4E Magna jointer as an SPT standalone - possible?

[chapmanruss]

Sounds like a great plan.

[JPG]

Sounds like a great plan.

Indeed!

[Seezle]

Progress thus far:

In the vein of "Measure three times cut once" I made a cardboard proxy of the plexiglass, then cut it into two triangles. Using these I was able to easily determine how much more trimming it needed to fit the chip chute, give adequate clearance to the motor, and align to the slight slope of the table side.

An added bonus is that it looks like either industrial swan origami or an Imperial Shuttle.

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[Seezle]

So....

I got to staining the wooden base, even routing a nice little beveled edge.

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Then as I began mounting the jointer I thought "You know, if there was ever a good time to clean this thing..." and the rest is distraction history. So I took it apart and have been wire-brushing the entire jointer, piece by piece with some WD-40 and good results. Below is a rouges' gallery of cleaned parts.

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and a pass on (right half of) the guard as well. The drill with the Nyalox wheel is for the individual pieces, I am using WD-40 and scotch-brite on a wooden block with slow circles (Markwood method) for table surfaces.

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Tomorrow I hope to have a go at the metal in/outfeed tables. Stay tuned, true believers!

[chapmanruss]

Scott,

Thanks for the update.

This is indeed a good time to go through all the parts and get them cleaned up. I think you will be happier having done that when you get everything back together. Do wax all the bare metal parts/spots before you reassemble it. Make sure the mating slide parts between the Base/outfeed table and infeed table are rust free, still bare metal and waxed well before reassembling them.

[Seezle]

Russ:

Thanks for the checkin - the bearings on the cutting spindle were clicking terribly, so I gear-pulled them off and ordered more. I already feel like that was a major upgrade.

I was going to coat all screws in paste wax before reassembly to insulate them from rust. I usually give screws a light coating of machine oil to prevent rust, but in the jointer's chipstorm that would be like a lollipop on a shag rug. I know the feed tables need it for non-stick sliding, so two questions:

1) How much of the Magna jointer could use a wax pasting shield just to prevent rust and keep from chip collection? Just the assembly screws or perhaps parts of the interior as well?

2) I was going to remove the depth-of-cut scale to paint the jointer Verde green - can I replace the tiny rivets that hold it in place with screws (similar to the screw that secures the 'inverted-drop' indicator)?

[chapmanruss]

Scott,

I like your description about using wet lubricants.

I usually give screws a light coating of machine oil to prevent rust, but in the jointer's chipstorm that would be like a lollipop on a shag rug.

As for item 1, Most of the bare metal parts or areas will benefit from a coat of wax. The Fence Quadrant is an alloy that isn't subject to rust like the cast iron parts most of the Jointer is made from. I would avoid waxing the Fence Quadrant and not have it "slippery" from wax making it harder to lock the fence in place. Over-tightening the Fence Lock is the main reason the Fence Quadrant ends up needing to be replaced. On my first Model 4E Jointer the internal-external threaded sleeve was overtightened and had stripped the threads it goes into on the Quadrant. Fortunately, the Quadrant is still the same one used today. The other thing that damages the Quadrant is the area that goes over the Fence Bar spreads apart.

As for item 2, the pins holding the plate on may be able to be "knocked" out from the back side. This may save the pins making them reusable. If not, you could tap threads in the holes and use the corresponding screw size.

Verde Green color to match a Mark 5 Greenie?

[Seezle]

Russ:

Thanks for your advice - fascinating that the fence alloy is immune to rust. I'm getting a crash course in metallurgy just by cleaning.

I hauled out my starter-kit air compressor and some filtered sand (A window's removable screen as a makeshift sieve) to sandblast the corners of the jointer that the scrub pads and wire brushes couldn't reach. Nothing too intensely focused, but gloves, glasses, mask, the works.

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I then had a go with the Markwood Cocktail (Scotchbrite/WD40) and it's cleaning up well enough.

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And yes, I was considering the Verde/Silver paint combo I've seen in this forum my 10er, but am also tempted to go for the dark grey/silver industrial flourish. We'll see.


One question: The below square nuts at the very end of the jointer are not budging and not wrench-accessible. Do I soak the parts in oil and repeatedly try a screwdriver on the other end? I'm afraid of stripping it.

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[Seezle]

I took a short detour b/c I stopped AGAIN and thought - well, why not take apart the SPT table and clean that up as well?

To try and separate out this run-on sentence of a forum post, I did it and it lies here.

viewtopic.php?t=33587

in case TL/DR:

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Support strut screws on order to match the others.


OK, back to the jointer now, honest.

[chapmanruss]

I have been offline with our move. Using some penetrating oil to help loosen the screws for the fence bar could help. If they cannot be "unscrewed" then they could be drilled out and replacements found. This is not something I have had to do to this point so far and yours don't look that bad.