Dear Bill, >
> 0.007" >
> I have tuned a number of jointers, that number is my personal tolerance and > it works for me. >
>
Just to add another perspective . . . I have an Italian jointer (12") that has extremely flat tables . . .however, the head that carries the knives is out of round .004". IMO, that out-of-round number, when rotating at 5,000rpm, or whatever the rpm is, creates a noticeable problem. My jointer uses TERSA knives that have no adjustments. The out-of-round causes a slight hammering effect such that every board I joint has a clear ripple to it - flat, but rippled.
Apparently this is not that uncommon with some of the larger jointers. I've noticed that chatter/ripple on some faced wood I've bought in the past. It can be almost undetectable until you put a coat of oil or finish on. Once is all it takes to learn to be conscious of it.
I used to daydream about going to heaven and playing bass in a three piece blues band with SRV ... I now dream of having multiple 36" drum sanders, one for each grit.
------------- Newbie type question, but, doesn't anyone make one of these things with a horizontal carousel so that you could have maybe half a dozen or so rollers on the one machine allowing you to drop the appropriate roller and paper for the task? Having multiple machines or the pain of changing the paper must make for an obvious development. And it doesn't seem like an engineering nightmare.
*SOMEBODY* makes one with multiple rollers that all engage in the same pass.
I've _used_ one -- was making a DR table in my high-school shop class, and the _sections_ of the table-top ended up too big for the 24" planer in the H.S. shop. The shop teacher made arrangements for me to take my pieces of the top, and go visit the "technical high school" in the district, where the "furniture factory" had _big_ equipment. Like a dove-tailing 'machine' that would 'munch' a _ten-foot_ long joint in a single operation.
Anyway, this 'big-mother' horizontal drum sander (48" wide throat) had three drums on it, in series. Ran on 440V, three-phase. the control panel had separate ammeters for each of the three drum motors, as well as one for the 'feed' motor. "power hungry" is a charitable description. When my mahogany table-top went through, the first drum was drawing approx 25A, the 2nd one, approx 18, the third was _only_ drawing 13, and something like 9 for the feed motor. Total, approx. 65A @ 440V. ouch!! But man-oh-man,
*one* pass from rough glue-up to "just a little bit" short of finish-sander quality. And less than _one_ minute elapsed to process 2 30"x42" plus 1 36"x42" sections to exactly matched thickness.
I can't help but think of a sign i saw years later, at a tool-rental yard:
"Having the right tools is half the job".
A friend of mine, as well as myself -- were *firmly* of the opinion that the sign was _grossly_ in error -- notwithstanding the fact that both of us regularly patronized the place; we felt that "90%" was much closer to the truth than merely 'half'.
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