Planer or Jointer for a hobbyist shop?

[Leuf]

If the edge is really nasty I'll just take a couple passes at the jointer, get it good enough to run through the TS. Rip the opposite side, then bring in the fence a bit and run the first edge. However on my TS I just can't get a clean enough edge for a perfect glue line, so it will then go right back to the jointer again. I don't usually have to go through all that with the s2s hardwoods, but the rough cedar I get is nasty. Rarely do I deal with anything longer than 4'.

And I am NOT messing with those trunions again, you hear me? Every time I do it's just 6 hours of cursing to get it back to where it was before I started. Someday I'll get a cabinet saw, until then it is what it is.

-Leuf

[Lowell Holmes]

"snip>

My Delta CS with a Forrest blade will make glueline rips. Maybe you need to look at your blade.

[Leuf]

And see that it says Forrest on it? I'm getting identical patterns of marks on both sides of the cut so it aint the fence alignment either.

Actually I was getting better results from my Ridge Carbide before it needed sharpening. I want to see what it does when it comes back compared to the Forrest to see if something has gotten worse with the saw. Gotta get round to shipping that out one of these days...

-Leuf

[J. Clarke]

Presumably there are washers on the fasteners that hold the trunions. If you ever decide to mess with 'em again toss the washers and get new ones. The old ones may have deformed just enough to make it difficult to make fine adjustments.

[Leon]

Yeah, and I am using a cabinet saw and I am sure that will make a lot of difference. Idon't blame you for not wanting to readjust the contractors saw. If is did that once, I did it a bunch more times. When will a manufacturer simply put in a miter slot that is adjustable inside a larger slot?

[Larry Blanchard]

Don't know if you're aware of these:

I did a lot of cussin' until I got them. They work like a charm.

[Leuf]

Mine has a cam at the back for adjustment. Getting it tightened down and still be in the same place, that is where the fun happens. I think there was one bolt that it just didn't want to slide at and that made it fun as well. I think it is a runout issue at this point rather than any alignment problems.

I need to get a shop that is either a) on the ground floor b) in the house I'm going to die in, before I get a heavier saw than I already have now. And it will be a while before either of those things happens.

Am thinking about getting the sawstop contractor's saw whenever it comes out though. I don't need any more power, just a more precise machine.

-Leuf

[NoOne N Particular]

I just went through about 2 full days getting my Craftsman saw aligned. At least the blade aligned with the miter slot. No matter what I did I just couldn't get within about .020". I had to completely disassemble the saw and do a little filing to slightly elongate the holes that attach the trunnions to the table top so I could have a little more adjustment room. I made a set of "PALS" out of an old piece of heavy duty angle iron I had laying around and put them on the rear of the saw. Seems like I should have put them on the front because I still couldn't get it to align within about .010". So I made another set for the front. Bingo. I just finished that yesterday so I hope that it stays this time.

Now the fence. ugh. Bent and bowed.

Wayne

[depictureboy]

Well I went ahead and ordered the Ridgid TS2400L. I stopped by HD last nite after work(I always liked looking at that saw), and noticed the ridgids have lifetime service agreements for part and labor...I just couldn't look back after that. So I will probably get the thickness planer next and between my router and TS Ill get a straight edge.hehe. I did do some more reading on how to joint an edge with the router, so ill keep practicing. And it looks like there is a way to hang a router off the slideing deck on the TS so that might fix my cheap router table issues.

[Leon]

Actually if you do a Google search and go for Jointablilty, this is a straight edge tool that has been around for a while that lets you use your router, freehand, to put a straight edge on a board. IIRC about 200-300 dollars but much cheaper than a jointer.

[depictureboy]

rockler has something like that too...thanks for the info

[Tanus]

I used to have that same Craftsman 8" saw. It was finicky, the fence was a POS and working with the saw became a nightmare.

Read up on past posts in here about what one should get first in power equipment. Also read up on articles, shop setting up books, craftsmen's books, and almost unanimously they'll advise getting a decent table saw as one of the very first pieces of machinery.

Get Kelly Mehler's Table Saw book and you'll find that the saw is an extremely versatile machine.

Tanus