Jet J/P Table Finish?

[Matt Meiser]

This past week I had a business meeting east of Columbus and stopped at Woodwerks on my way home. While I was there I was checking out the Jet J/P which I thought looked pretty good. even the fence which I had thought looked rather cheap in pictures wasn't bad. The sheet metal that most of the fence bracketry is really very thick and I doubt is going anywhere under normal use. I've seen the video on how it converts and with no one showing me I was able to convert between jointer to planer, and back in no time. Probably the only inconvenience in doing so is that the table for the planer needs to be cranked down about 6" to flip the dust hood over for jointing, and the crank for doing so is pretty low.

But what I was suprised to see was the finish on the tables. They weren't the usual smooth, polished tables seen on tools. These looked more like the outside of corrugated cardboard--they had very slight corrugations that were parallel with the direction the material would be fed. What's up with that? I didn't see any other machines from Jet, Delta, Shop Fox, Powermatic or SCMI there with that type of finish.

I saw a couple other cool things while I was there. They had a few of the custom painted Powermatic table saws which look really slick. They also are selling Lego kits for various woodworking machines--a table saw, bandsaw, lathe, workbench, etc. Pretty cool, but they were $13 each so I resisted the temptation to buy one.

[Kyle Kraft]

That's interesting. Now, I don't think that this type of machine is widely used nowadays, but in the past a planer mill would make that type of a tool mark. The machine had a long reciprocating bed similar to the way a surface grinder table moves back and forth. The difference is instead of a grinding wheel there was a tool bit mounted in a clapper box. Same principle as a metalworking shaper only the bed and the workpiece moved relative to the cutting tool.

Maybe China bought a bunch of our metalworking dinosaurs and put them back in production

[Paul B. Cresti]

I am not sure why people seem to be inclined to want shiny cast iron tops? A lot of the industrial machines I have owned, used and seen have blanchard ground tops (those swirly marks in very even pattern). In my opinion I hate the shiny tops...they look cheap and all they do is get scratched and dull/rust very quickly, not that it even matters if that does happen. If someone feels there is a possibility of inaccuracy with these blanchard tops think again..........shiny tops, quiet cutter heads, what type of paint coating, etc...whats next woodworking with out the work?

[Matt Meiser]

I am not sure why people seem to be inclined to want shiny cast iron tops? A lot of the industrial machines I have owned, used and seen have blanchard ground tops (those swirly marks in very even pattern).

These weren't a swirl pattern--I'm familiar with that pattern. About 1/2 of the other machines at Woodwerks had that pattern and 1/2 were "shiny." This was different yet. It was kind of dull looking and with parallel corrugations.

Kyle, now that you mention it, I think I have seen that pattern on someone nearby's VERY old jointer.

[David Stonner]

it's a scraped surface to get the top very flat and reduce suction. knapp uses it on their machine tops. did it look kind of scalloped? if so, metal scraping is how the surface was finished.

d.

[Peter Quadarella]

It's not the shininess of the top that was strange to me (also), it's the fact that it isn't flat. I mean, I'm sure it's flat over its length, but there are grooves in the top. It's very tempting for me to buy that thing every time I see it.

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, that pretty much describes it.

[David Stonner]

consider it similar to a corrugated-sole plane.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Matt,
I stole this response from Jim Becker's response to a previous post...

"Curt, the tables are ground that way to help material move easier. A wide, smooth surface would be "really sticky" once you have a board flat, making that last pass really hard to accomplish. My MM J/P is also ground that way."

-Jeff

[Derek Hansen]

I noticed this also when I checked it out - it seems like it would make it easier to slide material over it since your have less surface-to-surface contact area, and eliminates the vacuum effect you can sometimes get on traditional tables.

[Jim Becker]

I stole this response from Jim Becker's response to a previous post...

"Curt, the tables are ground that way to help material move easier. A wide, smooth surface would be "really sticky" once you have a board flat, making that last pass really hard to accomplish. My MM J/P is also ground that way."

Although I believe my claim about easier material movement to still be true here, I didn't understand from Curt's previous comment that the surface was more "grooved" rather than the Blanchard grind on my tables. I guess it's just another way to do it! I do plan on getting together with Curt to see his machine in the recent future now that I'm back from two weeks "very" south of the border...

[Thomas S Stockton]

Matt,
That is a pretty common finish on some industrial tools. My Griggio jointer has them and as other posters have said the're ground that way to cut down on friction. I used to share a shop and we had a SCMI planer that had the same type of surface. The picture shows a close up of a section of the jointer table along with some inlay.
Tom

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, the surface is just like Tom's picture.

[Roger Bull]

I had the same question when mine arrived. I had ordered it sight unseen and was unsure if that was surface was intentional or the result of incomplete milling.

A call to Jet confirmed that it was intentional. They called it a European surface. It is designed to enable materials to slide easier.

I do not know if surface works any better but I like the j/p overall.

-Roger

[Jeffrey Makiel]

So much for the American baby butt theory.

I remember Delta also saying something similar about my Unisaw's top 20 years ago. That is, a polished-like surface would have more sliding resistance than a rougher grind. However, the shiny surface looks better in catalogs. Snapper lawn mowers had a similar philosophy by selling their red lawn mowers with white bags.

-Jeff