My First Jointer is a Restoration Project!

[Cory Raymer]

Does it have the four knife crescent head. With the goofy wedges?

Yes sir and from what I understand, it's a PITA to change the knives, which is why I may just change the cutter. I have a jig on the way and another set of knives, so I'll do it at least once to see just how bad it is.

[Cory Raymer]

One thing to keep in mind before you spend a lot of time and effort with it... I will tell you your future:
You will want a bigger jointer very soon. First you will search for an 8” jointer, then a 12” and possibly bigger.

I also always question why people think they need a helical head on a jointer. After your jointer you’ll go to the planer right? One light planer pass on the jointed face will save you the expense of a shells head.

Seems like a whole lot of work to strip and paint that jointer just to make it look different especially if you might upgrade soon, which you will likely want to do. I’ve restored a number of machines and love the process, so I understand that you might just want to do it and enjoy it.

I understand what you mean by this completely, but I intentionally skipped a 6" jointer and got this 8", which will be all the jointer I will need or want. My space is limited to a 2 car garage, so even this one was pushing it.

As for repainting and restoring it as best I can, I will do it for my own satisfaction and aesthetics of my shop. I know alot of people don't care how things look as long as it performs flawlessly, but I want both. By taking this thing apart, I will learn a good bit about how jointers are put together and how they work.

[Matt Day]

Good on you. I retract my earlier post, I thought this was a 6” jointer. Have fun! Lots of info on OWWM if you need it.

[Andrew Hughes]

Yes sir and from what I understand, it's a PITA to change the knives, which is why I may just change the cutter. I have a jig on the way and another set of knives, so I'll do it at least once to see just how bad it is.

Before you pull that head set up a dial indicator and check to see how close the head is in line with the outfeed table. Parallel wise. With straight knives it doesn’t matter much.
It will with a insert head.
If it is off more then a few thousands take off the out feed table and clean up the Dt ways. See if that helps.
I used to have a jointer with a Bryd head and I hated it so I sold it. I do have one in my planer.
Good Luck

[Cory Raymer]

Before you pull that head set up a dial indicator and check to see how close the head is in line with the outfeed table. Parallel wise. With straight knives it doesn’t matter much.
It will with a insert head.
If it is off more then a few thousands take off the out feed table and clean up the Dt ways. See if that helps.
I used to have a jointer with a Bryd head and I hated it so I sold it. I do have one in my planer.
Good Luck

AJ,

Do you think I would be better off keeping my current cutterhead and just save that money for other stuff? As I said yesterday, I fully intend to change the current knives which I have seen is a PITA according to many people. I am pretty patient and if I take care not to run bad wood through the jointer and only had to swap knives a couple times a year, I'd be ok with that.

[Andrew Hughes]

Yes I think you should try using the machine with straight knifes.