Shopsmith Forums

This is my first post. I have searched for previous posts about this and found nothing, so here is my question. Should the Shopsmith 4” jointer, model 620-c, have plastic shims between the slides?
About 8 months ago it was time for a tune-up of my 1979 jointer. I found the in-feed and out-feed tables way out of alignment – first time in 30 years. When I took the unit apart, I found four dense plastic shims between the slide surfaces. It was evident these were the problem. I went to the Shopsmith online parts catalog to find replacements. This part was not shown or listed. I contacted Shopsmith and asked if the shims were still available. They did not answer yes or no but just, “send the unit in for repair”. I then thought, Oh crap – these were originally there as protection during shipping – 1979? I went to my original owner’s manual parts list and the shims are not shown. The section on set-up does not mention removal of any shims. The jointer is now operating minus the shims but the alignment is still 0.004” out. The metal surfaces of the slides are clean (no rust) and have never touched each other until now.
Thanks

[quote="jmadden"]This is my first post. I have searched for previous posts about this and found nothing, so here is my question. Should the Shopsmith 4&#8221]

So far, I have only found 2 joiners with the plastic like shims between the infeed and outfeed table a few years ago. I removed and saved them some where. Shopsmith engineers and Nick Engler did not know about any joiner shims being used when I asked. Appears to be from the 60s and 70s time period. If the tables are not in alignment, you may have to take the infeed and outfeed tables to a machine shop that resurfaces engine heads and blocks and have them do both tables together. I have several joiners waiting to be resurfaced. One with infeed and outfeed tables from different joiners and one with deep grooves in both tables.

I have only been successful one time using very thin shim stock (.001-.003) to align the infeed and out feed tables.

Thanks Bill. I forgot to attach this photo yesterday.

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