Jointer ?

[jason walcott]

I have a old Delta 6in jointer. The machine was in very poor shape when I received it, and did not have any motor or pulleys. I have revived it and have been using it for a couple of years. The machine has a 3 knife cutter in which I have a 2in pulley on. The motor I have on the machine is a 1 1/2 horse 3450 rpm on it I have a 6 in pulley. The machine has never really worked well and struggles on hard woods. Something just doesn't feal right. I would like to know what the pulley setup is on a newer machine ?

[Bill Simmeth]

Hi Jason... Can't help on the question of newer machines, but rule of thumb is you should be running around 10-15K cuts per minute (CPM). See this link at OWWM.com http://www.owwm.com/Math/CPM.asp Putting in the parameters from your post, you're up at 31K CPM! And, based on the recommendations there, your cutterhead speed is too fast. Almost seems like that pulley arrangement on your jointer was for a 1725 RPM motor. Hope this helps...

[Don Baer]

Jason;
I would change your motor pulley to a 2" or 2.25". This will put you at the 10000-13000 cpm speed and increase the torque at the cutter.