Charles Coolidge
02-21-2022, 12:26 AM
I finished inspecting and dialing in the new Powermatic PJ882 jointer this evening. Here's a quick run down for others who may be shopping 8" parallelogram jointers.
1. It's more massive in every way vs the G0858. Not just the huge cast iron base but tables and all the parallelogram mechanism underneath, really beefy. Even the table stop bolt is huge.
2. The 48" precision Starrett straight edge confirmed the infeed table was dead flat. I couldn't get a .0008 inch feeler gauge under it. The outfeed table was not perfect, most of it is also dead flat but it's low .002 up near the cutter head.
3. I broke out the Mitutoyo digital indicators, the infeed table is parallel to the cutter head to .0005 inch over 8 inches, dang! The outfeed table is parallel to the cutter head to .0015 over 8 inches, so close I didn't even attempt to adjust it. And the tables are in plane with each other. I adjusted the outfeed table height and stop bolt, ditto for the infeed table and preset it for a .020 depth of cut.
4. The fence, now there were more than a few reports of the fences being twisted on this model. I broke out my large machinist square which is square to .0008 inch. Adjusted the fence square to the infeed table at the front...drum roll...the whole fence is dead on square to the tables along its whole length.
At first glance I had crossed off the PJ882 as over priced, made the assumption others costing less were just as good, even the same. On closer inspection it's quite different than the competition and has more in common with the larger 12 inch PM. Liking the patented handwheel fence angle adjuster already, setting the fence to 90 took seconds. The tables have copper tipped gib screws on the sides to take up any side slack. Everything feels tight and stout. Tomorrow I'll put power to it and get to jointing some lumber.
474344
1. It's more massive in every way vs the G0858. Not just the huge cast iron base but tables and all the parallelogram mechanism underneath, really beefy. Even the table stop bolt is huge.
2. The 48" precision Starrett straight edge confirmed the infeed table was dead flat. I couldn't get a .0008 inch feeler gauge under it. The outfeed table was not perfect, most of it is also dead flat but it's low .002 up near the cutter head.
3. I broke out the Mitutoyo digital indicators, the infeed table is parallel to the cutter head to .0005 inch over 8 inches, dang! The outfeed table is parallel to the cutter head to .0015 over 8 inches, so close I didn't even attempt to adjust it. And the tables are in plane with each other. I adjusted the outfeed table height and stop bolt, ditto for the infeed table and preset it for a .020 depth of cut.
4. The fence, now there were more than a few reports of the fences being twisted on this model. I broke out my large machinist square which is square to .0008 inch. Adjusted the fence square to the infeed table at the front...drum roll...the whole fence is dead on square to the tables along its whole length.
At first glance I had crossed off the PJ882 as over priced, made the assumption others costing less were just as good, even the same. On closer inspection it's quite different than the competition and has more in common with the larger 12 inch PM. Liking the patented handwheel fence angle adjuster already, setting the fence to 90 took seconds. The tables have copper tipped gib screws on the sides to take up any side slack. Everything feels tight and stout. Tomorrow I'll put power to it and get to jointing some lumber.
474344