What am i doing wrong?

[Josh Goldsmith]

I recently bought a grizzly 8" jointer 1018hw. I have never used a jointer before so i am learning alot. My problem is when i run a piece of wood through the jointer sometimes i get uneven cut. I am sure it is my technique. How do you guys apply pressure to wood as you run it though. I usually get a different cut at the end. Mostly a deeper cut at the end. Do you do a different technique for the length of the piece? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks

[Gary Breckenridge]

:cool: I'm guessing its that the outfeed table is not set correctly. Take a steel straight edge and set it on the outfeed table. It should just barely touch the knives when you slowly spin them. (Power off):eek: Start your gradual adjusting from this point.:rolleyes:

[Vaughn McMillan]

To add to what Gary said, and to answer your question about applying pressure...as soon as it's practical, you should have most of the pressure on the outfeed side. From your description, it does sound like your outfeed table is too low. Once you get it adjusted and get a bit of preactice with it, you'll likely see what I mean about keeping pressure on the outfeed side.

Hope this helps -

- Vaughn

[Dan Rider]

Agreed with the others -- your outfeed table is too low.

When I first got my jointer, the outfeed was too high, and it cut a taper on the leading edge of the board -- the trailing edge did not cut at all. Your problem is the opposite, suggesting your outfeed is too low.

Be sure to check your that your tables are co-planer (ie. parallel with each other) with a good straightedge to eliminate that as a contributing cause.

[Alan Turner]

I agree that the outfeed table is probably too low, which is causing the "snipe". In terms of pressure, yes there should be pressure, esp. on the outfeed table, but be careful, esp. in the early cuts, that you do not take any bow out of the board due to the pressure; otherwise you will surface plane/smooth,but not give the tool a chance to straighten the stock.

[Ray Moser]

Another thing to avoid is feeding the stock too fast. I found I was getting wavy cuts from my jointer. I slowed down the rate of feeding the material over the cutter and the problem went away.:D

[Josh Goldsmith]

I will try to adjust the outfeed table when i get home from work. I do have another question though. How do you know if the board is perfectly flat? Your eyes can only tell you so much. I used to paint cars for a living. We used this method called "GUIDE COAT". We very lightly misted some contrasting color with an aerosol can on the part of the car we are going to be sanding. What it did was as you sand it would show you where the high and low points are. Would something like this be useful in jointing wood or is it not that important if you are perfectly flat? I hope i made sence! Thanks Josh

[Jim Becker]

Josh, you'll know your board is flat when it "sticks" to your jointer tables! :) Seriously, put it on your table saw table or other known flat surface if you really want to check. But it's likely flat (provided you used proper technique and your machine is properly aligned) once you make a pass that cuts "everywhere". You can usually see that, especially when you are starting with rough lumber. It's then time to move to the thicknesser...