Jointer knife setting

[Martin Wasner]

I picked up a used SAC FS305 jointer built in 1999 yesterday. I spent some time cleaning up 17 years of gunk on it, lubing some squeaky pivot points, and apparently nobody who's owned this jointer believed in dust collection or blowing it out because it was PACKED full of chips. Then decided to pull the knives out so the carbide guy can sharpen them up and so I could get the size and order another set.

My current jointer is a generic Grizzlymatic 6", that has the bolts for the gibs, but then a jack screw in the head for adjusting the height of the knives. The SAC has the same bolts in the gib for holding the knife, but there is a spring that pushes the knife up. I am unfamiliar with this configuration.

Anything special I should know about this setup or setting the knives? I'm assuming it's just getting the right tension on the gib bolts to hold the knife just enough to slide it around to set the height, then locking them down? Seems simple enough, but I don't want to do anything stoooopid. Is this a case where a piece of glass or something else flat could be laid against the outfeed table and just allow the springs to push the knife up against it and torque down the gibs? The head would have to be indexed in the same spot for each knife, but that seems simple enough.



The gibs are stamped with a position number, as is the head. One of the previous owners wrote a position number with a sharpie on the head and gibs that doesn't match the manufacture's, but I think I'm going to use the manufacture's placement instead. I can't see a reason not to.




It cleaned up real nice. Other than missing the guard, it's pretty mint. I'm going to just buy a porkchop guard from the Northfield Foundry and make it work.

[Darcy Warner]

It has spring loaded knife lifters?
I setting gauge would be ideal, probably had one from the factory. I did find a place with a few manuals for these SAC's.

I set the knives on my 30" jointer with a stick and two pencil marks.

I can check for the manuals an elaborate on the stick later.

It takes me 20 minutes to swap knives in my 30" jointer using a stick and two pencil marks.

[glenn bradley]

I like the spring setup. I set a piece of plate glass on the outfeed with just enough hanging over the mouth for the knife to make decent contact. Snug the screws and your done. I have also added three rare earth magnets on top of the glass along the knife edge to hold the knife snug when the springs are weak.

[J.R. Rutter]

Nice find! I believe that those heads are meant to be used with a knife setting jig that you push down on the knife while tightening the gib bolts. This would have been an accessory that shipped with the machine. The glass plate on the outfeed would work as well, if the outfeed hasn't been adjusted up too high for the knife projection to get unsafe.

[Warren Lake]

most of my machines are older so have no spring or adjuster below to raise the knife up. On the general many years back I changed out the spring for an allen screw adjuster they made. On the SCM stuff I just put a screwdriver below the knife when I need to raise it and a wood block on top if I need to tap it down. I measure my knives towards the outside on each side. On the general stuff in the past the grinder sometimes gave me knives that were not straight so I would straighten them on set up taping stuff up and down but no issues with the SCM stuff have thicker heavier knives and they give them back straight.

The spring thing should not be an issue its there to help you to support keep the knives up as you lightly snug the gib. Im used to setting up without any help from the bottom and it works fine. I set my head parallel to the outfeed table then set my knife to extend up over the head by .050 thats my number and always used it and it works well for me on all my machines.

Thats going to be night and day jointer wise compared to what you were working on. Even going from my General stuff to the SCM was huge. The old guy said the General stuff is Mickey Mouse, when i bought his SCM he said its no Mercedes. I know there are more solid machines but I still appreciate the SCM over the General stuff every time I turn it on.

one thing about setting up and loosening that an old guy in the trade and tool and die told me was dont reef all your nuts tight at once, work around in at least two stages for final tightening, I got one of those knive gauge things with the magnets in with other stuff at an auction years ago, still never tried it. with a dial you can get your knives very accurate so ill have to try the gauge one day and see if it is as good.

[Dan Barr]

Magnet on glass is pretty slick! Wish i had thought of that 10 years ago when i had my jointer. I was fiddling with it by hand using a straightedge and micrometers.

[Martin Wasner]

It has spring loaded knife lifters?
I setting gauge would be ideal, probably had one from the factory. I did find a place with a few manuals for these SAC's.

I set the knives on my 30" jointer with a stick and two pencil marks.

I can check for the manuals an elaborate on the stick later.

It takes me 20 minutes to swap knives in my 30" jointer using a stick and two pencil marks.

I've actually got the manual. (weird right?) It's a little fuzzy on whether or not they supplied any kind of jig or not.

I've always used a piece of aluminum like your saying with a stick. Just measure where it picks up and sets down, then set them all the same. It's been plenty accurate of a way for me. Then adjust the outfeed up or down until it's either not dragging or leaving any snipe. It kinda looks in the manual it'd be more or less two setup blocks on the outside edges and you just find top dead center, then tighten the gibs. That seems pretty straight forward. I've always done it as Warren says, in stages as well. I've got a planer with a goofy curved head, and I usually go through that three times to get them torqued. Snug, tightened, then tight. I don't use a torque wrench, just a T handled allen wrench and I twist it to the same spot and feel. It's probably shockingly accurate.



I do need to see how flat things are sitting too and make adjustments. I'm hoping it's spot on, but I've never adjusted a jointer like this before, so there will inevitably be a learning curve. Especially if one of the tables has a twist to it. Now I have to check on that. It'll bug me to no end.

[Martin Wasner]

Since having some time to think on it, setting those knives will be a non-issue. I'm just going to grab a piece of glass. If I don't like that I'll have a couple of steal bars milled flat and use those. When I first looked at it, I thought it would have the jack screws, and they were just inaccessible without pulling the knife. That would be a pain in the rear. This seems a little smarter too me after kicking it around for a while.

Tables are flat. Or at least flat enough. The outfeed has a bit of a dip to it at the end, but it's next to nothing. The only thing I have for a straight edge is a 78" Stablila level. At the end of the outfeed you could see just a bit of daylight. I used a piece of paper from a carbon copy, the yellow page, and it was dragging. So it's not perfect, but it's real close. I don't know how thick that piece of paper is, but it isn't much.

Should be a solid jointer for me. I don't use them for much other than the occasional face joint or straightening, and edge jointing material for glue ups, but I've wanted a bigger better jointer for a long time. The thread about Northfield jointers kinda got me all fired up and I started looking again. I like SAC, and while this wasn't a killer deal it wasn't bad. Replacing it with a new SCM, Casadei, or comparable would be $8-9k I'd think. This one is in pretty dang good shape. Whoever set it up originally didn't know much though, or it just lacked any adjustment since new. Just a little bit of tinkering and I got everything working slick. The drive belt squealed on startup. Five minutes of adjusting and no more squeal. The fence was hanging up going from the bolted on table to the outfeed. Five minutes of adjusting, runs across smoothly. The shaft the fence rides on needed some cleaning and lubrication, smooth now. The infeed table squeaked going up/down, a bit of lubrication, smooth.

The brake needs some attention. It doesn't shut down as quickly as it is supposed to. I might not bother with that one though.

[Andrew Hughes]

I think it's a fine looking machine.I usually don't care for the square boxy looking euro jointers.
But yours nice a look maybe it's the color?
I know I'm weird.
I use Bob Vaughan method when I want a really close set on the knives.
Otherwise I use the stick drag method Darcy mentions its so quick.

[Darcy Warner]

Should be a timer for the brake in the control box.

[Warren Lake]

site not working right for me not sure where this will go off line and online two different things

logic says level the machine first however its dubious when two tables that move and have adjustments are level or not. I still set up all the rear stuff I said together and as far as the glass and wood blocks done the wood blocks but never measured to see how accurate that was that is with numbers I like to see numbers speedomter on my car digital spray gun etc you can use glass blocks all day you still dont know your knife projection from the head and the machine will perform different based on that, I dont remember numbers but my knives a bit higher they were noisier and didnt cut as well that is where i got my number from based on the machines performance being better. you can assume its all fine but what if the last guy was a simple person you know people of the land, Blazzing Saddles reference there. Anyway I dont trust what former owners have done and even factory there have been times ive seen some odd factory stuff mostly good though. sounds like your tables are pretty good, I would not trust a stabila even my new one was off a bit, its powder coated and all, did you flip it to see if its the same both sides. Im lucky friend bought me a precision straight edge years back from a tool and die maker and he had it custom made.

[Martin Wasner]

Should be a timer for the brake in the control box.

It's in the motor, and clearances need to be set as it's mechanical. It's not real important to me, but if I've got some spare time I'll dig into it I'll take a peek. I've spent enough time screwing around with it that I should've spent building stuff.

[Martin Wasner]

sounds like your tables are pretty good, I would not trust a stabila even my new one was off a bit, its powder coated and all, did you flip it to see if its the same both sides.

I flipped it all four ways and got a similar reading. I'm a little shocked it was that straight to be honest.

Getting it set in place is likely a wise move before getting carried away on adjusting anything.

[Larry Edgerton]

I have what looks to be the same jointer [Older} but with an SCM label. I use glass myself, but with a small twist. I put a drop of water under the glass so I can see it lift easier. No brake on mine, but it stops fast enough for me.

Nice find. I am really happy with mine. It does as good a job as my old Porter but takes up about a third of the real estate.

[David Kumm]

SAC uses the same mechanical motor brake on it's planer. They used pretty thick steel compared to most newer machines so the tables are well supported. Good find. Dave