checking. Both the infeed and outfeed tables are flat as can be according to my straight edge but if I measure across both tables to zero them out I noticed that they are not parallel and flat across each other? Is this what is referred to as co-planar? anyway they seem to be bowed in the middle right at the cutterhead and both slope away from the cutterhead? It isn't huge but there is light under the straight edge on both ends of both tables. So I was sitting there contemplating what can be done and thought I would ask the experts here. I have heard mention of shimming the tables before but never really understood what was meant by that. Do I need to shim the tables to get them flat to each other? And if so how do you go about shimming the tables to get the ends to come up? Or do I not worry about it that much? I was able to adjust the snipe issue out of the picture and the jointer seems to be jointing pretty well but now I know about this issue which I somehow missed before and it will continue to bug the crap out of me so I would like to remedy the problem if it can be?

By the way my jointer is an 8" Geetech that is in fantastic shape which I was able to purchase for only $450 a coouple of years ago.

[Lee Schierer]

Before doing anything, check the gibbs on your ways and make sure they are tight. They should be loose enough to let the tables slide up and down, but not sloppy loose. Then you need to insert shim stock in about the bottom third of the ways on one table to lift the end the desired amount. You'll need to loosen the gibbs to slide in the shim stock and then tighten them. Start with .005 shim stock. I believe it is best to insert just one piece of shim in each way rather than building up in layers to get needed thickness, others might have more experience with this.

When your tables are at the same height, there should be no light showing under your straight edge anywhere along its length.

[Michael Mayo]

Thanks Lee. I did loosen and remove the gibs and I then cleaned them then reinstalled and made sure they were secure. I kind of guessed that I would have to shim the tables near where the gibs are as that is the only place I could find where you could shim it.

[Andy Pratt]

Mike I would just add in that you really need to do the legwork to make the tables perfectly coplanar or it will drive you crazy. I've only set up four jointers in my life but each time they didn't really work the way you wish they did before, and the tables weren't very far off coplanar but you could tell they were off a little bit. After going through the tedious process of getting them truly perfect they all worked flawlessly.

You mentioned that the tables were bowed. If you mean that each one is not planar in itself, then you have a bigger problem which will involve getting the faces of the tables flattened by a machine shop. If each of the separate table faces is a true plane, then all you have to do is adjust and/or shim your machine in the right places to get everything perfect.

The least annoying way to do this is with a perfect straightedge that is the full length of your jointer from one end of the bed to the other. You can get by with one that is as small as 5/8 the length but it will be a lot easier if you have a full length straight edge.

I am not familiar with your particular jointer but it looks very standard and I think lee is leading you in the right direction on how to adjust it.

Have you been able to get the tables with the shimming?

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Michael
There some very good info on OWWM about setting your jointer table co-planer. Tom http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/JointerTuning.ashx

[Michael Mayo]

Thanks guys I was able to shim the outfeed table co-planer with the infeed table. It took a little patience/persistence but I was successful at getting the jointer leveled out and it now works much better than it had been previously. Again many thanks for the tips and links.

[Chris Parks]

You can get by without a straight edge quite easily. Get some thin single strand wire and run it so that you have enough to hang weights from at each end, enough weight that it stretches the wire really tight, instant straight edge.

[Brian W Smith]

Looking up,if you make an X with the wire.........pay attention to the intersection.Any twist in a plane will be seen there.Obviously you need shim stock at ends of wire to raise it off the surface.