Please help. Going NUTS! -- Jointer

[Lincoln Myers]

Please help a woodworker who is about to go NUTS. I am using my jointer 6" Sprunger model that I recently got up and running, and "thought" I had it setup/calibrated right.

I am face jointing poplar to glue up for bed legs. The pieces go throught great, w/ no snipe to be seen or felt. The problem is when I put the 2 freshly jointed faces together, they rock back and forth around the center. If I force one end together, I get a 1/8" gap at the other end.

I tried pushing a little harder in the center, to create a slight "cup" in the center, no luck. I tried resetting my knives, w/ the Jointer Pal, no luck.

Please help. Any tips or fixes are GREATLY appreciated. I am desperate and frustrated. Leaving the shop for the night.
-Linc

[Todd Burch]

Your knives are too low, or, your outfeed table is too high. Or, perhaps you are putting too much pressure on the intial feed section or the last feed section.

Todd.

[Mike Evertsen]

Please help a woodworker who is about to go NUTS. I am using my jointer 6" Sprunger model that I recently got up and running, and "thought" I had it setup/calibrated right.

I am face jointing poplar to glue up for bed legs. The pieces go throught great, w/ no snipe to be seen or felt. The problem is when I put the 2 freshly jointed faces together, they rock back and forth around the center. If I force one end together, I get a 1/8" gap at the other end.

I tried pushing a little harder in the center, to create a slight "cup" in the center, no luck. I tried resetting my knives, w/ the Jointer Pal, no luck.

Please help. Any tips or fixes are GREATLY appreciated. I am desperate and frustrated. Leaving the shop for the night.
-Linc

your just down the road from me,,if your out this way stop in I'm on 14 just before onys tree farm and about a mile before GC mill ,,,,,,my sign is out front,,,,,

[Philip Berman]

This may or may not be an issue here, but I spent the better part of a YEAR producing less-than-perfect faces 'cause I presumed that by using the "Jointer Pal", the knives were set correctly, and problem I was having was due to "operator error". I had re-set the knives MULTIPLE times, and still no improvement, further convincing me that I was screwing up. Then I started to suspect it was the machine itself (JET 6"), but a chat with the Jet customer service people convinced me to re-set my knives using nothing more than a straight-edge. Lo and behold, I'm suddenly producing perfectly flat faces, edges that are a perfect 90 degrees to the face, and life is good again. Don't know what the problem was with the Jointer Pal, but I'm over having to have a "thingy" to help me set the knives, and doubt I'd try to use it again.

[Kent Cori]

Lincoln,

I had the same problem briefly with my jointer and, for me, the cause was that I had the outfeed table at exactly the same height as the tops of the knives. Then I read a tip on one of the forums that recommended dropping the outfeed table about 0.003". I used the straight edge method with a feeler gauge under it and reset the table. The results have been outstanding and the high point totally eliminated. It only takes a couple of minutes to do so give it a try.

[Roger Myers]

Regarding setting the knife height with respect to the outfeed table... I also think this is your most probable cause. The method I was taught is also very simple. Lay a short straightedge on the outfeed table projecting over the cutter head. When you rotate the cutterhead in its normal direction, it should just barely touch the straightedge, in effect picking it up and dragging it (toward the infeed table) about a 1/4" or so....do this on the back edge of the table, then on the fromt, and repeat with all the knifes. The "lift and drag" mmovement and measurement is simple and surprisingly accurate... I sometimes use a dial indicator with a magnetic base, but it doesn't improve over the simple method which yields great results.
Regarding technique....important issue here is that the attention should be payed to the contact of the board being jointed with the outfeed table. Once I have enough material past the cutterhead for my push blocks to hold it and move it, I take all pressure and influence away from the infeed table, and just use a hand-over-hand movement on the outfeed table. There can be lots of debate over convex up or concave up - to me it depends on the piece being jointed - in general, I will start with the concave side facing up .... U ...... which means that the board may not actually be cut by the cutterhead for the first few inches, and the same for the trailing edge.

just my 2 cents having been there and shared your frustration.....

Roger

[Jim Becker]

One other comment...assuming the tool is set up properly, it's important to understand that the "pressure" you use on the board should only be enough to keep it on the tables. Do not press hard enough to "flatten" it on the table as you will no longer be shaving off the high spots. There is a "feel" to jointing where you get to know just how to move the board and your body to get the lumber across the knives without distorting the material.

[Phil Phelps]

The "lift and drag" movement and measurement is simple and surprisingly accurate... I sometimes use a dial indicator with a magnetic base, but it doesn't improve over the simple method which yields great results.


Roger[/QUOTE]
Rodger, if you set the one knife with the lift and drag, and take that setting with the dial, would that speed things along, or make it more accurate?

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

I finally found that the best method FOR ME is to lower the outfeed table until I had a couple inches of snipe on the end of the board and then raise the outfeed table ever so slighty until the snipe disappeared.

[Bart Leetch]

Ditto what Don said.

I set my knives with a dial indicator then start lowering the back table till the snipe disappears. Then the jointer works perfectly.

[Roger Myers]

The "lift and drag" movement and measurement is simple and surprisingly accurate... I sometimes use a dial indicator with a magnetic base, but it doesn't improve over the simple method which yields great results.


Roger, if you set the one knife with the lift and drag, and take that setting with the dial, would that speed things along, or make it more accurate?

Phil,

I'm sure you could do that also but I haven't tried it...I usually just use the scale and never have a problem...
Roger

[Tony Shaftel]

I'm a hobbyist with about three years experience so I'm certainly no expert, but my opinion is there seems to be more discussion about getting good results with a jointer, relative to its fairly simple purpose, than for just about any other tool. Except the lathe, of course, and lathe use is always crossing over that no-man's land into art...

I use the jointer mainly to smooth the first face of the board. I'll use it to joint the edge in non-critical casees, but If I need a smooth 90 degree edge and need it kept parallel to the other edge, I don't rely on my mastery of the jointer--I just use the tablesaw with my Forrest blade.

There, now it's out in the open. I feel better already. ;-)

Tony

[Jim Becker]

...but If I need a smooth 90 degree edge and need it kept parallel to the other edge, I don't rely on my mastery of the jointer--I just use the tablesaw with my Forrest blade.

That's certainly one way to do it, but unless you have your TS perfectly in alignment and use a gazzillion hold-downs and featherboards, it is very difficult to truely get a straight edge on a saw. Jointer technique can be tricky at first, but one one gets the feel of it, it works each and every time to give you a perfectly flat face and straight edge perpendicular to the aforementioned flat face. (It took me several projects before I got it right)

[Renardo Subrosa]

Hi there,

I learned to set the jointer knives and table height by the following method many, many long years ago. Take a nice block of wood such as maple, maybe 3/4" x 1" x a foot long or so. Hand planing makes a nice edge for this purpose. Place it on the outfeed table, smooth side down, so that one end is just nicked as the knife passes around. Mark the place on the wood block where the outfeed table ends. Rotate the cutter head until the knife moves the block of wood and mark where the end of the outfeed table is now. The table is set right when it barely moves the block but it should move some, say 1/16" perhaps. Then put the wood block on the other end of the knife and get it set nice and even all the way across using the same method. Then set the second and third knife the same way so the block moves the same for all three knives, no matter where it's placed across the table. Now, try testing it by jointing one edge of a piece of scrap. Eyeball this carefully and if the edge is not straight, move the outfeed table up or down until it is and also so there is no sniping. Actually, on a properly set jointer, there will always be an infinitesimal little bit of sniping but it should be virtually imperceptable. I think you just you raised the outfeed table a whisker too much.

Cheers,
Reny

[Steve Inniss]

What Kent said - worked for me for the same problem. -Steve