Servicing a SCM F41

[Tom Zakim]

Own SCM F41 16" jointer. Having trouble with the in-feed table which no longer aligns with the outfeed table on the outside edge. In other words, when the table is set to 0" mark the infeed table lines up perfectly on the inside edge however there is a 1/16" gap on the outside edge. Neither the manual nor SCM tech support could help (of course I could pay the $300 charge just to get a SCM service tech out to look at it). But before I do, I thought I would ask if anyone else could advise.

thanks!

Tom

[Chris Fournier]

Your terminology makes it a bit tough to help you, well at least for me to help you!

Is your outfeed table properly aligned with the knives? Use a dial indicator and some sort of base to establish this. A machinist's magnetic base will do the trick.

Now use the same indicator to see if your infeed table is properly aligned with the knives.

Now you will have established where the problem lies.

Get back to us with the outcome of this fact finding mission and I'm sure that help will be on the way.

[Logan William]

What it sounds like to me is that your two tables aren't planar to each other, and if I guess at your description of inside/outside edge it sounds like the infeed table is sloped so that the side with the fence is higher than the operator side. I'm guessing there are adjustment screws/jib screws somewhere under the infeed to adjust this, knowing SCM equipment they normally have adjustments on almost everything, sometimes it can be difficult to find though so you may have to pull off some guarding/sheetmetal in order to get to it.

PS. If you can get an SCM tech to you for only 300 bucks you must be fairly close to Atlanta as you're paying for travel time

[Chip Lindley]

Your owner's manual has NO procedure for aligning the tables?? That is hard to believe! The SCM F41 is a parallellogram-type jointer same as my paltry Delta DJ-20, or the Grizzly G0490. Download a copy of Grizzly's manual at their website and that will give you a fair idea of how to align your machine. No doubt, table adjustment involves loosening a set screw and rotating a cam ring, while measuring the adjustment with a straightedge, at the least. A setscrew may have loosened, causing your problem.

Each corner of the in- and outfeed tables has the cam adjustment to raise or lower that corner. If your outfeed table surface is parallel to the arc of your cutterhead, concentrate on adjusting the infeed table. Not only must the infeed table be adjusted parallel to the cutterhead arc, it must also be coplanar to the outfeed. That is to say, a straightedge will register perfectly across both tables when raised to the same height.

Hopefully adjusting the infeed table at the problem corner will solve your problem. Please keep us posted.

[Chris Fournier]

https://www.partspronto.com/Shop/DownloadManuals.aspx

No need for interpolating from Grizzly, go to the SCM site and get your manual. Of course you have to be able to read Itenglish.

[J.R. Rutter]

I don't think that any of my SCM equipment manuals have this sort of instruction. But if you study the parts diagrams and the mechanicals "under the hood" you should be able to infer what needs to be adjusted. Hope it is an easy adjustment, it usually is.

Having the infeed table angled slightly (like your 0.004" per 1" of width) won't affect edge jointing much, but will waste some material for face jointing. The outfeed table to cutterhead alignment is the critical part.

[Chris Fournier]

I would agree that SCM manuals do not involve much instruction! I have the combo machine so I can't give the definitive answer to the OP but there are likely locked screws at both sides of the table which align parallelogram set up. These need to be tweaked and more often than not it requires a small adjustment. I had to fine tune my CU410 and it took a few minutes of head scratching to figure it out.

I agree with JR that the outfeed is most critical; it was the outfeed which I had to adjust.

The SCM manuals are not suitable for bathroom tissue but pretty much good for... This being said the machines are fantastic and they have ample provisions for adjusting all of the necessary parameters. You'll get your machine sorted with a bit of patience!

[Tom Zakim]

he problem is with the infeed table. It is sloped outward.

[Tom Zakim]

Here's the quote from the SCM tech, "There are no instructions on the table adjustment." Now if you know of other instructions or have done this yourself that would be of great help. But, if you read through the entire manual, there is no reference to adjusting the table.

[Chris Fournier]

Here's the quote from the SCM tech, "There are no instructions on the table adjustment." Now if you know of other instructions or have done this yourself that would be of great help. But, if you read through the entire manual, there is no reference to adjusting the table.

Well now you know that $300 is a bit steep for service from this tech at least!

[Jeff Duncan]

I have an older Italian jointer, a EMA, which was bought by Casadei. Which all have the same parallelogram system as does SCM. The question then..... is your machine better designed than mine was and have the capability of easy adjustment.

Well what's easy you might ask? Easy is having a set screw or equivalent way of securing the cams which adjust the tables. In which case you just loosen the screws and rotate the cams to adjust each corner up or down. Not easy is having the cams locked in place from the factory by machine screws tapped into the main casting. That's what my machine had and I had to adjust both tables. It took several days to get it just right....within about .004 over 8'. Including time it took to re drill and tap new holes in the main casting.

Anyway the adjustments are pretty easy as long as you have a good quality straight edge to get accurate adjustments. To be honest though if you could get the tech to do the full alignment for $300 it would be a reasonable cost.

good luck,
JeffD

[Chris Fournier]

Jeff, your machine sounds like a nightmare compared to todays units. Nice fix by the way! Honestly, the task facing the OP is not tough and he could hang onto his $300. I tweaked my machine in less than 30 minutes and that included the head scratching phase.

[Larry Edgerton]

The manuals for SCM equipment look to be written by a first grader drinking rum! You would think that just maybe on a machine of this cost they could pay someone to sit down for a few days and work up a decent manual. Crazy stupid!

That being said, I think you should ship the machine to me, and I will in the course of time find out how it should be adjusted and write up a proper manual for you. It may take some time, but what a small price to pay......

That is the next new machine on my hit list........

[Logan William]

The manuals for SCM equipment look to be written by a first grader drinking rum! You would think that just maybe on a machine of this cost they could pay someone to sit down for a few days and work up a decent manual. Crazy stupid!

And their manuals have vastly improved over the years too! The manuals for newer machines(at least their production equipment, CNC's, double end tenoners etc) are pretty good once you get past the translated Italian but still could use some thorough proofreading and editing by a native english speaking technical person. I'm sure if you read Italian the Italian versions of the manuals are great.....

[Bill Orbine]

Before you get into all that adjustments and stuff, I suggest you make sure that the machine is level and on solid footing. Large machines have a tendency be easily of of whack if not properly set on the floor but I doubt it'll fix the .0625" margin of error.