I got a jointer...... not sure if I wanted it????

[stryped]

Hi,

i got a call from my dad who was at an auction. he knew I wanted a jointer. He said one was there. I asked if it was in good shape. He said yea. To make a long story short, he got it for 50 bucks. He brought it home and It looks very old. It is a craftsman model number

103.23320. It is missing a belt. It is on top of a home made stand with wheels. On the second shelf of the stand is a sears and robuck motor with a pully with several different sized pulleys on one pulley. The jointer has a fence. It has 3 knifes that look like they are not gouged but probably need sharpened.

I typed the model number on the sears website and it said parts are no longer available.

I cleaned up the thing. (It had a lot of wasp nests in it!). Cleaned the table with paint thinker and then sprayed it and all the moving parts with silicone.

The infeed side of the table on one end seems to be about 1/16 or more higher than the parallel side. (6 inches away) Is there an adjustment for this?

The motor when I plugged it in works or at least spins without a belt.

Is this think going to be usable for edge jointing and face planing small boards or is it going to be more trouble than it is worth?

Any informaion as always is appreciated!

[Lee]

[Andy]

1. Thanks for allowing your post to be archived! This will allow future users to learn from your questions and everyone else's responses. They could do this by going to and entering their questions in the "Search This Group" box.
2. Yes your jointer could be useful, but it might be quite a bit of work. Please do lots of google searches, look in your books, and buy more books on how to restore used power tools in general and jointers specifically.
3. Get the silicone off the tables before you use it with good project wood - if it gets into your wood, it will interfere with finishing.
4. Get a Powertwist Link Belt - available from Rockler, Lee Valley, Grizzly, etc. Sold by the foot. Figure out whether the belt grooves on your pulleys are 3/8" or 1/2" wide, and wrap a flexible tape measure around the motor and drive pulleys to see how many feet you need. The belt will only go on one of the motor pulleys - the different sizes are to change the speed, like gears on a bike.
5. Do as much research as you can, and if you're not sure about something, try it out to see if it works.

Congrats on your new tool, Andy

[Art Greenberg]

Remove the silicone from the tables. It could transfer to the wood, where it can interfere with finishes.

Use silicone-free paste wax (i.e., Johnson's), or a product sold for the purpose, on woodworking machine tables.

[else24]

Sounds a lot like the old craftsman 4-inch jointer I used to have, right down to the homemade stand. I paid 60 bucks for it but it was working at the time. :-)

Yeah, it's good for edge jointing of short boards, and face jointing things like two by fours two feet long. Longer boards are really tricky and I never got the hang of it. Always ended up taking a Stanley number seven to 'em. (Which worked just fine for edges and was okay for faces when combined with a DEEwalt planer.)

I spent a sunday afternoon taking it all apart and getting the tables coplanar and cleaning it up. Put a linkbelt on it rather than try to hunt down a belt the right size. Old woodworking tools website was a lot of help.

I got frustrated with it's itsy bitsy size and I expect you will too, but you'll learn a lot about jointers messing with it, and I thought that was a good trade.

Had it for two years before I bought an eight-inch Griz and sold it for fifty bucks.

[stryped]

[stryped]

[Doug Miller]

NO. Don't use any automotive polishes, rubbing compounds, etc. on woodworking equipment unless you are *certain* that they do not contain silicone (most do). You don't want silicone rubbing off of the equipment onto the wood, because it will interfere with many finishes. (Google this group for more info on that.)

It easily could. Light rust can be cleaned up by hand with steel wool, using paint thinner or light machine oil as a lubricant. If the tables are heavily rusted or pitted, it might be best to remove them and take them to a machine shop that has a surface grinder to be resurfaced.

[Doug Miller]

Oops. That wasn't a good idea. Best to get the silicone off. About the only thing that really has much of a chance of doing that is a dry-cleaning solvent such as trichloroethane or something similar. Look for the brand name Carbo-Chlor at Ace or Tru-Value Hardware -- possibly at Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards, too.

[else24]

Not in detail, only that I must have taken that outfeed table on and off about a dozen times and I used a four-foot level. There's an article on adjusting old jointer tables on the OWWT website and that's what I used for a guide. It's been a few years now since I did that and I'm at the point where my brain makes room for new stuff by dumping other stuff.

For short boards - about two feet or so - yeah. Made pretty good edges. Longer boards tended to exagerate the original problem; if there was a little bit of cup in the edge, there was more cup in it after it ran through. You can minimize that, and I've heard some guys know how to make a short bed jointer joint a long board, but I needed a jointer plane to get rid of it.

Take a few hours wandering around the old woodworking tools website. They've got tons of information on using sandpaper etc to clean rust off old tables, how good is good enough, and answers to other questions you haven't thought of yet. Much more info that you'll get here because they've been cataloging, categorizing it, and storing it for so long.

[stryped]

[stryped]

[Swingman]

I know you are aware of them, but for those unaware of them, these "Sandflex" blocks:

are also great for cleaning light rust off of cast iron table surfaces. Medium for the tough ones, or Fine for surface prep prior to TopCote/JPW.

FWIW ...

[B A R R Y]

I'd like to point out that "mass market" auto products, sold at Pep Boys, Wal-Mart, etc... usually contain silicone, as Doug points out.

"Pro" products, like 3M, Mequires, PPG, etc... available at better auto parts stores, auto paint suppliers, and hot rod shops, don't contain silicone, and are clearly labeled as silicone-free. In my area, Advance Auto, NAPA, and PPG Auto Paint stores all carry this stuff. My local Sherwin-Williams stores can order it in.

Many woodworkers use pro-quality automotive products to finish and repair lacquer finishes, as they are often of extremely high quality and consistency, and less-expensive than similar products sold to the woodworking market.

Just be certain of what you have, as Doug posted. If it dosen't say "Silicone Free", it probably isn't.

[else24]

By "it", I meant the cup in the board.

[Nova]

Silicone is absorbed my metals.

From the General Chemical's "GenSolve" web site:

"Silicone and polysulfide, for instance, bond into metals and are generally removed by mechanical methods that can damage the underlying substrate.

Their web site says that "GenSolve" removes silicone but I have my doubts.

See:

[Art Greenberg]

Paint thinner will not remove silicone.

Don't attack the tables with any kind of grinder, unless you are certain they are not flat and true, and you know exactly how much off they are.

[Doug Miller]

Probably not. But you should try to remove it ASAP.

No. Paint thinner won't touch the stuff. See below -- I already described what to use to get it off.

It will get the tables true, yes -- but you may need to make adjustments to the jointer to get them coplanar.

I imagine that'd be easiest.

[stryped]

[stryped]

I layed a metal square on the table and could see light under the middle. Did not use a guage to see how much.

What is the best way to determ> >