Any hope for a warped jointer fence?

[Andrew Nemeth]

I have a Jet 6" jointer and I believe the fence is slightly warped (twisted). Is there any way to untwist it? What should the tolerance on the fence be? I did not measure the gap on one end of the fence when the other end is square, I'll do that tomorrow.

Thanks,
Andrew

[Jude Tuliszewski]

If it is fairly new you should get in touch with Jet. If it is pre-owned, you could probably have it re-ground by a local machine shop.

[Chuck Wintle]

What if you put one end of the fence in a vise and use a big wrench to untwist it?

[John Thompson]

How 'slight" is "slight", Andrew?...

It depends on where it's warped as to what I would do. If you have a cup say on the out-feed end in the middle, I would just keep cutting unless the results showed up as a major negative.

If it's really warped badly.. you will probably have to have it re-ground. Again.. depending where and how it is warped, you could add a sub-face on the fence and shim between a dip or cup to get it flat.

Having it re-ground does not mean it will not warp again, as if it warped badly to begin with... the cast iron was probably cast in-correctly from the get-go.

Good luck with it...

Sarge..

[keith ouellette]

I had that problem and sent the fence back. Cast iron doesn't bend well but does crack. Trying to twist it back you could end up with no fence. If you can't send it back and can't have it re ground (I bet thats expensive) you might be able to put on a piece of birch plywood and shim it at the appropriate spots to make it flat.

[Ron Bontz]

I had the same problem with my 6" Delta. I had the fence reground and it is excellent now. This brings me to another point. I recently saw I believe it was Steel City (I might be wrong about the brand) using granite for their fences. I was told at the WC store it was because of the problems they are having overseas with the cast iron warping. Hmmmmm. Quality control problem?:)

[John Thompson]

I had the same problem with my 6" Delta. I had the fence reground and it is excellent now. This brings me to another point. I recently saw I believe it was Steel City (I might be wrong about the brand) using granite for their fences. I was told at the WC store it was because of the problems they are having overseas with the cast iron warping. Hmmmmm. Quality control problem?:)

Anytime you use cast iron Ron, there is always a chance it can warp if the proper procedure and ingredients were not strickly adhered to during the casting. And even then, there is no gaurantee that a batch will not be anything but perfect. If the ingredients did not properly disapate.. etc. etc. a batch that was properly controled has a chance of being a bad batch. Just the way it is with cast iron as it's not steel... it's cast iron.

Yes.. it was the Steel City you read about that will have the granite fence on jointers, Band-saws and table saw tops. They should be on the market sometime after the first of the year. No warp... no rust.

Below is a picture of my Steel City jointer with a black granite fence. The fence is one of the 3 original black granite proto-types un-veiled at the Las Vegas show in early summer. Scott Box (VP of Steel City) ask me to field test it a few days after the unveiling.

It's flat and will stay that way and I haven't seen a speck of rust since the day we installed it months ago. :)

Sarge..

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=639010&postcount=1

[Brian Kent]

Just out of curiosity, how much would you expect it to cost to have a fence re-ground? Just in round numbers or range of cost?

[Ron Bontz]

It cost me about $50.00 but I was a friend of a friend sort of thing.:)

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

What if you put one end of the fence in a vise and use a big wrench to untwist it?


NNNOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo

It's cast iron~!! Cast iron has like a ZERO modulus of elasticity. It'll snap.

However cast iron machines and grinds like butter. You can lap it flat on a sheet of glass with a little lapping compound. Random movement is key in lapping. Consistently placing pressure in the same way or places will cause screwy shapes to form. Random is key.

[Ron Bontz]

Hey, thanks for the info. I must admit that granite made me nervous. This old dog will have to do some new thinking. I am still looking for an 8" jointer as money allows. Decisions, decisions. Happy jointing

[Kermit Hodges]

I got to ask. How does is cut wood? Does the warp cause a problem?? If not leave it along. If it is bad enough to be causing a problem your not going to fix it yourself. Unless your a machinist. If you take it to a Machine Shop, be warned. It going to be expensive! Machine shop work is very slow and very expensive. And most don't want small one time jobs anyway.

Pet Peeve; these forums have tried to elevate woodworking to machinist tolerances when most times people are stressing out over stupid things. It's wood people, it moves, it's not practical to try to work to thousands of an inch. Bottom line is how does it (what ever the machine is or the perceived problem is) cut wood? Is it presenting a problem? If no. Start cutting wood and ignore it till it is a problem.

With that said, there are some things that a dial indicator or similar measuring tool has a place in woodworking. But the bottom line is are you having a problem? It seems to me many are inventing problems that are just not there worrying about minute measurements that do not affect anything.

[Jim Becker]

What Jude said...get if replaced if under warranty. Get it re-ground if not. Jointers are simple machines but something like this is critical if you are expecting good glue-ups from material you are machining. (Same goes for good table alignment)

[Carroll Courtney]

How about making a fence out of baltic birch and connect it to the cast iron and use playing cards as shims to fill in void areas.

[Andrew Nemeth]

Thanks for all the comments and ideas.

The fence is indeed torqued along it's length. If I set the right end of the fence square with the infeed table the left side of the fence is about .015" out of square with the outfeed table. The twist is even over the length of the fence. I should not I did check and make sure the two tables were parallel to each other and they are dead on. When jointing thicker stock it has not been much of a problem as I press down on the outfeed table (not against the fence) but thinner material is a bit more of a challenge because you have to keep pushing it into the fence on the outfeed table to keep it stable. Unfortunately, the saw is no longer under warranty :(! The replacement fence is $50, with shipping its going to at least be $75 (if not more).

What do you think about getting a piece of granite scrape and having it cut and drilled for threaded epoxy inserts? I doubt I would pay more than $50 for that (if you think I am way off on this feel free to say so). Other wise I may just make a wood fence and shim it.

Thanks again,
Andrew

[Chuck Wintle]

Thanks for all the comments and ideas.
Other wise I may just make a wood fence and shim it.

Thanks again,
Andrew

That sounds like the cheapest option for you barring any other really creative ways of making the fence flat. Could you post a picture of the fence? :)

[John Thompson]

"The replacement fence is $50, with shipping its going to at least be $75 (if not more).

What do you think about getting a piece of granite scrape and having it cut and drilled for threaded epoxy inserts? I doubt I would pay more than $50 for that (if you think I am way off on this feel free to say so). Other wise I may just make a wood fence and shim it".

Thanks again,
Andrew

****************************


The $75 doesn't sound all that bad, Andrew. When Steel City unveiled the "black granite" at the Las Vegas show earlier in the summer, I wanted to try one. I shopped Granite here in Georgia where it is plentiful and it goes for around $50 a square foot polished. Whoa... I was offered several scraps a large discount, but most were #2 and not thick enough. And the fence I was going to replace on the Steel City is 5" x 48".


Another problem was drilling the holes. You have to have diamond drills to do it and most counter places here didn't have one with a large enough diameter to cut what I needed. It woud have cost $25 per hole if they did and I needed 4 holes drilled. With the price of granite and drilling.. I abandoned the idea.


Forturnately... I had mentioned my intentions to Eric Box (who is the son of Scott Box.. VP of Steel City) on a routine tech call and as soon as Scott got back from LV Show he caught wind of that statement and he gave me a call. "Would I field test their jointer fence"..?


You bet I would... and he drove to my shop with one of the 3 proto-types in existence at that time the next morning. The fence was dead flat and I haven't had a speck of rust on it since the day I got it. :)


Good luck with your quest...


Sarge..

[Andrew Nemeth]

John, How thick is the Steel City fence? Is it backed with anything (fiberglass/epoxy)? Are the holes for the installation of threaded inserts? Is the bottom edge of the fence beveled to allow it to tilt both forward and backward?

Thanks,

Andrew

[John Thompson]

John, How thick is the Steel City fence? Is it backed with anything (fiberglass/epoxy)? Are the holes for the installation of threaded inserts? Is the bottom edge of the fence beveled to allow it to tilt both forward and backward?

Thanks,

Andrew

The Steel City Granite 8" jointer fence is 1 1/2" thick.. solid polished black granite and fits on their current jointer exactly as the cast iron one that came with it. There are no holes in the face as all attachments are exactly the same which are on the back side of the fence.. Those attachments have been epoxied on and re-enforced.

The back bottom is beveled to allow for a 45* degree tilt as any jointer fence should have. The fence and jointer are designed so that a "skew" can be attained on the fence rather quickly. Most jointer fences will "skew", but the way they are desinged makes that a PITA. I'm not sure everyone that has a jointer realizes a skew is possible and probably a few that would not recognize the advantage that can give you in specific situtations.

The holes I was referring to would be to attach a slab of granite I would have had polished and cut to dimensions. I was going to drill 4 holes in the granite face to insert hex bolts through. Then drill holes to correspond in the current cast iron fence that came with my jointer.

That cast iron fence sits in my rear shop gathering dust at this point. I spoke with Scott when we were installing the new fence about a possible granite jointer fence made to retro-fit on other brands of jointers. He told me that they had already thought on those lines, but their main priority mementarily was getting all the distributors set up as Steel City is only 2 years old. And... to get the new granite products to market.

But... the possibility exist somewhere down the road once all the current pieces of the start up of a new company fall into their prospective places.

Regards...

Sarge..

[Mike Marcade]

One more vote for having it re-ground.

[jim chambers]

Getting it re-ground will likely cost much more than a new fence. You will need to find someone with a blanchard grinder for one thing, and that's not so easy these days.

[Gary Keedwell]

One more vote for having it re-ground.
I would vote that way too if it was bothering me that much. I do know that warped jointer fences are very common. I have squared mine up with the bed to find that after I edged a board the edge of the board was not 90º to the face of my board. Drove me crazy. I would go back and square the jointer fence again and again.`
I have actually gone back to my table saw, after jointing, to take a skim chip off the edge because my saw was closer to square then my jointer. Lately, I use my jointer more for straightening a board then I do for glue ups. I trust my table saw to get better 90º then my jointer. Now that I think of it....maybe that's why they developed the glue-line rip blade.:confused::rolleyes::)
Gary

[Mike Marcade]

Getting it re-ground will likely cost much more than a new fence. You will need to find someone with a blanchard grinder for one thing, and that's not so easy these days.

I don't really think you need a blanchard grinder for just the fence. I'm guessing you could just use a surface grinder to do this.