Jointer repair - a question and a "war story"

[Ron Taylor]

I have an old Sears Craftsman 6" jointer that my father-in-law gave me over 25 years ago. He'd used it for an unknown number of years prior to that. It is OLD. I can come up with the model number if necessary.

My question... the jointer sat up, unused in non-controlled atmosphere for several years. When I decided to put it back into use, it took much elbow grease and sandpaper to get the table clean and usable. Once I fired it up, it works very well, but produces a high pitch screech. I'm pretty sure it is the bearings. Are they replacable?? Are the parts available?? Can I do such a repair myself or do I need to take it to a machine shop??

As a side note. In addition to being old, this machine is HEAVY... lots of cast iron. It is mounted on a shop built table, constructed from angle iron. On New Year's Day, two years ago, I was rearranging my shop and was pulling the jointer across the floor, looking behind me as I pulled and tugged across the shop. I hadn't noticed that the jointer was NOT fastened to the table. Vibrations caused the machine to "walk" across the table top and fall off onto my right foot, breaking it in two places. There was no damage to the jointer, but I'm still reminded of it on cool, damp days.

[JayStPeter]

Lower the tables all the way and look in there. On many jointers there is a long bolt that goes through the housing below the cutterhead. It holds in a removable part that the bearings are installed into. One bolt on each side and the cutterhead and bearings pull out through the top. It only takes a couple minutes (remove the knives and it will even be cut free). Both my '66 Rockwell and my Grizzly use this same design. If they are not standard bearings, got to owwm.com and post the same question.

Jay