Shopsmith Forums

Stryker:

To adjust the height of the jointer knives I use a small 6" stainless steel ruler. Let the ruler overhang the outfeed table and rotate the cutter head until the knife "picks up" the ruler and drags it toward the infeed side. When the ruler is moved precisely 1/8" the height of the knife is correct. If the ruler moves more than that, the final finish on your jointed edges will show a "ripple".

Having the infeed and outfeed tables parallel is also very important. You can check this with an accurate straight edge. I bought a 50" Veritas aluminum straight edge from Highland Woodworking. (http://www.highlandwoodworking.com) This has proven to be a most useful tool for machine set-ups.

I finally finished up with the rebuild on the jointer last night.
Purrs like a kitten...with wild puma sized claws. (Smothers Brothers fans will get the Puma reference.)
I'm very pleased with it and I can't wait to put it into action on a project.

shydragon wrote:It took me almost 2 hrs adjusting the knives using the straight edge. I tried it the next time with a dial indicator, using the .001 - .003 heighth mentioned in the manual. It took me less than 30 minutes.

I had just the opposite experience. Bought a dial indicator, set it up, but just couldn't get consistent results.

I purchased a second shopsmith this weekend, mostly because it had the jointer and dust collector and I desperately wanted both. This series of posts was very helpful today as I took the jointer apart completely, cleaned up the rust, etc. Without the manual a little apprehensive about getting the settings right however between this forum and videos online imagine I'll be working with wood tomorrow. (will order the manual, however have a project in process and running out of time ).

Clean up and restoration of that second 510 will have to wait till after Christmas, second owner didn't use it at all and the first owner sure seemed to beat up the tables - hopefully no indication of the mechanics.

Thanks all!