Hello Group, What are the advantages to having both adjustable infeed and outfeed tables on a jointer. The infeed is obvious, but I see disadvantages to the adjustable outfeed. If it's higher than the top of the cutters then your woork piece would catch on edge, unless you lifted it over before continuing the cut. If it's lower, would you have a tendency to not get a uniform depth on the cut? Thanks in advance for your responses. Marc
basically you set it once and forget it until you change the knives. the outfeed is carefully adjusted by the user so that a cut piece of lumber JUST slides onto the table with no interference or clearance. In other words, it's adjusted to a gnat's ass for optimum results. Too high and you get convex boards. Way too high is obvious as you'll hit the edge of the table with the boards! :) Too low and you get snipe.
I make final adjustments by cutting into an already flat board, by about
4 inches and check the clearance (if any) between the bottom of the board and the outfeed table, while holding pressure on the infeed side of the board.Dave
How would you align the outfeed table exactly with the cutter head if it were not adjustable?
On 1 Nov 2005 16:42:27 -0800, "marc rosen" scribbled:
I have a cheap, crappy jointer I bought under pressure (I only paid $100 for it. Adjusting the knives is a serious PITA because onto only do you have to get them level with each other, but also with the table. With an adjustable outfeed, you can set the knives and then adjust the table so it is exactly the same height. Much easier.
Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
Good point Bob and Luigi, and also David, But I thought cutter adjustments were made - one blade at a time - aligned with the outfeed table. Giving the outfeed a chance to move appears more cumbersome. Anyway, I'll fine tune my jointer (a very old Jet) and work with the infeed only.
Marc
Hmmmm. AMT or Sears? Or did anyone else put their label on those?
How about the other dimensions of adjustability to make help make the infeed/outfeed coplaner. Those need to be there, so you might as well have a height adjustment, as well.
Several versions...I had a very old no-name which only had a 3-point rear table adjusting system--no gib arrangement at all. Worked, but wasn't nearly as simple as the fully adjustable outfeed table.
As Liugi says, it's actually precisely the opposite---it separates the task of setting the knives to two separate tasks independent of each other--first make sure all are at the same height, then adjust the rear table to the proper height. Also then allows for "tweaking" the outfeed table height to account for wear and honing in place that reduces the cutting diameter slightly w/o having to readjust the knives between actual full resharpenings.
Another advantage is for the occasional use of the jointer to create tapers one can set the table high or low for special purposes.
On Wed, 2 Nov 2005 06:56:30 -0500, "George" scribbled:
Bottom end 6" Delta actually. I had to buy it, along with the ARHA Sears routers attached to the table saw I wanted. Guy was leaving town and said I had to take the jointer & router if I wanted the table saw and clamps.
Luigi Who will be extending his workshop by 8' next year so he can have room for the 8" General long-bed he has been drooling over for a long time.
============= I HAVE NOT read any replies past this point...
But I have been using a 6 in Rockwell Jointer for almost 40 years now that has a fixed outfeed table.... I simply adjust the knives to the table ......Not hard to do...HONEST !
Now back to reaqding the other replies...
Bob
not terribly hard to do, but not possible to tweak after the fact either. glad you are having no problem with your jointer. I know several other people with jointers like yours who also have no problems with them. mine has adjustable outfeed and I do use it, but I could live without it.
I don't buy the "set the outfeed once and then leave it alone" deal. After i put in some fresh sharp knives and get it just right, it is good til the knives lose a little sharpness. then I have to make a minute adjustment to the outfeed to compensate for the slightly shorter knives.
just my experience jack
Yep, mine too... :)
It also makes that touch-up honing operation much easier/feasible in place between real resharpenings...
Also, imo, ymmv, $0.02, etc., ... :)
yabbut the machines with fixed outfeed are pretty much all short bed jointers. the difference in straightness with the wear of the blades is less than the total accuracy of the machine anyway. I suppose that with a carefully constructed test you could measure the loss of accuracy at the wood as the blades wear, but it's not likely to be enough to make a difference to the type of folks using those machines.
making the jointer simpler has the benefit of making it harder to screw up as well as keeping the price down. these machines are definitely not adequate for any kind of production shop, but they do have their place in the home garage shop- and perhaps in the jobsite kit of a trim carpenter.
...
May be true for anything being currently marketed, I don't know, but the
6" fixed outfeed table machine I had as my first jointer was quite adequate for length and functionality...certainly the overall table length was as good as any other current 6" machine w/ the exception of the long-bed PM.I think it would have been quite easy to tell when the knives were dull and honed that it wasn't "spot on"...
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