70's, 6" Craftsman jointer questions

[Michael J Evans]

Hi all
I made a impulse decision at a garage sale to pick up a older 6" Craftsman jointer. Has the non adjustable outfeed table. I barely just checked it over but appears to be in decent condition.

Few questions
1) where do I start with checking everything? From what I've read I need to get the in feed and outfeed co planer and without twist.

2) setting knives - when I did a quick check of the knives it appears that the knives have a slight hollow. I just put the head of a square on the outfeed side and manually turned the head. The knives would grab the outer edge but not the middle. It cam with a new in package set of knives, so I'll probably change them to those. But before that, how hard of a task is it to change and set the knives in one of these machines? From what I can find the knives need to be set .003 high from the outfeed. The old Craftsman book recommends some tool that no longer is in production. Can I just flatten a piece of wood with a hand plane, set a sheet of paper on the outfeed side and then adjust the knives till they grab? I don't want to spend another $40 on one of the commercial jigs available.

3) motor - it currently has a 1/2hp motor. I happen to have a 1hp or 1.5hp motor from a old Craftsman table saw that is not in use. Would there be any negative repercussions from hooking up and using the larger motor?

I've never used a jointer, but plan on watching some YouTube for tips and what not. But the fence is adjustable, is there any reason why I wouldn't just leave it locked down at it's widest opening?

Any special safety devices I should have? I currently have a gripper for my older table saw, so I was thinking I could use that as a pusher and then make something else for the outfeed side or get another gripper.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Michael evans

[Dave Sabo]

Got any Pics ?

[Richard Coers]

You are in for a real task trying to get the knives set parallel and at the correct height. Miss it just a little and you won't have a crown or even a snipe at the end of the cut. They sold a ton of those machines, but everyone hated changing knives. I sure did and was thrilled to sell it and buy a Grizzly with adjustable outfeed. My best advice would be to resell it. You move the fence around when edge jointing so the knives wear evenly. With the technique I was taught, a pusher is never used. You start the cut and as soon as you have enough stock on the outfield table, you never bring your hands back to the infeed side. All the work is done between the out feed table and cutter head. The infeed is only there to set the amount of stock you plan to take off in one pass. Moving your hands back and forth from the infeed to the out feed will produce a board that may have the same twist or warp that you started with.

[Michael J Evans]

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[Michael J Evans]

You are in for a real task trying to get the knives set parallel and at the correct height. Miss it just a little and you won't have a crown or even a snipe at the end of the cut. They sold a ton of those machines, but everyone hated changing knives. I sure did and was thrilled to sell it and buy a Grizzly with adjustable outfeed. My best advice would be to resell it. You move the fence around when edge jointing so the knives wear evenly. With the technique I was taught, a pusher is never used. You start the cut and as soon as you have enough stock on the outfield table, you never bring your hands back to the infeed side. All the work is done between the out feed table and cutter head. The infeed is only there to set the amount of stock you plan to take off in one pass. Moving your hands back and forth from the infeed to the out feed will produce a board that may have the same twist or warp that you started with.

Thanks Richard. I have it now, so I will give try to set it and see what happens. I am a hand tool user now, so I can't imagine it will leave the wood any more twisted than I currently do with my hand planes. In regards to your technique, that does make sense and I will keep it in mind when I get it running.

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with Richard. I think most new to jointers don't realize how how accurate the knife set up has to be. One and 1/2
thou too low the material will "climb" as it goes over the out feed. That is,if you have a board 4 inches wide and want to
joint off 1/8th ,the end going to knives first will be accurately cut ...but the other end will be slightly elevated and less wood will be removed on that end.
With an adjustable outfeed you would just adjust that . Not the knives . 1and 1/2 thou wrong is way off. On short
pieces of wood ,say 18 inches you might not be bothered . A board 5 feet or more will be wider at one end. I hope you
will refer back to this thread as these posts wiil make more sense.

[Michael J Evans]

Agree with Richard. I think most new to jointers don't realize how how accurate the knife set up has to be. One and 1/2
thou too low the material will "climb" as it goes over the out feed. That is,if you have a board 4 inches wide and want to
joint off 1/8th ,the end going to knives first will be accurately cut ...but the other end will be slightly elevated and less wood will be removed on that end.
With an adjustable outfeed you would just adjust that . Not the knives . 1and 1/2 thou wrong is way off. On short
pieces of wood ,say 18 inches you might not be bothered . A board 5 feet or more will be wider at one end. I hope you
will refer back to this thread as these posts wiil make more sense.

Mel,
Thanks for the thoughts. I don't think I overpayed to bad so I should be able to recoup it when I sell.
I forgot I already had a dial indicator from when I set my table saw up years ago, so I will use that to try and set the blades.

[Ron Selzer]

Back when I got my first jointer, 4" monkey ward's, I think.was also young, no formal woodworking education, but had been playing with wood since 2 yrs old. Got a washing machine motor with it, all for 3.5 hrs pay. Made a wood stand out of 2 x 4 from Cellar Lumber Co in town Canal Winchester, pop thousand probably!ess. Used a scrap piece of copper drain pipe for out feed roller adding ten inches,approximately. Man, I was living large, had just bought a J C Penney ten inch table saw with composite top.
Getting to the point, was fixed out feed table, pulled knives and hand sharpened on buds grinder, set knives with two wood sticks. Jointer traveled to lots of construction site's and was used there. Replaced with a NEW Jet 6" jointer, Paid cash for by using that old jointer, along with a Delta contractors saw,NEW, and a NEW Woodmaster planer with all options.All paid for with those old tools.
Fortunately was working for people who were interested only in results, with guy's who could turn out great work with anything.
Tools make the job easier, faster, much more consistent, can also bankrupt you.
Have much nicer too!a now, can now expend energy trying more different techno

Ron
Dad tablet is smarter than me. Hope this is readable over 10 minutes to type