resurrection of old craftsman jointer, and knife setting question.

Nov 29, 2004 3 Replies

Folks -



I had some "tinker time" available today, and was finally able to finish a project! Several months ago, I ended up with an old craftsman 6 1/8" jointer on a rickety homebuilt stand with an underpowered ~1/3 or maybe 1/2 horse motor. The thing would stall out edge jointing pine, for goshsakes...



Anyway, I had build a sturdier roll about stand a few months ago and had a HUGE old General Electric R.I. 1HP motor laying around. I installed the motor and rewired the connections to change the rotation and switch it to



220v operation... I finished up with all of that today, also having installed new jointer blades and truing up the outfeed table so everything was level and square.

I fired it up and the thing just puuuuurrrrrrrrs.... I let it run for about



15 minutes after a couple of "touch and goes" just in case it was going to throw a knife... runs like a top!

I used a dial indicator to set the knives and all that, but was wondering if there was a better way to do it. Finding TDC was a bit dodgy in putting the point of the knife blade square with the tip of the dial indicator. I



*think* I have all the knife blades at the same height, but am getting a small amount of scalloping in my jointed edge. Any ideas?

John Moorhead


I lay a straight edge on the out feed table against the fence overhanging the cutter head.. I rock the blade back and forth until the straight edge does not lift the straight edge but I can feel the knife hit it. I then repeat at the other side of the knife and then recheck the fence side. I can change a set pretty fast like this. Trust your sense of feel. max

John,

Glad to hear you have tinker time finally. I'll e-mail soon, busy here.

I use the Magna-set for setting my jointer blades, quick and accurate. Before I got that I used two magnets set on the outfeed table. Rotate the blade til it's at it's high point then tighten. The magnets hold the knife while tightening. Works for me. My 2 cents.

Al in WA

That's doubtful unless you have your knives ground all at once "in the head". Not crapping on your technique. It's just a fact of all things with non-fixed multiple cutters.

Slow your feed rate.

UA100

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required