Shopsmith Forums

Take a look at Nick Engler's web site -- http://workshopcompanion.com/ -- for some information that should help in using the jointer.

pennview wrote:Take a look at Nick Engler's web site -- http://workshopcompanion.com/ -- for some information that should help in using the jointer.

Can you provide some hints about where in that site this information is located.

dusty wrote:Can you provide some hints about where in that site this information is located.

Try here, Dusty. In the "Techniques" section.

bffulgham wrote:Try here, Dusty. In the "Techniques" section.

Thanks. I guess I should spend some extra time on that site.

Micheal, Don't get to upset, there is a lot more to using a jointer than meets the eye. Proper technique was and is something I still have to think about. I have made a lot of rabbit bedding practicing on the jointer. I ended up with a fair number of "rather nicely tapered" boards before I was done. One of the things that I did wrong and the forum helped me with was my use of excessive pressure. I was constantly rocking the stock back onto the in feed table. The other thing, already mentioned, but critical for me was to take very shallow cuts. I thought light cuts were 1/8 of an inch, I had better luck when I defined light as about 1/4 of that. I am not yet really good at this, but I can now get an acceptable level of performance out of my jointer. I have found it to be the hardest tool to manage so far.

While this is not an SS solution, we all need to remember there is more than one way to skin a cat (or whatever little homile works in your area).

Look at this:
http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/tip ... inter.aspx

Using a straight edge and a router with a straight bit will provide a straight, square edge. Of course, if you've got severe warp, warf, twist, bow, etc. it won't solve all the problems, but I like it to clean up the first side of a really good piece of wood that I don't want to "practice" on.

fiatben wrote:While this is not an SS solution, we all need to remember there is more than one way to skin a cat (or whatever little homile works in your area).

Look at this:
http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/tip ... inter.aspx

Using a straight edge and a router with a straight bit will provide a straight, square edge. Of course, if you've got severe warp, warf, twist, bow, etc. it won't solve all the problems, but I like it to clean up the first side of a really good piece of wood that I don't want to "practice" on.

That is an awesome solution Fiat. Thank you for sharing the link i think i might just build me one dem!

Well a quick update. I have been working pretty steadily in the shop over the last 2 months reorganizing and making things more efficient to work in my smaller space. I recently acquired a Grizzly 18" bandsaw and a Delta 15" DC 380 planer. The addition of these two tools made it necessary that I re-structure my work area so that i can move and work in it safely and efficiently. So I have not had a ton of time to actually devote to making things except for some needed shop stuff. So I finally got things pretty close to how I need them to be and today after shopping for a new dryer with the SWMBO I got out to the shop to do a little bit more cleanup and then get to finishing my tablesaw crosscut sled which has been sitting for several weeks now. I had some issue as stated here with my jointer that I had previously not had issues with. I deduced with all your help that it was the piece of wood that was the ultimate problem being that it was bowed/warped. Well today I got the jointer all setup and started to joint a small amount off of one of the Oak sled fences and I again was having the same issues with the jointer not jointing consistently? Well at this point I said to myself this just ain't right. So I decided that maybe the knives could be the source of my headaches. I have to sets of knives and i had one set all sharpened and ready to go. So I yanked the current knives out and put the nice sharp ones in. I adjusted the height on them and then set the jointer to 1/32" to just face the Oak pieces. The very first piece I ran through went through like butter and jointed across the full length of the wood......Yahoo! So then i took the piece over to the table saw and created a second parallel edge on it and then jointed jointed one face. After which I ran it through the planer and voila I had created a perfectly square piece of Oak to use as my fence. To make sure this wasn't a fluke or lucky one time success I then did the same thing to the second piece of oak for the back fence and it was also successfully made square.

So in my haste to make sawdust I forgot a basic thing which was check your blades/edges to make sure they are ready and up for making good dust. I am a happy camper as i also was able to finally get my Wixey Digital Planer Height gauge working accurately as well so I came out of the shop today with not one but two successes which put a smile on my face after many weeks of not accomplishing much of anything but organizing.

I also forgot to mention that I rewired my Rigid TS 3650 tablesaw for 240 V. operation after reading some positive comments online by other owners who had done the same thing. I have to say that it really seemed to make a significant difference in how the saw cuts. I didn't have any bogging down while cutting the relative thick Oak fence boards I made today which in the past would have made the saw really break a sweat. Rewiring was a simpe matter of changing two wires inside the outer overload switch housing and replacing the plug with a 240 V. model to match my receptacle and I was cutting in about 20 min.

I used the jointer a good bit yesterday and, for the first time ever, had edges that when held together made a completely seamless joint! I was joining pieces that were shorter than my jointer bed, though. I don't know if the technique I worked on will translate as well to longer pieces.

heathicus wrote:I used the jointer a good bit yesterday and, for the first time ever, had edges that when held together made a completely seamless joint! I was joining pieces that were shorter than my jointer bed, though. I don't know if the technique I worked on will translate as well to longer pieces.

Build an extension for the jointer outfeed table!:)