Shopsmith Forums

I've tried a couple of times to do some tapering of square stock on the jointer, just to see if I could make some tapered legs. I gave up! Like I said, I read about it, thought I knew what I was doing, but had only uneven results. I look at the shapes in "Figure 6-20" with amazement!

Does anyone have experiences with tapering on the jointer?

One comment I will make about jointer and I'm sorry if it might be a little gory.

A wise man once told me to be extra careful around the jointer, a slip there and because of the nature of the machine there is nothing to sew back on like there is with a saw.

Never Never allow your hand or any part of your body the your fond of cross the plane of the cutter on a jointer. I have seen more than one piece of wood literally explode leaving nothing as it was passed over the cutters. Had proper push blocks not had been used the results would be hands falling into the cutters.

Routers/Shapers are another tool that leaves little to be sewn back on.

charlese wrote: "Never joint or surface stock less than 10" long or more than 4" wide, edge rabbet stock wider than 1", surface stock less than 1/4" thick or joint the end grain of stock less than 10 "wide."

Tonight I WAS going to surface joint some cut offs. But I was looking at them and decided to find some that where wider. Those inch, inch an a half ones I chose because they would leave little waste. But decided that what might be left over as waste was a finger or two. Went with the wider ones for MY SAFETY.

When I did surface joint them I thought it was a little bit noisy, and figured that the grain was pointing the wrong way. But it wasn't and they turned out smooth.

YES IT WILL BITE! YES IT WILL TEAR! IF your reflexes ARE FAST ENOUGH each blade will ONLY get you once each! The voice of one who NOW has an unusual fingerprint on one finger. It only took that first time. Too small. Too thin. Too much 'chatter'. Funky shape(allowed access to blade past guard). NEVER AGAIN will I attempt anything coming close to that recipe for disaster. I WAS fortunate to NOT have pieces laying on the floor!:eek:

Hi,

I did taper some pretty soft Cedar planks for the back-slats of an Adirondack chair. This was just 2 tapered edges per board. I used the Fine Woodworking article of that month (about 14-15 months ago) to show me how to do it, removing a total of about 1/8" of taper over an 18-inch length. I liked it but I have not had occasion to try it again.

All in all the jointer is a tool I don't use often, but I am glad I got it when the need arises.

dlbristol wrote:I to have a question about the safety restrictions . It say not to edge rabbit stock wider than 1 in. What exactly does that mean? The pictures seem to show a edge rabbit being cut into a 1X4. (3/4 X ?) Does this mean you could not do the same on a 2X 4? I have never done anything but edge jointing and a little face surfacing, so I may be missing something pretty simple. I am one of the guys who have not tapped the potential of this tool. Has anyone done any of the tapering work shown?

Geez, D.L.! No one seems to have an answer to your question. Including me. When I read that safety rule, I had the same question, but just now thought that the rule was mis-printed! A giant faw paw? What do you think?

The only way that rule makes any sense to me is if it said, "Do not rabbet stock narrower than 1 inch." My thinking here is the words "narrow" or "wide", when referring to stock, means the width of the face of the stock. For example, a 1X4 is 4" wide, and a 1X1 would be actually 3/4"x 1".

BOY! It would be scary enough to rabbet a 1" wide board - in fact, I wouldn't want to do it- let alone anything narrower!

charlese wrote:Geez, D.L.! No one seems to have an answer to your question. Including me. When I read that safety rule, I had the same question, but just now thought that the rule was mis-printed! A giant faw paw? What do you think?

The only way that rule makes any sense to me is if it said, "Do not rabbet stock narrower than 1 inch." My thinking here is the words "narrow" or "wide", when referring to stock, means the width of the face of the stock. For example, a 1X4 is 4" wide, and a 1X1 would be actually 3/4"x 1".

BOY! It would be scary enough to rabbet a 1" wide board - in fact, I wouldn't want to do it- let alone anything narrower!

My interpretation of the 1" MAX rule is as follows. Do not make a rabbit cut where the fence is MORE than 1" away from the end of the cutters.

Think of it as a depth of cut limit HORIZONTALLY.

beeg wrote:I think my knives are beginning to get dull. Would you hone or sharpen them?

Hi Bob! Being frivolous this morning, I'm tempted to answer your question like this - "Yes!"

But I know you meant to ask - Should I hone them, or should I sharpen them?
Sorry, Don't have an exact answer, But will offer this:
If the blades have no nicks and are just beginning to dull, and you are in the midst of a project requiring more jointing - I'd prefer honing, using a stone flat on the infeed table with wax paper between the stone and the table. Just making a small secondary bevel. This method does not require the removal of the blades.

(Sorry I couldn't find pictures of this method, but it is somewhere in the Shopsmith literature. Maybe someone else can locate it.)

If you have to remove the blades, then grinding is called for and starting with a new edge. You might lesson the angle of the sharpening by one or two degrees. Doing this should have two benefits; 1) you wont have to grind off as much steel to get a keen edge. 2) A slightly less steep angle is reportedly a more efficient angle.

EDIT: I just edited this post to change a statement to read infeed table (the change is in bold italicized print) Sorry for the error!

JPG40504 wrote:My interpretation of the 1" MAX rule is as follows. Do not make a rabbit cut where the fence is MORE than 1" away from the end of the cutters.

Think of it as a depth of cut limit HORIZONTALLY.

That was/is the understood interpretation that led to the confusion of myself and dlbristol.

This doesn't seem to make sense! It should be safe enough to make a rabbet in a 2X4. If you can face plane stock with a jointer, what would be the difference of hanging one small portion of that face over the end of the cutters? Therefore I think they meant to say LESS than 1", rather than MORE than an inch.