Jointer Gloat and Help

[MrAudio815]

Hello NCWW's

I got a Jet 6" Jointer for free to use for a few years, its at leat 12+ years old. The bed and fence were very rusted. I cleaned it up and it looks almost new again. The blades are the worst I have ever seen, new ones for sure.

Question? When I checked it for square, there was a gap at the top of the fence at the infeed table, there was a gap at the bottom by the blades infeed side, gap at the top by the blades on the outfeed side, and a gap at the bottom on the outfeed side?

Could the fence be twisted? Or can the beds just be out of alignment? And if the latter, then is this an easy fix?


Thanks for the help~!

 

[Mark Gottesman]

Anything is possible.

Have you managed to locate a manual for it? That might have some adjustment info on it.


Do you have any sort of straight edges or flat surfaces you could use to check?

Photos are always good to help troubleshoot.

Yes, fence could be twisted or adjustment mechanism. Several routes to fix that.

 

[bob vaughan]

The fence, once adjusted square to a spot on the bed, should be square everywhere. That's theory. In practice, most fences have a little warp to them. Install some sharp knives and make some test cuts, checking for square and adjusting the fence accordingly. when you get a square edge, go checking different places. Fine the spot that's the closest to being square and mark it with a felt tipped marker. When moving the fence to 45, you can now move it back to square by putting your square at the previously marked spot. For your work practice, that's the sweet spot.

Another problem could be that the beds are twisted.
Common cause: a stand that's got a hump in the middle or somewhere that puts a twist in the jointer's base when the base is bolted to the stand. Slide a business card around under the jointer base. The jointer and stand should only meet in the areas where the bolts go through.

Another twist cause of twisted beds: Sloppy machining of the ways or bad practice has let sawdust and gunk get down in the dovetail way. Cleaning the dovetail ways usually cures this. The beds have to come off to get this job done.

 

[jhreed]

pull the fence off of the Jet and lay it on the table of your PowerMatic and take a look see.
James

 

[MrAudio815]

Thanks everyone,

Fuuny thing is I checked it for square after I cleaned all that Rust, paint and other junk off the bed and fence and believe it or not but it is sqaure from the infeed to about 4" past the blades then at the end of the fence on the outfeed side it has a very small gap at the top of the fence.

I tested it out and it's pretty darn good, So just a good old cleaning did the trick~! WOW~!

Oh Yeah~!

 

[Gofor]

Matt:

One way to check to see if the tables are twisted or not in parallel side-to-side with each other is to use twisting sticks (same as galoots use with hand planes). From your description, it sounds like the infeed and outfeed tables are not in alignment with each other.

Cut two 18" strips from some ply the same width and with straight edges. put a mark on the edges 6" in from one end.

Remove the fence.

First, set the strips on the outfeed table: One at the very back perpendicular to the length, and the other just past the blades, both with the 6" mark at the edge of the table. Look down the bed from the infeed side. Both strips should be exactly parallel on the top edge. If not, the table is warped. Adjust as possible to get them aligned.

Second, do the same on the infeed side.

Third, put one at the far end of each table.

My bet is that you will see them out of alignment on step three. If so, put the sticks in the center of the two tables and adjust them until they are aligned. Then check both ends (both next to the blade and then the far ends) to fine tune.

Then re-adjust the blades to the outfeed table if necessary.

Next step is to use a straight edge to make sure the both tables are parallel length-wise by laying it across them both raised to full height (use equal shims on both sides so the straight-edge doesn't rest on the blades or cut a notch in it to give blade clearance). IF you do any adjusting, recheck with the twisting sticks.

As to How to adjust the tables, I cannot help, as I don't have a Jet jointer.

After all this, then check square on the fence and adjust it as necessary.

HTHs

Go

PS: IF you wear bi-focals, make sure you are looking through the top of your glasses with both eyes when sighting on the twisting sticks (DAMHIKT). :eusa_doh:

PPS The longer the twisting sticks, the more accurate it will be.