Sharpening Service/Ripple from Jointer

[john hanes]

Hi all,

I have recently been getting some ripple from my jointer after getting glass smooth cuts before. I wonder if the blades need sharpening? Is there any local sharpening service in the Hampton Roads area that you like? Or is there a mail order sharpening service that yo like? It is a Ridgid Jointer.

Thanks,

John

[Steven Wilson]

They may need sharpening or you can home then on the jointer (use the outfeed as a reference so that the cutting edge is all the same height). Frankly I never worried about small ripples, I just pass a well tuned plane over the edge and the ripple are gone. Any well tuned hand plane will do.

[JayStPeter]

Ripples are usually caused by knife adjustment. Slowing down your feed rate should help also.

Jay

[Mark Pruitt]

Usually, when I've gotten a ripple effect it's because I was impatient and made the pass too quickly. When I made a slower pass the problem disappeared. That's assuming that you mean ripples that are perpindicular to the board's edge.

If you're experiencing ripples along the edge, you could also slide one or two knives just slightly over. That often eliminates the problem. You didn't say how long you've been using the jointer prior to the problem arising--does this seem premature to you or have you made considerable use of the tool?

[David Eisenhauer]

I don't know how or why, but I got stuck on using Ballew to do my sharpening around 20 years ago and I've always had good luck with them. Probably tons of others out there, but this is the only place I send my stuff to for sharpening. Ripples can definitely be due to running your edges through too fast. It usually doesn't show up on face jointing because that operation is usually slowed down by the larger amount of wood to remove, but knives do get dull and do benefit from sharpening. Best of luck.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Yah what Jay and Mark said, and check for tightness. Things can move under load.

[Jesse Cloud]

Whenever I've been working with pine, all my tools get sapped up. Last time my jointer was ridging, it turned out that the blades were just dirty.

You can also buy a little tool or make a jig with some sandpaper to hone the blades while they are in place.

I would try these two easy fixes before I fool with blade adjustment.

My two cents...

[john hanes]

Thanks all for your advice. Probably is because of feed speed. I did get a bit excited and the machine is not that old. The ripples are perpendicular to the long edge.

John