The basic question is how much cupping and bowing in a jointer fence is an acceptable amount?:icon_scra
Being basically a newbie I'm collecting what tools I can afford (and will fit in my one-car garage). Jet's 8" jointer/planer was too good to pass up. The price ($299.99) was right and it got almost uniformly good reviews from Amazon. I'm not planning on using it for anything large (small things like jewelry or music boxes mostly) so I don't care that the infeed table is too short to joint an 8' board. However, during setup I discovered the fence is cupped and bowed. I have a Woodcraft Pinnacle 24" straight edge that's supposed to be accurate within +/- 0.005" so that and some feeler gauges are what I used to check the fence.
It's cupped 0.01" at the infeed end and the middle and 0.008" at the outfeed end. It's bowed 0.076" at the bottom and 0.066" at the top.
Is it worth my while to contact Jet and talk about a replacement or am I obsessing over tiny amounts that won't matter as the wood moves anyway? The problem is that I'm a computer guy and in my world zero is zero no matter how many decimal places you have. Part of me worries that if I get sloppy about setup my results will suffer. Part of me says I shouldn't complain about a three hundred dollar combo machine that lots of woodworkers like. I'm clueless here. :help:
Being basically a newbie I'm collecting what tools I can afford (and will fit in my one-car garage). Jet's 8" jointer/planer was too good to pass up. The price ($299.99) was right and it got almost uniformly good reviews from Amazon. I'm not planning on using it for anything large (small things like jewelry or music boxes mostly) so I don't care that the infeed table is too short to joint an 8' board. However, during setup I discovered the fence is cupped and bowed. I have a Woodcraft Pinnacle 24" straight edge that's supposed to be accurate within +/- 0.005" so that and some feeler gauges are what I used to check the fence.
It's cupped 0.01" at the infeed end and the middle and 0.008" at the outfeed end. It's bowed 0.076" at the bottom and 0.066" at the top.
Is it worth my while to contact Jet and talk about a replacement or am I obsessing over tiny amounts that won't matter as the wood moves anyway? The problem is that I'm a computer guy and in my world zero is zero no matter how many decimal places you have. Part of me worries that if I get sloppy about setup my results will suffer. Part of me says I shouldn't complain about a three hundred dollar combo machine that lots of woodworkers like. I'm clueless here. :help: