Jointer

[john schnyderite]

I have a small garage shop and recently bought a Delta 8" jointer recently. I plan to build a table for my miter saw and store the jointer below it which means I'll be wheeling it in and out to use it.

I've read on forums accounts of others with warped tables on their jointer. I was curious if this could cause it...and also how much tugging and the the tables to move this massive machine would affect the table alignment (coplanar) once setup. Would i need to essentially setup the machine every time I want to use it? First time jointer owner looking for some expertise on the subject.

Thanks!

[Brian Nguyen]

I had a Ridgid 6" jointer on casters that I moved around the garage including outside, and it stayed co-planar until the day that I sold it. In fact, it was co-planar when I bought it used and I wasn't exactly gentle with the thing when transporting it home in the back of the SUV. So short of you trying your hardest to abuse it by dropping it onto the concrete floor, you should be okay just wheeling it in and out.

Edit: The only thing that I really did is occasionally check that the fence is square, and I've never had it out of square.

[Matt Day]

I don’t think there’s much you could do to warp the tables if you tried - that’s done during manufacturing. Being in a fire with extreme heat would do it too, but hopefully that doesn’t happen.

Yanking on the end of the tables to move it can get it out of adjustment, so avoid that as much as possible.

[glenn bradley]

I move my 8" almost every time use it. Not far but, it does get swiveled into position. Cast iron is stout but, malleable if the right pressures are exerted. The likelihood of you generating that kind of pressure using the tables as a hand hold to roll the machine around are pretty slim. Mine has been well aligned since I set it up in 2008 or so and like I say, I move it all the time. I have helped someone replace an infeed table that was bent when a hefty neighbor thought to use it as a shop stool when visiting so, it can happen. Your proposed activity doesn't concern me though as far as safety or alignment.

[Warren Lake]

I would not be concerned ive lifted my combo up from the outfeed table so a friend could put 2 x 4's under it. Thats a combo so a compramise compared to the more fixed tables in a jointer as the tables flip up. I would be concerned of people who stack stuff on tables and leave weight over long periods of time, I never leave stuff on the tables.

[Andrew Hughes]

I wouldn't lift it by the tables like Warren mentions. Thats just asking for trouble. If your delta is the style with dovetail ways there's no adjustments other then using the handles to move the table up and down.Coplaner tables are set at the factory when they grind them.

[Tom M King]

Not saying to treat yours like mine gets treated, but if it's the same era model as mine, that I bought used at a school auction in 1976, you don't need to baby it too much. Mine has been moved at least 40 times over those years, either by being manhandled into the back of a pickup, or in a front end loader bucket. I did something to it when I first got it, to tune it up-been so long ago that I don't remember exactly, but other than replacing a couple of sets of cutterhead bearings, it hasn't needed anything else.

In short, moving it around a shop won't faze it.

edited to add: If it's the same model as mine, that takes 3/32" thick knives, don't get 1/8" knives thinking they'll work, or you will need to find,or make, a very thin wrench to install the thicker knives.

[Rod Sheridan]

Why are you pulling on the table to move the jointer?

Use a semi-live skid design for your machinery, much better than casters and it doesn't affect the machine...............Regards, Rod.