Jointer knife Set Up

[Bud Zeien]

I've done it many times the same way Myk described, except I used an aluminum straight edge, work's great! But really, save your money and get a Shelix, you'll be wondering why you didn't do it a lot sooner.

[CPeter James]

I do have a Jointer Pal magnetic jig, but this is much more accurate.

CPeter

[Scott Rychnovsky]

I made jig like CPeter's recently when I was learning to set jointer knives. I also experimented with magnets on glass, but I do like to be able to see the numbers. I have talked to experienced woodworkers who swear that feeling a wood piece move is fast and easy, so I will try it sometime.

The Jig uses a dial indicator I had around, a bit of scrap 3/4" BB and minimal hardware. I used three 3/8" ball bearings pressure fit into the base to define a reproducible plane. I prefer this method over putting something "flat" on another "flat" surface. The indicator was slide into a slightly undersized hole and held by friction. I just need to get a mushroom head for the jig to be complete. It seems to be nicely reproducible with the small flat head I have on it.

Scott

[lawrence munninghoff]

Can you share a pic of your jig?

[Darcy Warner]

I use a stick with 2 pencil marks to set jointer knives.

Works for 8" to 30" jointer knives. I hate fiddling with dial indicators on jointer or planer knives.

[Brian Deakin]

My approach for setting the height of the blades

I take a piece of glass wider than the width of the planer knife blades I spray the underside of the glass with an opaque film eg furniture polish

I then place the glass on the outfeed table so the film of polish is directly above the planer blades

I then slowly adjust the height of the infeed table and rotate the blades by hand

When the blades start to scrape the film of polish off the underside of the glass you know the outfeed table is level with the height of the blades and you also have a visible record of how pararllel the blades are to the outfeed table indicated by the pattern of how the polish has been scraped off the glass

[Anthony Whitesell]

The jig I have is a corollary to the magnet on glass method.

This is not where I found the plans for the jig, but shows how it works and how to make it.

http://www.justsquareenough.com/Tuto...nifeSettingJig

[Trevor Walsh]

I've used a dial indicator in stand like machinist's use and the magnet blocks glued to a piece of QS wood from White's book "Care and Repair of ShopMachines" This is what Anthony Whitesell links to in his post. Cheap and quick. I've used them for years.

I'm strongly adverse to buying gizmos that are basically fancy versions of the stuff I can build. I've used fancy setting jigs in other shops, but it doesn't make terribly much difference to me.

[Bill Dufour]

The DI does not have to be a good one. It does not have to even be accurate. Just repeatable measurements. A HF cheapo is plenty good and I did not mind hack sawing off half the indicator ram so it fit inside my planer. You should be able to unscrew the tip and replace it with a mushroom tip. Or superglue a ball on the end to make a mushroom tip.
I bet the HF specials the tip is not removable.
Bill

[Yonak Hawkins]

glenn, how do you know you have the drum rotated to the same position for all knives ?

[glenn bradley]

glenn, how do you know you have the drum rotated to the same position for all knives ?

You just locate top dead center. I do this with one knife still tight. It is easy to see when the knife is going up, hits the apex and starts to decline. Early on I used to check each knife position separately and put a felt pen mark on the base and then on the head at each TDC position. Now I find I can locate the position pretty quickly, slip a wedge of wood between the head and the base to keep things still, pull the old knife, insert the new knife, slide the glass over til the magnets "click" the blade up against the bottom and tighten things up. Unfortunately, like a lot of things, you get better at it having done it more than you ever wanted to ;-)

[Warren Lake]

there is a wider round tip for dial indicators that works best on an indicator., think if posted it before, no time now to look im reading your post didnt read to the bottom is that what you mean by the mushroom head? think so they work excellent the one that came with mine was useless tried a wide flat one and must not have liked that far too many years ago, this other one works great,