Jointer adjustment

[Royce Meritt]

My Powermatic 6" jointer has begun to do 2 things. I get a little bit of snipe on the trailing end of the stock and after a few passes my stock develops a noticable arc in the middle if the board. I dug out the owners manual but it was very little help (or I was too stupid to understand) on how to adjust it. What do I need to do? Thanks.

[Harley Lewis]

Royce, there are a lot of people on here that have more experience than I do, but this sounds like technique to me. You may be putting down pressure on the middle of the board as it passes over the cutter head. Once the leading edge of the board gets by the cutter head, you should only put down pressure on the board as it slides along the out feed table. The hand on the board on the infeed table should only be a guide and without down pressure. The outfeed table is really your reference for the jointed face, and the infeed is set to a level to take off small bites of material. The only other thing you might do is check the cutter head blades and make sure they are exactly even/level with the out feed table.

[Fred Haydon]

Royce,
The snipe at the trailing end of the board and the noticable arc are sure signs that the outfeed table is lower than the highest point on your cutting knives. The outfeed table should be adjusted so that it and the knife edges are even. I use a 6" speed square that I've flattened the shoe on by sanding with 400 grit wet/dry mounted on a piece of float glass. I set it on the outfeed table with about an inch overhanging the cutterhead. I then rotate the cutterhead slowly and observe the knife edges. Adjust the height of the outfeed table so that the knife edges ever so slightly drag on the bottom of the straight edge that your using. Just don't check it against one knife, check it against all of them. If the setting isn't the same for all of the knives, you have to adjust your knives and then redo this process all over again. Please refer to your owners manual for the proper manner to adjust knives in your machine. And remember...DO ALL OF THIS ADJUSTING WITH THE JOINTER UPLUGGED FROM THE OUTLET!!! Not trying to be rude here, just want you to be safe. Hope this helps you along the right direction.

Fred

[Dan Forman]

Here is my favorite resource for diagnosing and treating Jointer disorders. : http://woodworking.homeip.net/wood/Tuning%20Tools/Jointers/Jointers.html

Dan

[Royce Meritt]

Here is my favorite resource for diagnosing and treating Jointer disorders. : http://woodworking.homeip.net/wood/Tuning%20Tools/Jointers/Jointers.html

Dan


Thanks Dan. Looks like if I follow this tutorial I should be able to get it adjusted correctly. Merry Christmas!!!