Trapped in jointer knife purgatory...

[Don Stephenson]

HELP. PLEASE.

So I recently purchased a new Shop Fox W1741W 8” jointer. I’ve spent the past week getting it put together, cleaning all that damn goop off it, getting the beds coplaner, and (attempting) to get the knives set. 2 nights in a row, I’ve been laboring over these stupid knives, and no matter what I do, I can’t get them set right! I make teeny-tiny adjustments to the set screws and when I tighten the knife down, it goes WAY out from where I had set it.

I literally want to set the stupid thing on fire.

So what do ya’ll think? Could it be faulty knives? Do I have to buy a Jointer Pal? Is this common with Shop Fox jointers? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated…

356795

[Dave Cav]

This might help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRnrWOwun68

Good luck.

[Matt Day]

The Bob V method linked to by Dave is the classic way to do it. Give it a shot and I bet you'll do much better.

I had that jointer and it worked for me.

[Chris Hachet]

This might help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRnrWOwun68

Good luck.Good video, thanks for the link!

[Mark Wooden]

Not being a wisea**- are the lock bars(aka gibs) positioned in the head correctly? It can be easy to get them reversed sometimes.
You should have all the knives and gibs in place and" finger tight" to avoid distorting the head while setting and tightening
If the jointer has jack screws and the knives are lifting off them when you tighten the gib bolts, try screwing them down past where you're getting close to the out feed table height. Get the gibs slightly snug and adjust the knives slowly up. When you get to your desired height, hold the knife down with a block of hardwood as you slowly tighten the gib bolts against the head.Don't tighten them all the way at first, go gradually ( usually two passes) until tight. I usually tighten from the center of the gib out. Move on to the next set do the same and when all are in, re tighten all the knives .

This may sound long and drawn out but I set the knives in my jointers in less than a half hour.

[Cary Falk]

I have the 1741. I never had to adjust the tables. I used the knives until they got dull then replaced the head with a Byrd. Best $300 I ever spent. I tried to set knives on my 6". I hate it.

[Dan T Jones]

Don,
You have my sympathies. The first time I did that was on my PM60. It took me the best part of a weekend. I used the simple small board 2" x 3/4 x 12+" long with a pencil marks. The board need to have a straight edge.
I don't think there is an easy way when you've never done it before.
Dan

[Bill Dufour]

I would remove the jackscrews and the lock screws. File and polish the ends so they are smooth. Did you remove all the cosmoline from the head, knives, jibs?
Bill

[Patrick Kane]

I used a variety of methods on my 6 and 8 machines, but purchased the oneway indicator jig when i bought my 12" machine. I set the knives in 10-15 mins with that tool, and i never find it frustrating. Quite the opposite, it is mildly therapeutic setting knives to .001-.002" of each other. I would follow other suggestions of taking the knives out and cleaning the entire cutterhead. Tightening the gibs usually results in movement for me too, but maybe .001-.003" that i measure with the indicator as i tighten. Once you know how much it moves on you, you can account for it and set the knives perfectly.

[glenn bradley]

Jointer knives and dove tail ways; get thee behind me Satan! the only knives I adjust now are the ones on Dad's old Delta which are trouble free. The machine is from back when we were the kings of manufacturing those sorts of things. I agree with the idea of cleaning up the screws and gibs. The one thing I notice o the old Delta is that the machining and parts are all immaculate and finely finished. Maybe poor contact at that last cinch are making things shift.

[Dan Schocke]

Great advice in the posts above. The other thing to check is if the knives are ground straight. When I brought home a Ridgid jointer I had fits getting the knives set, and eventually found out that one knife had a belly in it when checked against a straight edge. Switched that out with a spare I had already purchased (didn't have faith that the ridgid knives would last) and it became a 15 minute task.

--Dan

[Joe Jensen]

Lots of good advice. If you use a dial indicator you will learn how much the knives move as you tighten them down. I got so I could set them on an 8" jointer in about an hour to within about .001" between all three but you need patience and in the beginning that took more like 3 hours.

Also, the very best way I know to get the height between the outfeed table and the knives perfect is to take a board maybe 18-24" long with a nicely jointed edge and set that edge on the outfeed table with an end hanging over the cutterhead. Then you rotate the cutterhead slowly by hand. Perfect for me is when the cutter grabs the wood and pulls it about 1/4".

I tried magnetic set blocks etc and nothing a silver bullet (other than swapping to a Byrd head).

[James Gunning]

+1 on the use of a dial indicator. I have metalworking tools as well, so I already had one. They can be had with a magnetic base quite inexpensively nowadays. The first time setting the knives is always the worst and doing it with the wood block or paper method is not easy. The dial indicator will give you a look at where the knives are sitting and how much they move.

One caution, make absolutely sure that all the grub and set screws are tight before turning on the jointer. You don't want them, or the blades to come out at high rpm.

[Warren Lake]

tightening or loosing should be in steps at least two or maybe three. I use the dial works well for me you can see .0005 with it easy. When I had the General there were a number of times the knives came and were low in the middle, I had to clamp the middles first snug the outsides a bit and tap them down to get them straight. When I got the SCM the knives were wider and thicker and same people sharpening they never had that issue. We were taught to hone them when they come back only thing there were wicked sharp so handling them or even in honing sometimes led to some blood letting. you have your stone and your oil on the knife and it will almost suck your finger in. I never had to bang knives down like in the video, I only watched part of it quick but think I saw them being banged down that seemed not right. When I found the highest point of the knife doing its arc I would clamp a straight edge on the head then check it with a digital caliper to be sure it was parallel that way I could just slide the dial base running along the straight edge anywhere on the outfeed then flip the magnetic clamp part where ever i wanted and was always going to be at the top of the knife arc.