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Restoration of Magna 4" jointer

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 1:58 pm
by Seezle
Hello all:

In my attempt to make a Magna 4" jointer work on an SPT table I thought it best to post just the restoration of the jointer for anyone possibly interested in that part. I'm going off of advice I've culled from this forum, so any insight or advice is appreciated - my first time scrubbing one of these up, y'all!


Separating the pieces out was relatively easy - but next time I'm making labelled boxes for all the pieces. Also, (and especially with a smartphone handy) I'm taking loads more reference pictures before I disassemble anything in the future. It was a puzzle hunt placing some parts back together. Doofus award +2.

One of the old Fafnir bearings slid right off the drive shaft/cutter, the other one was so solidly stuck it necessitated gear pulling.

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The majority of cleanup was just wire-brushing, with light coats of machine oil or paste wax depending on the proximity to the blades. Some of the table's underside rounded corners got a little sand-blasting for hard-to-reach muck.

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Another cautionary tale is that I assembled the cutter head (blades and all) before placing them back into the jointer, instead of the other way around. It was an incredibly bad idea that earned me my Fingerbleed merit badge. Doofus award x10.


I'm leery of my placement of the screw holding the tables together - it seems a different height than original placement, but will not go in further without forcing, so I backed off.

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I decided to clean it just to the point of usefulness -- not quite some of the epic museum-quality cleans I've seen on the forum -- but I'm ok with learning as I go. I can scrub the table more once reassembled anyhow.

It's kind of interesting to clean to the point of seeing what I learned was "Blanchard grinding marks" on the surface.

viewtopic.php?t=26510


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I'll post more as things come together - and as my fingertips heal.

Re: Restoration of Magna 4" jointer

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 7:36 pm
by Seezle
I would like to replace two parts to this, both circled from the manual. Does anyone have the specific sizes for both washer and bolt? I'm having difficulty finding it.

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Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Re: Restoration of Magna 4" jointer

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 10:18 pm
by tfrayne
Wish I could be of more help than just saying that it's looking good, but..Looking Good!

Re: Restoration of Magna 4" jointer

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2023 12:26 pm
by Seezle
Thank you! This is my first time restoring (cleaning up?) one of these so any and all advice is welcome!

Re: Restoration of Magna 4" jointer

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:18 pm
by chapmanruss
After getting my 2nd Model 4E Jointer I re-discovered something I had seen previously on the early Model 620 Jointer I restored a few years ago. There was a change in the bolt and wrench used for the fence tilt and lock. They can be seen in the thread SPT's What When and Where at the link below. See the April 5th post.

viewtopic.php?t=26072&start=10

The earlier type of bolt is a common one and would be easily replaced along with the nut as long as the size fits the wrench, not thread size but bolt head and nut outside dimension.