Yes, in case you're wondering......I am that stupid

[Russell Svenningsen]

So, I've had my Jet 6" jointer for.......oh..........3 years. Great machine. Wish I had a bigger one, but I can't complain.

Changing knives has been a headache though. Adjusting the height, etc. I always have had great difficulty keeping the knives in position as I measured them to be sure they were in line with the outfeed, etc. They have always slid down at one end, the other, etc.

*Yes, what you are thinking it correct. Just wait a minute. Let me tell my story.*

That is, until the other evening, as I was preparing to change the knives again. I thought, "What is that little oval slot next to the knife and what is that allen head screw down there?"

Looked in the manual(there's a first time for everything, right?).

Yup, you got it............JACK SCREWS. Took me about 7 seconds to set the knives and they're dead on. No fuss. No cussing. No squatting next to the jointer until I thought my knees would explode in a cloud of blood and ligaments.

How did I not notice them for the last 3 years?!

I swear, I am numb from the hair down.

But, now I've confessed my stupidity, I feel better.

[George Matthews]

Don't feel bad, that happens (fairly) frequently to even the the olde timers (speaking from experience). :D

[Keith Burns]

Boy, thats a relief......thought I was the only stupid one out here ! Thanks!

[Dale Rodabaugh]

I was told a long time ago,quote(Thats why they put erasers on pencils).We are all subject to making mistakes,and believe me I have made my fair share of them,and then some.:D :rolleyes: :)

[David Wilson]

Russell
Don't kick yourself to hard. We all have lapses like you did. The good thing about it is that you will remember this in the future.

[John Hemenway]

Thats why they put erasers on pencils

Is that what that's for! Well, how about that. Two pieces of knowledge from one thread! :D

Don't feel too bad Russell. At least you didn't sell the jointer to buy one with jack screws! :eek:

[Chris Daigh]

I saw those screws there too and still never use them. I bought two magnets at Home Depot they are about 1" x 2" and I just set them over the edge and the knives. So far it works great and only cost me a couple of bucks.

[Bart Leetch]

Well now if you can't be handsome at least you can be handy. Looks like you getting closer to being both handsome & handy I can't really tell since you don't have a picture with your posts.

Oh heck who needs instructions you only read them if someone tells you too.
:D
Consider yourself told. :eek:

[Jim Knauss]

I thought I made a mistake once, but I was mistaken. :)

Jim Knauss

[Steve Clardy]

At least you feel better now knowing how to set them.

[Michael Ballent]

If it makes you feel any better I found out after owning my Makita planer for 1.5 years that there was a little button that released the stop rod for gross adjustments.... What did I do prior to that... Well lets just say that it was a real joy to twist the little rod/screw for 10-15 minutes to set the stop. *doh*

[Jack Hogoboom]

I guess that's why they say, "when all else fails, read the manual." Seriously, I've been thinking about changing the jointer knives on my Jet jointer. No doubt some other fate will befall me.... :eek:

Jack

[Vaughn McMillan]

Russell, I write manuals for a living, and I still don't read them. Still, a nice public admittance of stupidity (as I've done on a number of occasions) can have a cathartic effect and make you feel better, as you've seen. :) And sounds like your case wasn't really stupidity, but ignorance. We ignorant people can learn from experience, but the stupid people never do. ;)

- Vaughn

[Jim Dannels]

Russ: I often say if we did things perfect the first time there would be no reason to try again. And people who don`t make mistakes don`t do much.

Now I have to add Vaughn`s quote to my list it is brilliant.
"ignorant people can learn from experience, but the stupid people never do." ;)
Uh Vaughn since your a writer,was that under a copywrite?

As was said don`t be too hard on yourself its lessons like this one never forgets.

[Jim Becker]

There is an acronym that stands for "Read The Fabulous Manual"... ;) ...but that would not be in keeping with being a normal human being. So don't sweat it! It's normal to miss such details...

[Michael Ballent]

There is an acronym that stands for "Read The Fabulous Manual"... ;) ...but that would not be in keeping with being a normal human being. So don't sweat it! It's normal to miss such details...

Jim,

That is a much cleaner version :D

[Jim Becker]

I have no idea what you are talking about, Michael...:o

[Lee DeRaud]

There is an acronym that stands for "Read The Fabulous Manual"... ;) ...but that would not be in keeping with being a normal human being. So don't sweat it! It's normal to miss such details...For those of you who find this happening on a regular basis: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/3239/ :cool:

[Dale Thompson]

Russell,
NOW you tell me! I always thought that those bunches of thick pages were extra packaging stuff. I just burned them with the rest of the cardboard. :o

Learning to read has been on my priority list for a long time. It sounds like I have to boost it up to 17,000, or maybe even higher, on my list. :eek:

Whatever, don't be fooled by instructions. They take a lot of the fun out of making scrap and hurting yourself. ;)

Dale T.

[Lee DeRaud]

Learning to read has been on my priority list for a long time. It sounds like I have to boost it up to 17,000, or maybe even higher, on my list. :eek: You have a LIST?!? When did all the spontanaeity drain out of life? Oh the humanity...:eek: :(

[Vaughn McMillan]

For those of you who find this happening on a regular basis: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/3239/
I own that shirt. And several others from ThinkGeek. You frighten me a bit, Lee. You think too much like me. :p

- Vaughn

Oh, and Jim Dannels, feel free. ;)

[Norman Hitt]

I guess that's why they say, "when all else fails, read the manual." Seriously, I've been thinking about changing the jointer knives on my Jet jointer. No doubt some other fate will befall me.... :eek:

Jack

No, No, No, Jack. You've got the the right idea, but ya jest Gotta get the Quotation Right. "When all else fails, Read the Destructions"!!!! :D

[Dev Emch]

Russ....

This is not being stupid. It was a freudian slip. Yup, a freudian slip. You said it yourself. You wanted a larger size jointer. So your sub consious just assumed you had been using an oliver in its all its glory for all these years.

Put another way, for whatever reason, oliver left out the jack screws on most of its planer and jointer heads. Why? I cannot give you a single decent good reason.

So we had some custom mini slide hammers made from our own design a several years ago to solve this problem. This was before I had set up my own little back room machine shop.

The mini slide hammer goes down the jack screw hole and grabs the lip of the knife which has been lightly tightened to keep it in place. Then, using a special jig that contains a micrometer barrel, you tap the hammer until the knife edge contacts the flat anvil of the micrometer barrel. Note that the micrometer barrel has been locked at its setting. You cannot do this with a dial indicator as you will always be over shooting or under shooting your edge position.

[Mike Weaver]

<snip>

So we had some custom mini slide hammers made from our own design a several years ago to solve this problem. This was before I had set up my own little back room machine shop.

The mini slide hammer goes down the jack screw hole and grabs the lip of the knife which has been lightly tightened to keep it in place. Then, using a special jig that contains a micrometer barrel, you tap the hammer until the knife edge contacts the flat anvil of the micrometer barrel. Note that the micrometer barrel has been locked at its setting. You cannot do this with a dial indicator as you will always be over shooting or under shooting your edge position.

Sigh....

Dev has all the cool gadgets....

-Mike
Who slinks back to his messy, "small", underequipped shop.:(

PS - Dev, I do appreciate the great info you always provide and some day, perhaps my shop will be 1/2 as well thought out & equipped as yours. Just pokin' some fun.

[Russell Svenningsen]

Wow, I can feel the love guys......*sniff*.
:D

Thanks for the good-natured, and good-humored responses.

I think Dev has "hit it on the head", as they say. Clearly, I was the victim of "subliminal tool substitution", or something like it.

I suppose I ought to go and ask the wife about upgrading to an Oliver 16" jointer, don't you think? I mean, I have all of this practice at changing jointer knives without the aid of jackscrews. Would you want such valuable skills to got waste???!!!!

I didn't think so!

I'm heading over there right now!

Wish me luck............. :rolleyes:

Best,
Russell

[Byron Trantham]

Russ, Stupid? I don't think so. You were obviously engaged in a engineering effort to determine if the jack screws were even needed! :D Apparently they are. :eek:

[Lee DeRaud]

You frighten me a bit, Lee. You think too much like me. :p31 years in aerospace does tend to give me a rather warped view of the world. Growing up in the 60's didn't help much either. :cool:

[Dev Emch]

PITA is the mother of invention! There are those who say that the *OLD* oliver or *GREEN* oliver was the God of woodworking machinery. That they could do no wrong.....

Well, I beg to differ. They did many things better than anyone else at the time. But they also had their dog moments.... they did bad things like the rest of us. No one is excused and no one is immune.

Also, no one company can be the leader in everything. Some companies do things better than others. It is up to the consumer to isolate the best and mix and match the wares of multiple vendors based on their nitche expertise. For example, without a doubt, oliver made the best single end tenoner and some of the best table saws. But Porter made the best jointer offered in the US. Oliver had the best patternshop 24 in planer but its no match against the heavy powermatc 24 in and the Buss and Newman planers of the time. The Yates snowflake bandsaws have gone down in history as some of the finest woodworking bandsaws ever made. Kindt Collins hold the crown for disc and spindle sanders.

The fact that oliver left out the jack screws is still a mystery. Its not that they didnt know about them nor wernt able to incorporate them. They just didnt do it.

They did have some knife setting tools to solve the problem of setting knives in jointer and planer heads. In a nut shell, they all stink. They are hard to find, difficult to use, inconsistent with the results and way overpriced when the used dealers get their hands on them.

So we just put some imagination and effort behind the problem and solved it. Alas, the mini slide hammer for setting knives in heads with no jack screws.

Also note this. Companies like Starrett and Mitatoyo sell micrometers and micrometer BARRELS. A micrometer barrel is a micrometer in which the horseshoe shaped part is missing. They are used to build custom positioning gadgets. I first saw these in use when we were working on tape drive positioning systems for computer storage. Last time I bought one, a new one cost $60 dollars. This is new, Starrett quality accurate to 1 thousandths of an inch.

The barrel is positioned into a homemade jig with magnets that sits ontop of the cutter head. Kind like planer pals. Same principle but lacking the accuracy. You keep a notepad with the numbers for given machines. When setting the knives, you dial the micrometer to its recorded position and position the jig on the cutter head.

Then drop a knife into the slot. Plunk, it goes down to the bottom. Then lightly tighten the gib nuts. You want the knife to say put but not so tight that you cannot move the knife.

You have two micrometer barrels sitting on the knife slot. One at each end. Some say you need three if the distance is greater than 20 in. I say bunk. It takes two points to establish a line and three points to establish a plane. Remember high school geometry?

Now, stick the slide hammer down the hole on one end. Rotate to grab the bottom edge of the knife and gingerly tap your way home. Using a tiny flashlight, check the space between the knife edge and the micrometer barrel anvi. When the light goes away, you done. Do not hammer it so much that you lift the barrel portion off the head. Did I say use ginger like strokes?

As you begin, you may wish to work alternating ends of the knife to gradually lift the knife into position. If you do it all at once, you may wind up with a knife to high on one end and to low on the other. You guys know what I mean by this. Its mechanical common sense.

Enclosed is a photo of the bad boy himself. We have been using this item for many years and works well.

Now for the nasty stuff. As you guys know, the micro-fence folks have patent protection on their router fence. The gist of the protection is that they are using a micrometer to set the router fence. Nice! Well, just to be safe, I have applied for a similar patent covering the use of micrometer barrels and slide hammers for setting woodworking knife heights. Not that I am going to get rich but just to keep someone else from stealing my gizzmo. Anyone who wants to make one, have at it. But anyone who wants to make many and bar the rest of us from access to it, tuff nooggies. Its like the shakers taking a patent out on the washing machine. Truth is, there are not enough cutter heads out there with no jack screws to make this a valuable item to market. Anyone has any questions, just email me.

This is a homemade tool so it looks like it. No fancy plastic and neon colors. Sorry.

[Bill Grumbine]

Russ, I could have told you the problem right away. You are so tall, it is a wonder you can even see the cutterhead from where you are, much less the jack screws! We all do stuff like that - except me of course. ;)

Bill

[Steve Clardy]

Man this Dev is a windy one huh?:eek: :D

Just funning Dev.:D

Good info.