new jet jointer (and only a slight gloat!!!)

[Mike Heaney]

hi folks, this is my inaugural post, so hope I don't break any rules here. I just joined this fine group a couple of weeks ago, and realized that it was time to ask for some help. Santa was very kind and managed to deliver a new jet JJ6CSX 6" jointer to me. Yesterday was spent cleaning and assembling- with the joy of learning how to set the knives etc. I have slavishly followed the manual with regards to set up, but I am experiencing a problem on the test pieces I have run so far- basically, I seem to be taking a deeper cut at the end of the board compared with the beginning- after 3-4 passes on 1/16" setting, there is a significant difference in dimension. The handbook suggests that a too high outfeed table could cause this problem- I have rechecked this twice and I think its spot on- If I go lower then my straightedge hits the blades. Since this is my first jointer, it could simply be that my technique sucks- but I would appreciate comments and advise!

[Mike Cutler]

Mike.
First off. Welcome to Sawmill Creek, pleased to meet ya'

I have the same jointer as you do, but most jointers are vasically the same.
My jointer is setup to remove about 1/2 the amount of material that yours is. It removes between a 32nd and a 64th. I do a lot more passes, but I feel I have more control. Maybe something to consider.
As for the deeper cut. Are you pressing down on the material as it goes through the cutterhead on the infeed table? You shouldn't be.
Your straight edge should hit the blade if it layed on the outfeed table. You want the highest point of the blades to be just a few thousandths above the outfeed table. If you were to place a piece of joined material on the outfeed table,and over the cutterhead. As the cutterhead is manually turned in the clockwise direction the piece of material will catch on each blade and move backwards towards the infeed table a few 32nds at a time. It sounds like your blades are exactly level with the outfeed table, or a few thou' below.

One word of warning on your new jointer. There is a spring loaded pin that engages if the infeed table is set to 1/8". If you don't realize this happens, and try to reposition the table, without pulling out that damn pin you end up breaking the Ball Crank on the infeed table. DAMHIKT:mad:. To fix it, you will learn more about your jointer than you ever wanted to know.

Once again. Welcome to Sawmill Creek.

PS. Your jointer constitutes a "stealth gloat",and there were no pictures. The Pic police will be coming to visit ya'. :D :D :D ;)

[Mike Heaney]

Mike,

Thanks for the welcome- and the feedback.

I had noticed the spring pin when I did the setup- I was thinking it needs a red flag on a pole attached to it so it is visible above the fence!

I will try making the setting finer, sounds like it should help. It also sounds like I need to lower my outfeed table a touch- you are right, in that I set the table, and then each knife side to side so that basically the adjustment was a hair lower than when they touched the straightedge- so on my setup they the blades do not catch at all on material placed on the outfeed table.

I'll give that a try, and try and reduce the pressure I am putting on the stock- I am probably pressing too hard through worrying about keeping control of the stock.

I will see what I can do on the pic side!

[Mike Heaney]

Thanks Mike,

successful afternoon in the basement- I brought down the outfeed table a smidgen, lightened my hands and reduced the cut depth to about 1/64th.

I've just finished a glue up of some curly maple for a lapdesk top and the joints are looking great- thankyou for the pointers, I think I'm on th right track

Mike

[Don Bullock]

Hey Mike, welcome. Congratulations on your new jointer. I'm glad to hear that you now have it adjusted correctly.

[Mike Cutler]

Thanks Mike,

successful afternoon in the basement- I brought down the outfeed table a smidgen, lightened my hands and reduced the cut depth to about 1/64th.

I've just finished a glue up of some curly maple for a lapdesk top and the joints are looking great- thankyou for the pointers, I think I'm on th right track

Mike

Awesome!!! I adjusted my jointer tables about 5 years ago, after I fixed the ball crank I broke, and haven't touched it since. I should probably look at the blades maybe. :eek: They could use some work.

I'm glad everything worked out.

[Mike Heaney]

proof at last...

I took my camera into the shop (basement) today to take some other shots- see my Festool post later tonight. But thought I should wrap this one up properly

The beast is bolted onto 2 sheets of 1" ply (24"x24") that are glued and screwed together. The assembly is then mounted on a jet mobile stand- spins around the basement like an ice dancer, but stays rock steady when in use.

The number 3 is from my blade set up- I used magic marker to keep track of what blade I was on. I also used marker along the blades length- useful to make sure that each blade is working.

The two plastic push blocks came with the machine

The wooden one I acquired as part of an auction package a little while ago- I cut a little dado and added the piece to give me an edge on the face. Still need to make up a narrow push stick for thinner stock.

So, now I've worked out how to post pics, I can go on to my Festool review!!!

Mike

[Bob Reeve]

Mike,

The white push sticks you have are for face jointing. You need to get or make a couple of narrow push sticks like the orange ones in this link http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5849

They are for edge jointing and allow you to stand up a board on edge and apply force both down and towards the fence. Make sure that the fence is set square and make sure you keep the board against the fence and you get a perfect 90 degree edge to the face.

To true and square lumber you need to face joint, then plane to desired thickness. Then you edge joint and rip to width on the TS.

I hope this helps and isn't to simplistic.

Bob

[Mike Cutler]

Mike.
I like your mobile base. I have the same base on my tablesaw. I have an older Jet 3 point mobile base that sort of stinks. I may finally get another one like yours.
I'm 6'3", and put my jointer on 2 laters of ply also. It was a little low from the factory, wasn't it.;)
Nice Pic's.

[Mike Heaney]

Bob,

interesting to note the different order of events folks seem to have for the squaring process. I was taught the following order:-

a. Edge one side on the jointer
b. Face one side using the edge from A as your reference against the fence
c. plane opposite face to parallel and depth
d. Rip second edge to parallel on the table saw

Like most things, I'm sure there are as many methods as there are people trying!!!!

Agreed on the push sticks. I actually have a couple of narrow ones that I use on my router table that are not in the pic, but I want to make a couple of dedicated jointer ones so they can be stored by the table at all times.

thanks for the feedback

Mike

[Jim Dunn]

I'm using your order of squaring as well, but ala his "Normniss" I run the table saw edge over the jointer as a last operation. I imagine a good table saw would not necessitate this but mine does.

[Bob Reeve]

I too sometimes leave an extra 1/32 from the tablesaw and run one pass over the jointer. Less sanding that way. I agree that there is no one way things must happen, it just sounded like you were knew to using a jointer.

Bob

[Mike Heaney]

Bob,

make no mistake- I am new to this, and still finding my way- its usually safe to assume that if I appear ignorant on something wood related, I probably am!

Look out for a my post later in the week on the tale of woe that is the lapdesk I finished for my wife today- starts with some poor wood selection, covers some bad glue ups, terrible dovetail cutting, a drawer that had to be made twice, warping plywood shelf base, cutting dadoes all the way through the dovetails, gluing the hand made drawer pull upside down and finally leaving the just sanded top and base unit on the washing machine when it hit spin and sent the two crashing onto the concrete floor. To say I made some mistakes is an understatement! :o :o :o

So, trust me, your comments were most appreciated.

thanks

Mike