Jointer Damage

[Huck Schwee]

I just bought my first jointer off of Craiglist, a Delta X5 6" model (37-866X). It was a little rough but I was kind of looking forward to tearing it all apart, getting to know it pretty well and putting together a nice running machine. Well, I got it home and began the teardown and discovered that about 3" of one of the dovetails that the infeed table rides along was broken.

20120921_145037(small).jpg20120921_145057(small).jpg

I have contacted Delta to see what my options would be but haven't heard back from them yet. Has anyone else ever had something like this happen to them? Any ideas? The table still slides up and down but there is a lot of play in it from left and right (and diagonally). I was thinking about trying to set it up with a fixed cut of around 1/16th" and drilling a hole to slip a bolt into or figuring out someway to fix the table at a certain position. I won't be doing rabbiting or beveling on this machine. The dovetails are part of the base casting so that whole thing would need replaced. I'm not sure if Delta even has a replacement is stock and if they do, it will prolly be as much as I paid for the whole thing.

Thanks,
Huck

[Chris Parks]

Take it and a couple of big friends back to the seller and ask for you money back? People selling things like this are just scammers and frauds, yes it is buyer beware but anyone with a conscience would not have sold it without making the buyer aware of the damage.

[Joe Kieve]

I bought an X-5, 6" through an online auction several years ago. Did like you, started cleaning it up and found that it was cracked in the same place as yours, except it was on the outfeed table. (Leads me now to think it might be a manufacturing defect) I was still working at the time and the company I worked for had a great machine shop. I took the base to them and they were able to drill and bolt the cracked dovetail back into place. So far it's worked fine.

I'm not sure, but I have feeling that lifting the jointer by the ends of the tables is what caused yours and mine to crack. Perhaps others have had similar problems.

Good luck getting yours repaired.

joe

[Erik Loza]

...I was thinking about trying to set it up with a fixed cut of around 1/16th" and drilling a hole to slip a bolt into or figuring out someway to fix the table at a certain position...

My gut reaction is that this ^^^^ could be your best bet. "Level it" to the cutterhead at whatever height it needs to be for the knives, then secure it as you are describing. Unless that base casting which has the male ways can be had cheaply.

Good luck with a solution,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Carl Beckett]

Im trying to think about whether a fixed cutting depth would be a viable solution. In general this is a pretty good idea. Most of the time, especially with a smaller 6" unit, I dont move the depth of cut. If it took a few more swipes to clean up the surface it wouldnt be all that big a deal.

The times I do change cutting depth is when moving from an edge cleanup, to facing a board. When facing a board I might want a lighter cut than when doing an edge. But... 1/16 should work there as well.

So from my limited creativity, this seems a pretty good solution. (not ideal, but practical)

[Richard Wagner]

Chris, where is it written that CL and EBay sellers need to have a conscience. Wakeup. You live in the real world.

[Paul Murphy]

First, I would see about returning the jointer.

If you keep it, see if the cracked pieces will fit together well along the crack...if they do, a skilled welder would probably be able to braze the two pieces back together. Brass is fairly soft, so filing the brass where necessary should be easy with a selection of triangular files.

If brazing is out, see if Delta still sells the base as a repair part.

I am not familiar with your particular machine, so I can only offer the "universal" options. Joe's experience with bolting the pieces together is an interesting and time tested solution that would not have occured to me.

Anyway, good luck and hopefully you can let us know of a successful resolution.

[HANK METZ]

Likely it can be brazed, it is in a "fortuitous" area, such that hand grinding/ filing can blend it in sufficient to remove the wiggle via gib adjustment. You'll have to take it down to the bones because to do a proper job on cast iron it may need annealing after and pre- heat before.

- Beachside Hank
Do not use remaining fingers as push sticks.

[Phil Thien]

Given the force vectors here, and if it is a nice break, I think epoxy would work just fine.

[Huck Schwee]

Thanks for the advise everyone.

First, the Craigslist seller said he would work with me based on what Delta says. He said he bought the machine second hand with the intent of setting it up but never got around to it and just sold it straight to me, so I'm still hopeful there. But I wanted to see what everyone else's experience was just in case it doesn't work out. I know in the future, if I am ever looking for another machine like this, I will definitely be looking at the dovetail setup (unless I get a parallelogram machine ). I read up a lot on jointers before I decided to purchase one and this was an issue I had never read about.

Joe,
I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one this has happened to. I wish it had happened on the outfeed side of the table but I'm glad to hear that you found something that worked and I'll prolly keep that in my bag.

Huck

[Matt Meiser]

Don't waste your time with Delta. The original parts breakdown for that machine has this note:

NOTE A: Base, front and rear tables cannot be supplieid because they must be machined together for accuracy and true alignment making this repair cost prohibitive.

I did a quick scan on Ebay and none were available there (but oddly, more than 1 of the same part for the ancient 4" model.) I wouldn't pin the beds in one place. That will be problematic later when changing knives.

It does look to me that there's a pretty good amount of meat in that spot. It might be worth a try clamp it back in place and drill and tap holes for some GOOD (i.e not the ones you buy at Lowes) machine screws. Even if that's not enough, at least it will be locked in place for a good welder to braze it.

Used purchases are caveat emptor. If the seller knew and didn't tell you, he's going to tell you you should have inspected it closer. If he didn't know, whats to say (from his point of view, not saying this happened) that you didn't break it after the fact. If a buyer called me claiming damage I didn't know about the call would end real quick.

[Myk Rian]

I wouldn't give 50 cents for a new jointer. Not the way they're made these days. You did notice on the tag, "Made in China", right?

A new base will not fix that jointer, as Matt said, they are machined as a unit.
Count it as a lesson learned, and buy an older machine. I had a 6" Jet JJ-6CSDX that was a nice one. They go for about $300.

[Gary Radice]

I'm not familiar with that machine but I don't see why it wouldn't work fine as is, if you adjust the gib properly to remove the excess play.
If you've already tried that and no joy, then yes setting it up for a fixed cut would be a reasonable short term work around. But if it was me, if it wasn't adjustable I'd return it to the seller. Lots of choices in the 6" jointer market out there.

[Bruce Wrenn]

When I taught school (twenty years ago) the shop had an 8" jointer with cracked ways. Repair person (with a life time of experience on Delta machines) added a section of 1/4 steel bolted to outside of way.

[Mort Stevens]

I have a old machinist vice that cracked straight through the cast iron of the movable jaw - I used JB Weld (an epoxy product) to put it back together and when it dried I drilled and tapped for some countersunk machine screws through the break - that was ~35 years ago and it's still going strong today. I think the same method to fix the broken dovetail would work well in your situation.