Janis Stipins
12-18-2014, 12:30 AM
Hi everybody. I have a long rant saved up here; my apologies in advance.
For over a year now I have owned a Jet JJP-12HH jointer/planer. I have zero complaints about its performance. Over the past year I've put a lot of wood over it and through it, and it's all come out very well; everything from small project pieces to 12-foot long Douglas fir 6x6 beams (those took an extra set of hands and strong back to help, though). I've run it for hours on end with no motor problems at all.
The problem is when the jointer tables need to be aligned. I've done it twice now: once when I first got it a year ago, and once just yesterday, after I noticed last week that the jointer tables had gone a little out of alignment. Each time it took me roughly four hours to align it.
I realize that sounds insane. It is.
I should mention that I'm not a complete incompetent when it comes to tools and machines. I've spent enough time in a machine shop to know my way around a straightedge and a feeler gauge. And, for what little it's worth, I have advanced degrees in mathematics --- specifically, geometry. None of this helped in any appreciable way while trying to navigate the alignment of this thing.
The basic process is simple enough: get the outfeed table to be coplanar with the top of the cutters, and then get the infeed table to be coplanar with the outfeed table.
The complication is that EVERY adjustment to one of the tables, no matter how minute, involves unlocking the machine top; lifting it up; making a slight adjustment to one of six bolts (not counting the three more that need to be loosened and re-tightened to allow an adjustment to be made!); lowering the top; locking it down; and then checking to see what happened. For further entertainment, each of the six bolts moves the ENTIRE table, not just the corner closest to it... working out the cause-and-effect is, let's say, challenging. For even further entertainment, it's likely that the table lock mechanisms will have to be adjusted when the tables have moved; and this (of course) will also change the alignment of the tables.
It's sort of like solving one of the puzzles in Myst, except with back fatigue and allen wrenches.
I should also mention that I wasn't going for unreasonably small tolerances. I was using a three-foot Starrett straightedge and a .002" feeler gauge. There is no point in going for smaller tolerances than that, since the tables themselves are not machined flat, and have roughly .002" dishes in the middle of them.
Anyway, I don't have a lot of experience with maintaining a jointer. I got this combination machine because I was trying to be space efficient in my shop. But this is the first jointer I've owned, so I don't really know what's normal.
My question for you all: Is there such thing as a jointer that is relatively easy to adjust? I mean, I could imagine a setup where I'm sitting behind the machine with a wrench, and my buddy is using the straightedge and feeler gauge, and the whole process is over in under 10 minutes. This combination machine required that I unlock-open-adjust-close-lock it something like a hundred times. Do jointer-only machines require the same kind of process?
Thanks,
-JS3
PS: If you 1) live near Gilroy, CA, 2) are in the market for a combination jointer/planer, and 3) love puzzles, drop me a line in about a year. When this thing goes out of alignment again I'm selling it. :-)
For over a year now I have owned a Jet JJP-12HH jointer/planer. I have zero complaints about its performance. Over the past year I've put a lot of wood over it and through it, and it's all come out very well; everything from small project pieces to 12-foot long Douglas fir 6x6 beams (those took an extra set of hands and strong back to help, though). I've run it for hours on end with no motor problems at all.
The problem is when the jointer tables need to be aligned. I've done it twice now: once when I first got it a year ago, and once just yesterday, after I noticed last week that the jointer tables had gone a little out of alignment. Each time it took me roughly four hours to align it.
I realize that sounds insane. It is.
I should mention that I'm not a complete incompetent when it comes to tools and machines. I've spent enough time in a machine shop to know my way around a straightedge and a feeler gauge. And, for what little it's worth, I have advanced degrees in mathematics --- specifically, geometry. None of this helped in any appreciable way while trying to navigate the alignment of this thing.
The basic process is simple enough: get the outfeed table to be coplanar with the top of the cutters, and then get the infeed table to be coplanar with the outfeed table.
The complication is that EVERY adjustment to one of the tables, no matter how minute, involves unlocking the machine top; lifting it up; making a slight adjustment to one of six bolts (not counting the three more that need to be loosened and re-tightened to allow an adjustment to be made!); lowering the top; locking it down; and then checking to see what happened. For further entertainment, each of the six bolts moves the ENTIRE table, not just the corner closest to it... working out the cause-and-effect is, let's say, challenging. For even further entertainment, it's likely that the table lock mechanisms will have to be adjusted when the tables have moved; and this (of course) will also change the alignment of the tables.
It's sort of like solving one of the puzzles in Myst, except with back fatigue and allen wrenches.
I should also mention that I wasn't going for unreasonably small tolerances. I was using a three-foot Starrett straightedge and a .002" feeler gauge. There is no point in going for smaller tolerances than that, since the tables themselves are not machined flat, and have roughly .002" dishes in the middle of them.
Anyway, I don't have a lot of experience with maintaining a jointer. I got this combination machine because I was trying to be space efficient in my shop. But this is the first jointer I've owned, so I don't really know what's normal.
My question for you all: Is there such thing as a jointer that is relatively easy to adjust? I mean, I could imagine a setup where I'm sitting behind the machine with a wrench, and my buddy is using the straightedge and feeler gauge, and the whole process is over in under 10 minutes. This combination machine required that I unlock-open-adjust-close-lock it something like a hundred times. Do jointer-only machines require the same kind of process?
Thanks,
-JS3
PS: If you 1) live near Gilroy, CA, 2) are in the market for a combination jointer/planer, and 3) love puzzles, drop me a line in about a year. When this thing goes out of alignment again I'm selling it. :-)