minimax FS 350 JP alignment

[Max Hallmark]

1st off I want you all to know that I've looked at the forums to try and avoid asking any questions that have been answered 1000 times already. I've fiddled with this thing for several hours over multiple days to no avail. A lesser man would have broken down sobbing by now.

Backstory: I'm of the mindset of buy once cry once. Prior to this I'd never owned a jointer or a planer but considering my youtube and FWW consumption I'm pretty much an expert. Well this beauty popped up on CL for 1800. It does have the mortising table but that wasn't a big factor for me getting it. I was most excited about the space saving and the 13.75" capacity. The guy that had it, bought it off a widowed client (1 of many machines he got). He didn't have use for something so large so it came home with me. This sucker is in my basement now which was quite an adventure in itself. I did take off the tables prior to moving it downstairs.

Issues: So following the advice on this forum I adjusted the outfeed table parallel with the cutter head( no shimming required). Then I moved onto to the infeed table. Their are two bolts on the handle side that are used to adjust that side of the table and the hinge side is adjusted using shims. The hinge that is shimmed is in inline with the bolt further from the cutterhead. So I 1st brought the handle side of the infeed coplaner and level with the outfeed. Then I shimmed the hinge on the infeed to bring that coplaner and level with the outfeed. The issue is the infeed table slopes down on the hinge side as it gets closer to the cutterhead. I don't know how to fix this issue as the hinge side only has that one area that I know of to shim. To get the tables coplaner and at the same level on the infeed side I'm taking off 1/10 of an inch which is way way too much.

Other issue that has me scratching my head: My machine didn't come with the knife adjustment jig nor does the manual say how far the blade should project out. Anyhow I had to take my dremel to the underside of the jointer table to remove a little of the metal so the blade didn't hit. This is obviously out of the ordinary, but I didn't know how else to fix it.

I also checked the planer table to the cutterhead to make sure the cutterhead wasn't shimmed.

I really hope this is me missing something obvious.

[mreza Salav]

I have a newer version of that machine.
After aligning the outfeed table, raise the infeed table to the highest point. As you noted there are 3 points of contact between table and the base which you can raise/lower: one bolt at the back which you can shim under and two adjustable bolts at the front. This makes it easier than 4 adjustments.
You just go around the 3 and adjust until (when locked) the table is coplaner with outfeed. If the table is deeping close to cutter head you need to lower the shim and the bolt further away from the head.

[Max Hallmark]

If I lower the bolt and shim this doesn't cause the hinge side by the cutterhead to raise. The bolt on the handle side closest to the cutter only affects that one side of the table. Like I said the best I can do is 1/10th of an inch cut with everything aligned.

[Jim Becker]

Ditto what Mreza said...literally. Newer machine, same process.

I wish I could help with the knife question, but my unit has a Tersa setup which requires no knife adjustment.

[Kevin Jenness]

Sounds like you need to shim the hinge more at the cutterhead end, i.e. use different size shims at each end of the hinge.

[Mark e Kessler]

That seems to be a pretty good price, I just sold an identical one after having it for 25 years for $2500. Can't help with the adjustments that much as mine never required any (well, I never bothered...) but I can tell you that you shouldn't have to remove any metal from the underside of the table, I assume you are removing the metal from the attached finger portion? your knife projection is too high or your table needs to be shimmed up higher. I don't remember the angle I ground my knives to but when set the low part of the bevel was just slightly above the head if that makes any sense, I will attach a photo of my mine.

BTW I believe the pn for the knife setting jig is 0340535001A

8D7F4255-3ACC-44B0-A0E7-4D8D876D4CA4.jpg

1st off I want you all to know that I've looked at the forums to try and avoid asking any questions that have been answered 1000 times already. I've fiddled with this thing for several hours over multiple days to no avail. A lesser man would have broken down sobbing by now.

Backstory: I'm of the mindset of buy once cry once. Prior to this I'd never owned a jointer or a planer but considering my youtube and FWW consumption I'm pretty much an expert. Well this beauty popped up on CL for 1800. It does have the mortising table but that wasn't a big factor for me getting it. I was most excited about the space saving and the 13.75" capacity. The guy that had it, bought it off a widowed client (1 of many machines he got). He didn't have use for something so large so it came home with me. This sucker is in my basement now which was quite an adventure in itself. I did take off the tables prior to moving it downstairs.

Issues: So following the advice on this forum I adjusted the outfeed table parallel with the cutter head( no shimming required). Then I moved onto to the infeed table. Their are two bolts on the handle side that are used to adjust that side of the table and the hinge side is adjusted using shims. The hinge that is shimmed is in inline with the bolt further from the cutterhead. So I 1st brought the handle side of the infeed coplaner and level with the outfeed. Then I shimmed the hinge on the infeed to bring that coplaner and level with the outfeed. The issue is the infeed table slopes down on the hinge side as it gets closer to the cutterhead. I don't know how to fix this issue as the hinge side only has that one area that I know of to shim. To get the tables coplaner and at the same level on the infeed side I'm taking off 1/10 of an inch which is way way too much.

Other issue that has me scratching my head: My machine didn't come with the knife adjustment jig nor does the manual say how far the blade should project out. Anyhow I had to take my dremel to the underside of the jointer table to remove a little of the metal so the blade didn't hit. This is obviously out of the ordinary, but I didn't know how else to fix it.

I also checked the planer table to the cutterhead to make sure the cutterhead wasn't shimmed.

I really hope this is me missing something obvious.

[mreza Salav]

If the hinge side close to cutter head is too low you need to "lower" the shim further back on that side, probably the same for the front bolts so the table becomes co-planer with the outfeed and cutter head.

[John TenEyck]

Don't grind off any more metal; something else is wrong. If the knives are too high the tables would have to be slid closer to the cutterhead to be at the same height and that will lead to the knives hitting the table lips at some point. That might be where you're at, in which case the solution is to lower the knives and lower the tables which will more them further away from the knives. I'm basing this on my FS-35 which use inclined ways for raising/lowering the tables. This is independent to the shimming/coplaner issue.

If you can't shim the infeed table coplaner with the outfeed table, then look at the outfeed table. You said it is parallel with the cutterhead, which is important, but perhaps the end of the table is too low or too high and making it difficult to align the infeed table to be coplaner. When I took my FS-35 apart to move it into my basement shop I checked to see if there were any shims under the hinge points. There weren't, and the machine went back together with the tables perfectly coplaner. But some machines require shims to get things coplaner; you should have found those shims when you disassembled it If there were none, then either the machine was coplaner and all you should have to do is bolt it all back together or the prior owner didn't care.

John

[Max Hallmark]

So there were shims under the outfeed table... I think ( the machine has been in my basement over a year now and I'm not sure of how many shims there were under that side). I wish I could go back and not mess with the bolts on either table and see where I landed. Unfortunately I can't turn back the clock. Holleeee shitttt!!! I just had a damn epiphany! Shim the outfeed side which will lower the hinge side nearest the cutterhead. Lower the knives which will have me lower the outfeed even lower thus eliminating the 1/10 of an inch gap that I'm experiencing on the infeed side nearest the cutterhead on the hinge side. BAZINGAAA!!! Thank you guys. I'll report back when I have it fixed.