I have a 20yo G1018 8” jointer. It’s always been good enough, though never quite perfect. I’ve recently gotten into trying to figure out if I can get it set up better with appropriate straight edges, etc. The good news is that the tables seem to be reasonably flat and co-planar (within the .003/50” tolerance of my straightedge). However the fence is warped/twisted so that it might be 3/32” out of square on one end if the other is square. Those measurements generally match my experience that I’ve been happy with the face jointing but have issues sometimes getting panels to glue up nicely.
Grizzly sells replacement fences (still) for $165. Or I could find a local machine shop to grind it flat. I’m curious if there are reasons to prefer one over the other, and how flat I should ask a machine shop to make it if I go that route? I haven’t searched for local machine shops capable of that work mostly b/c I’m not sure quite how flat it needs to be.
Bruce