Ridgid J/P Problem.

[Al Launier]

Sorry for the lengthy description.

I have a 6” Ridgid Jointer Planner, Model JP06101. This is a tool I purchased new a couple years ago, in an unopened box, at a very good price, from an individual as a private sale. He swears to have purchased it legitimately from HD, yet did not have a sales receipt. His reason for selling was: it was a gift & wanted to get a better J/P for his shop, which I can attest 1^st hand was much better shop than mine. I attempted to register the J/P for the Ridgid Lifetime Service Agreement, but was unable to do so despite pictures of the unopened box & all the original packaging – because of no receipt.

So I have this J/P which I cannot use satisfactorily, despite reading/following instructions carefully& watching numerous videos.

• I very carefully set up the J/P as instructed & installed the knives to (0.000” to -0.001”) relative to the out-feed (OF) table.
• The cutter body is 1/16” below the OF table
• Co-planarity of the (IF) table (slightly lowered) relative to the OF table when standing at the operating position is:
  
  • Far left corner (-0.019”) Far right corner (-0.005”)
  • Near left corner (-0.019”) Near right corner (-0.014”)

When using the J/P to face joint I focus on keeping downward pressure on the leading part of the wood when over the OF table, letting the following part of the wood “float”, doing its own thing. The result is always a “tapered thickness” whereby the thickness of the wood is significantly less on the fence side than the near side, and with a taper running the length of the wood. I’ve had an experienced woodworking buddy try his hand & his results were the same. He even tried edge jointing the piece against the fence (90° to OF table) to edge joint. Over a 4” wide board it was out of square ~ 1/16”.

I’m thinking that since the outboard end of the IF table is higher (0.014” fence side / 0.005” near side) than at the cutter head it is influencing the cutting action despite holding the wood down firmly to the OF table. There are no leveling adjustments for the IF table, only gibs on the fence side. I was thinking of shimming on top of the dovetails as needed to improve co-planarity, but with the IF table 22” long & the dovetail extending only 7” from the cutter head, that would require ~ 1/3 of the shim thickness. This causes me to thick that shimming that close to the cutter head would just screw everything up.

I attempted to resolve this with a Ridgid tech guy, but after a couple of phone calls to him, he wouldn’t answer his messages. So now I’m hoping some of you experienced WWs may have some insight & suggestions on how to resolve this. I really don’t want to sell this J/P as this would just pass on the problem to the next guy.
Any suggestions?

[Bruce Wrenn]

Beg, borrow, steal, or buy a copy of John White's book "Care and Repair of Shop Machines." He shows exactly what you need to do to correct this problem. As for the warranty and LSA, they are only available to ORIGINAL PURCHASER. LSA has to be done within 90 days of purchase. If seller bought within last 90 days, HD can look up receipt for him, it he paid by CC. More than 90 days, you're out of luck.

[glenn bradley]

Took me a moment to figure out the tool in question. I do see it called a jointer/planer which is what threw me. In north America the tool we generally call a "jointer" is called a "planer" on the other side of the pond. The machine we generally call a "planer" is called a "thicknesser" over there. The term jointer/planer usually refers to a machine that does both (in the way that we use those terms in the U.S.).

I see we are talking about what I think of as a jointer (that doesn't make me right). This discontinued machine has gotten pretty decent reviews from most owners. It was called a bit tippy when longer stock was in use and there are threads on various fixes for that. On to what you are asking about . . .

Technique definitely cones into play when operating a jointer with the most common problem on a well setup machine being feed path control. Your statement "The result is always a “tapered thickness” " makes me want to state the purpose of a jointer so that we are all talking about the same thing. When face jointing, a jointer makes one surface flat. This surface is then placed against the fence to make a perpendicular edge. A jointer is not used to make a board the same thickness; this is a planer's job.

Placing the already flat jointed face down on the planer's table allows the planer to match that face by removing material from a non-flat surface opposite the reference surface. In short, jointers make things flat, planers make surfaces parallel. If you feed a reasonably smooth bowed board through a planer, you get a bowed board of a given thickness.

Table co-planer-ism (is that a word?) is very important but, your tables are not out very bad. They are bad enough to where I would adjust them and I think you are on the right track by suspecting a fouled feed path but, they're not terrible. I would be sure to use a board that is short enough to be FULLY supported by the infeed table. That is, the entire board should fit on the infeed table. If not you are introducing potential feed path issues and we don't want to deal with that when setting up a machine. Once you are getting good results, we can move on to proper material support and feed path fro longer material.

[Al Launier]

Beg, borrow, steal, or buy a copy of John White's book "Care and Repair of Shop Machines." He shows exactly what you need to do to correct this problem. As for the warranty and LSA, they are only available to ORIGINAL PURCHASER. LSA has to be done within 90 days of purchase. If seller bought within last 90 days, HD can look up receipt for him, it he paid by CC. More than 90 days, you're out of luck.

Thanks for the recommendation Bruce. I just ordered his book!

[John Donhowe]

+++++1

Thanks for the recommendation Bruce. I just ordered his book!

I just found out about this book last week myself. Single best book on ww'ing I've ever seen- a must-have.

[Randy Red Bemont]

I had that same jointer and just recently sold it to upgrade to a larger jointer. It is a great jointer and once you get it tuned you will be very happy with it. As far as the LSA it is to the original purchaser and you have to have the receipt and UPC from the box to sign up for it.. Good luck and I hope you get it tuned to your liking.

Red

[Al Launier]

Beg, borrow, steal, or buy a copy of John White's book "Care and Repair of Shop Machines." He shows exactly what you need to do to correct this problem. As for the warranty and LSA, they are only available to ORIGINAL PURCHASER. LSA has to be done within 90 days of purchase. If seller bought within last 90 days, HD can look up receipt for him, it he paid by CC. More than 90 days, you're out of luck.

Just received the book & i'm thrilled with it! It's very well written & has a great section on tuning JPs. Thanks again for the recommendation.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Just received the book & i'm thrilled with it! It's very well written & has a great section on tuning JPs. Thanks again for the recommendation.

You're still calling it a "JP", so I do want to reiterate that the tool you have is not a jointer/planer. In the US, it is simply called a "jointer". Ridgid is referring to the tool incorrectly, or perhaps using both names so that they can use the same packaging in countries where a jointer (per the US) is called a planer (like in Europe).

There ARE machines that we do call jointer/planer combination machines, but these are multi-purpose machines that do thickness planing and jointing. for example, this is true a jointer/planer machine. Ridgid does not make anything like this:

http://www.hammerusa.com/us-us/produ...1--310-mm.html

Make sure to read Glenn's post above carefully. It's critical that you understand the purpose of the jointer and how it differs from a planer (and why the jointer will always produce tapered workpieces). If you don't, you will be constantly frustrated.

To reiterate, all you can expect the jointer to do is produce flat surfaces, and two surfaces that are perpendicular to each other (one right angle). The jointer cannot and will not create parallel surfaces- that's what the planer does.

Just want to save you some time to make sure you're clear on these points. Your jointer may be working just fine, you may just be learning the reason why you also need a planer to properly mill your stock. Good luck!

[Al Launier]

• First of all my thanks again to Bruce Wrenn who recommended that I Beg, borrow, steal, or buy a copy of John White's book "Care and Repair of Shop Machines." This proved to be the fix I was looking for!
  
• Carefully following John White's instructions on how to properly tune a "Jointer" proved to be the "fix" I needed to remove the "tapered thickness", i.e. clapboard effect on boards I ran through the machine. Bottom line is that the cross alignment of the IF table relative to the OF table was off ~ 0.009" as noted above, resulting in the clapboard for both me & my woodworking buddy. Shimming one side took care of the problem. Now I have a new tool that works as it's supposed to.
• Peter just for clarification I do know and have known what a "jointer" is designed to do & I wasn't implying that I was using my Ridgid "JP" as a thickness planer to mill parallel sides. My use of the phrase JP was simply because that is what Ridgid calls this tool.

[glenn bradley]

Excellent news Al. Not only is it great that you got your machine tuned up but, others will see the value of following that path. Congrats!

[Al Launier]

Thanks Glenn, you always have a kind word!

[Art Mann]

• Peter just for clarification I do know and have known what a "jointer" is designed to do & I wasn't implying that I was using my Ridgid "JP" as a thickness planer to mill parallel sides. My use of the phrase JP was simply because that is what Ridgid calls this tool.

In addition to being the official name as printed in their advertising and on the box, "jointer/planer" is also the name virtually all other manufacturers used to call this piece of equipment. For my first 15 years of woodworking, "jointer" was simply the shorthand term some people used when they meant "jointer/planer". I have several woodworking how-to books from the 70's and 80's that call it a "jointer/planer". It was not until combination jointer and planer machines became popular that your tool started to be known as simply a "jointer". There are probably tool manufacturers even today who still list that tool in their owner's manuals and advertizing as a "jointer/planer". In other words, you are not as erroneous in your terminology as some might think. The term "planer" is really a misnomer for what a thickness planer does. It creates surfaces that are of uniform thickness but it does not machine wood into a planar surface. The jointer is actually the tool that does that. I make this point because so many new woodworkers erroneously assume that a planer can make a piece of wood flat.