"pattermakers" jointer

[James Boster]

Could anyone explain to me what the difference is between a regular jointer and a "pattermakers" jointer is. I am talking about old iron jointers here. I recently aquired a Maok 12" jointer and several have asked if it is a pattermakers jointer, and I don't know what features the pattermakers jointers had over a regular one. I've tried to post on owwm but can't seem to get a post to go through so I thought I would ask here. Thanks for any help.:confused:

[martyphee]

Dev can probably fill you in more about pattern maker jointers, but generally they have a leaver on the outfeed to put the tables out of plain. Allows for tapering.

[Bill Simmeth]

A true pattenmaker's jointer allows the infeed table to rotate on its axis (perpendicular to the cutterhead) so as to produce a slight taper or "draft" on the piece. This was needed to make the pattern slip from the mold without disturbing sand. Only a few jointers ever had this feature -- the Oliver #12 comes to mind. I'm not sure that Moak ever offered one with this feature. Many confuse the "patternmaker" moniker with the more common option (usually found on the outfeed table) which rotates the table on its axis parallel to the cutterhead. This produces a concave edge used in "spring" joints. You can tell if your jointer has this feature if it has a small lever on the jointer's base just under the end of the outfeed table.

Hope this helps...

[Russ Massery]

Bill pretty much nailed it. My bother-in-law is a patternmaker he has an oliver 12". I try not to drool on it everytime I see it. The table just under 10':eek: Talking about draft he almost never uses it. He has sqaures made out of wood the he set the fence to taper most boards.

[James Boster]

Thanks guys for the replys. I thought the adjustable outfeed was the big difference but wasn't sure. I think I'll still keep the Moak,hard to part with old arn if you know what I mean.;)

[lou sansone]

As bill has correctly said a patternmakers jointer has the tilt lever on the infeed table. Looking through the moak literature and having see one in person, I don't believe that they have either lever on the infeed table or outfeed table. can you post some pictures of your moak and in particular the lever you feel would be used to tilt the table?

BTW the moak line of machines is quite nice and often overlooked when listing old iron.

lou

[James Boster]

lou, my jointer does'nt have the lever to tilt either the infeed or outfeed table. It has a large handwheel on the back that moves the infeed table up and down, so its not a "patternmaker" but still better than my old 6".

[Dev Emch]

The trickest jointer I have ever come across would be the Northfield HD Patternmaker made circa 1945. The reason I say this is because it had every possible range of motion. Now here is where you need to focus on what I am saying.

The infeed and outfeed tables slide inward and outward on their own set of horizontal dovetail ways. This is to assist you in working on the cutter head yoke.

Then you have the infeed and outfeed tables moving up and down which is the standard motion for jointers. Nothing confusing going on here. The outfeed table wheel sticks out the back of the outfeed wedge. The infeed table is controlled by a ship's wheel with wooden handles. This ship's wheel is on the infeed back side of the jointer. This is super cool looking. Looks like the ship's wheel from the SS Minnow on Gilligan's Island.

Then we have the control for convex and concave cuts. On the HD, this on the outfeed wedge, front side. There is a lever attached to an eccentric which moves the tail of the outfeed wedge either up or down to force the jointer into making either concave or convex cuts. This was known as the spring joint lever.

Lastly, we have the feature which differentiatates this jointer from its HD cousin. The patternmaker feature. On the HD, the infeed table was modifed and the original dovetail ways are exchanged for a pivot shaft. On one side, there is a bolt which adjusts the amount of yaw that the infeed table can have. This means that I can litterally "ROLL" the table along its long axis thus changing the infeed table angle of attack to the cutter head yoke. This results in cutting a taper cut or a shingle looking board. This angular cut is known as draft which was used to make patterns. Draft albeit so slight, (no more than 5 degrees) was used to prevent patterns from sticking in the sand during sand mold ram ups. You have to be able to lift the pattern out of the cope or drag prior to mold reassembly and pour.

The best drafting jointer out there has to be the Oliver #12. It looks similar to the #166 but it has a linear trunion assembly and gear box under the infeed table and the infeed table is a tad longer.

But keep in mind that all these features make the jointer harder to keep in trim. Often, drafting jointers are kept only for that purpose because they are so much harder to trim out. Right now, northfield uses both an HD and an HD patternmaker. The patternmaker is permently setup to only do draft while the other HD does day to day jointing operations.

Unless your in need of a drafting jointer, you may wish to avoid one of these true patternmakers. Now if your a conesiour of old iron, then by all means, knock yourself out. But if you have limited experience in working on these old machines, a patternmaker can be a real handful! This is esp. true of an older northfield and the oliver #12. Some of the moaks exhibit many features from northfield so its unclear who was copying who. So just look up under the skirts of the infeed table to see if this old lady is a bit drafty. IF you see pivot pins and setpoint bolts or trunions, its a drafter.