About a year ago I ran across an old craftsman 6" jointer. From the best I could tell it was made in the late '40's early 50's. Since I didn't have a jointer and the price was right, I picked it up. The jointer served me well on a couple of projects, but sat unused most of the summer due to other commitments. I rolled out to the middle of shop and gave it a tune-up today.
After I had replace the drive belt, honed and re-set the knives I gave it a test spin. I was about 3" into a piece of scrap poplar when I heard a terrible sound. My first thought was that there was an unseen piece of metal in the scrap wood. I shut the machine down as quickly as possible to find that a knife had been thrown from the cutter head.
I found the knife on the floor behind the machine. The first thing I did was check the machine for damage. The lip of the knife slot was slightly rolled back on the near side and the knife was damaged. It appears that the knife had come loose on that side and caught the lip of either the infeed or outfeed table as it rotated around.
My first assumption (and probably yours) was I didn't tighten the knives, but that was not the case. After the knives were reset, I went around the cutter head twice to ensure that everything was tourqued properly. My father-in-law stated that he watched me while I did it.
I am wondering if it as some other issue of fatigue either in the metal or the threads of the set screw. Either way the machine is out of commission. My machinist father-in-law thinks it would be feasible to pull the cutter head, file down the bent section and still have a servicable machine. Right now my idea is to sell it for pennies on the pound to scrap man.
Oh well where is that Grizzly catalog.....
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Originally Posted by Byron Trantham
Not only would I junk the machine (imagine a knife going through your eye socket) but I would damage it beyond repair so the junk man does not sell it to another sucker. Remember that you bought it very cheaply; there had to be a reason for the price.