Shopsmith Forums

I am starting a project that will begin with rough cut lumber. I did the maintainance on the jointer, did the setup checks from the book, and ran a few scrap boards through to check things out. I was pleased with the first pass, but decided to practice a bit because I have never done this before. ( this is a surface face pass) After 2-3 trip through the machine, I noticed that one side of the board is narrower than the other. I rechecked the setting and everything seems fine. I used the straight edge method for the blades, and a good square for the fense.
What else do I need to do? Is it technique, or do I need to get a more accurate way to check things out. ( Nick had a jig on a session some time)

Raise the front bed even with the rear bed(depth = 0). Use your straight edge(LONG) to verify the front/rear table are 'coplaner'. i.e. straight edge touched everywhere front edge to back edge left to right. Did you remove the front bed when you refurbed it? Perhaps it is now 'mis-aligned'???:(

If the blades are aligned with the rear table, and the front table/bed is not, you will get the problem you described.

Ok, I think that might be the issue. I did not remove the front table, but I did loosen it up to clean it. This may be a dumb question, but how do I know it I have a good straight edge. I have a 36 in metal ruler that I use. It is of " unknown" origin.

beeg wrote:Check it against one of the jointer beds.

Key word "ONE". At any rate, if it is 'slanted', it will be obvious at the blade opening. Check front bed alignment the same way you checked blade alignment. I doubt you could have done anything to 'warp' that hunk of cast iron. I think it is just mis-aligned on its 'slide'.

I defer to others having more experience with this for 'HOW' to correct it.

The settings on the jointer I believe goes to 3/8. I was cutting a rabbet and wanted to get close to this depth but was unable to do so. I haven't been able to find in any manuals what maintenance might be needed to adjust to this depth. Any help?

fieryknight wrote:The settings on the jointer I believe goes to 3/8. I was cutting a rabbet and wanted to get close to this depth but was unable to do so. I haven't been able to find in any manuals what maintenance might be needed to adjust to this depth. Any help?

On the newer style jointers there is a flip stop located by the depth of cut gauge that limits the depth of cut to around 1/8". For deeper cuts such as a rabbet, you would lift the stop and continue your cuts until you reached the final depth of 3/8". I wouldn't recommend making the 3/8" rabbet cut in one pass unless you are really looking for some excitement in your life. Be safe and have fun!

I find that a good quality straightedge is an excellent tool to have around for our Shopsmith alignments. Last year I purchased a 50" Veritas aluminum straightedge from Highland Woodworking. It will "stand up" on it's edge and is accurate to within .003" over the entire length.

It would be a very useful tool to check the to parallel of the infeed and outfeed tables. I also use it to level a roller stand outbound of the outfeed table to assist in jointing the edges of long boards.

Thanks, I did notice the flip up edge and would never try to remove that much in one cut. What I did do was to gradually remove material but couldn't get down to the 3/8th's level. I think it might be a maintenance issue unless the jointer won't really allow removal of material down to that depth.