Jointer Flatness - Opinions

[Bill Leonhardt]

I have spent the last several weeks looking at jointers and have decided to buy the Yorkcraft 6" model (model YC-6J). Wilke (the vendor of this machine) has offered to measure the flatness of the tables and fence and give me this info, along with the serial number, prior to my purchase.

I'm thinking that a flatness of .003" to .005" over the length of each element is reasonable but I'd like to hear what others think. So, what do you think would be reasonable flatness numbers and at what point would you reject the unit.

Thanks,

Bill Leonhardt

[Mapdude]

.005"?? That's 5 thousandths of an inch????

And I thought I had a tendency to be anal!!!

Nahh!!! I'd hold out for .001"

Bill Le> I have spent the last several weeks looking at jointers and have decided to

[Bill Leonhardt]

It's not so much a question of being anal as expecting reasonable manufacturing quality. Jointer tables and fences should have ground surfaces and 3 to 5 mil flatness isn't unreasonable for ground surfaces that are just a little over 6 inches wide.

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 06:45:46 GMT, Mapdude Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

you'd be surprised how much 5 thousandths really is... makes a picture frame look like a 8 pointed star, , , to which your SWMBO will say something like, "we pay all that money for those machines in the basement, and you make shit like this?" or if she's really nice, she'll give you the look one usually reserves for a child giving you a picture of a green dog barking at a purple sun, and reserve room for it on the refrigerator.

Traves

[Bill Leonhardt]

JGS,

I assume you're refering to Aug 02 posts on the REC. I had read them and went back and read them again. While it was mentioned that flatness was important, I didn't see any posts where anyone offered an opinion as what value was reasonable. That's why I'm asking now.

Bill

[JGS]