Shopsmith Forums

When I picked up my used Mark V a few months ago it came with a joiner. I used the joiner last week, and everything works great, but the joiner knives have a few small nicks. I plan to replace them, but wanted to get a sense of how hard is it to replace them, and, more importantly, how hard is it to align the new knives. Any tips for doing so?

All advice appreciated.

Karl Schwarz
Centreville, VA

kschwarz20 wrote:When I picked up my used Mark V a few months ago it came with a joiner. I used the joiner last week, and everything works great, but the joiner knives have a few small nicks. I plan to replace them, but wanted to get a sense of how hard is it to replace them, and, more importantly, how hard is it to align the new knives. Any tips for doing so?

All advice appreciated.

Karl Schwarz
Centreville, VA

The first time or two will be time consuming. To get them right all three blades must be adjusted the same. Each blade must be the same height from end to end.

I recommend that you work on only one blade at a time; that is, do not loosen the ones that you have not worked on.

Be careful. Even dull blades will slice you clean and deep. Don't drop them, they shatter.

Get a copy of instructions before you start. You don't want to wing this the first time through.

Jointer isn't too hard. You can use a straight edge since the blades should align with the outfeed table. I have a magnetic system that pulls the blades up while you adjust the leveling screws and tighten up the wedges that hold the blades down.

Shopsmith manual mentions making a block of wood where the blades move the block a certain distance. I think 1/8" - 3/16". The video I posted to below will show better than I could explain.

Here is Sawdust Session #6 which talks about the knife setting jig.

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... _Index.htm

beeg wrote:Why knot just sharpen the blades ya have?

My sentiments exactly!:)

The major time burner will be getting the blades/wedges to separate in order to be removed. I am assuming they have not been removed recently.

I recommend total removal of the height adjusting screws as well as the wedge screws so as to thoroughly cleanout the threads(and sockets).

I also recommend blade end extension be as small as possible so the outfeed casting will provide a fairly good vertical surface when cutting rabbets.

You may want to number the blades less you adjust 6 of 'em instead of three.
Bill V

I was thinking I might get the blades sharpened, but I assume I still need to remove them to get them sharpened - can they be sharpened while still in the arbor?

kschwarz20 wrote:I was thinking I might get the blades sharpened, but I assume I still need to remove them to get them sharpened - can they be sharpened while still in the arbor?

Depending upon the size of the nick, You might be able to sharpen them while in the joiner.

beeg wrote:Depending upon the size of the nick, You might be able to sharpen them while in the joiner.

If you sharpen them in the jointer, you will still need to adjust their height(same amount of effort initially as removing them).

A quick nick 'fix' is to shift one of the blades laterally so the nicks on that blade do not line up with the other two.

If the nicks are very shallow, the workpiece can be quickly sanded to remove the high area.

Another thing to remember about sharpening the jointer knives is that you don't want to grind the width narrower than 11/16". So measure them and check with the person doing the sharpening before you have them resharpened or you could be wasting some money.