Jointer

[Anonymous-0]

About a year ago I bought a cheapie 4" jointer at auction and now I am getting ready to use it. I have got the knives out and need to know best way to sharpen them and to set for height. They are held in place with a clamp bar and 2 set screws per blade and 3 blades on the unit. No name tag to be seen. Are blades avaible anyplace?

 

[Anonymous-0]

The woodworking literature has articles on sharpening jointer knives. The one I read discussed making a jig to sharpen the knives in place, keeping them level. I would Google "sharpening jointer knives" and see if you can find good instructions.

KEH

 

[Anonymous-0]

I send mine out as the 7 bucks that they charge me to sharpen them is not worth my time and when they come back or i should say when i pick them up ya can shave with them . As for setting the knifes i have two magnit that are about 4 inches long and i check the level of the two tables and set them both at 0 set one knife in and set the magnit down on each side of the table and and make sure that the knife is standing stright up and tighten the set screws and move to the next one.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I used to work in a large wood working pattern shop and I used to swap the knives out. There was always a standoff height and once we had one set we would then run a dial indicator over each knife to assure they were at teh same height as well as level side to side. Kind of tedious but once you get the hang of it you"ve got it nailed. We would send the knives out to be sharpened.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You can buy new jointer blades pretty well anywhere. My favourite vendor for them online is www.elitetools.ca/.

If the blades are nicked, they need to be sharpened or replaced.

First, replacing knives: I set the tables level at a reasonable height above the cutting head -- the back table adjusts as well as the front. Then I set a pair of bar magnets from table to table to hold the knife in place. Fasten, and go to the next. This takes practice to do well, but it's a simple procedure. If the jointer works well enough with the knives set that way, all the better.

If you want to refine the cut as much as you can, you can "joint" the knives by, believe it or not, running a fine stone across the knives while the machine is running. First set the tables even with each other, and just barely exposing the highest knife. Take a very careful cut by placing a large, fine stone down over the knives, then moving it back and forth across the table. This isn't for the faint of heart the first time, but if you do it right all three knives will have small bevels on them, no bevel will exceed 1/16", and you will still have all your fingers.

Sharpening the knives: I regularly do my 15" planer and six and eight-inch jointer knives on my disk sander with 120 or 180 grit sandpaper. I just set the table for 45 degrees and slap on a small jig made of plexiglass to take up the space between the table and the blade. Then I go at them freehand, grinding until I get a nice, even bevel. This works surprisingly well.

If you plan to plane fine-grained woods like cherry and walnut, put a small additional 5 degree bevel on each knife before installing it. Soft woods cut better with just a single bevel. The angle on the knives is less critical than you might think.

The larger the knife, the easier it is on the fingernails, btw. I think I'd buy a couple of sets of 4" knives and save the manicure.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Dont run the jointer with out the swinging guard.A friend did this after I told him not to do it.His ring finger is about a half inch shorter now.

 

[Anonymous-0]

On the better units the back table being adjustable I can see and it would take care of the problem on setting the depth of the blades but on this cheapie it is not adjustable that I have been able to find and that is the reason for the problem on how to hold the knives slightly raised to get them up to the table height It will not be used for anything very delicate, just smoothing the edges of some softwood boards after ripping. thanks for all the information. And I only paid $5.00 for the unit on stand and with motor.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Just went out and looked at it again and what I thought was a 1 piece casting seems to be bolted together with 4 bolts into the bottom of the back table, could there be shims under there to remove to acomidate wear on the blades or more be added for new blades? Will have to remove jointer from table to turn it over to be able to get a good look.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hi Leroy, welcome to the world of jointers. You want the knives set just above the top of the outfeed table.

I snug the knives a tad high and use softwood endgrain as a punch to tap them down to the correct height. Correct height measured by standing a 12" steel (from an adjustable square) on edge on the outfeed table. Moving the cutter head so each knife moves the steel the same distance. 3/8" is a good target, but not critical as long as all knives are the same.

The infeed table is of no consequence to the knives as you're going to raise and lower it to adjust how aggressive your cut is.

The other thing you want to check is that your infeed and outfeed tables are in the same plane. Raise your infeed to outfeed height and test a straightedge across both, including diagonal. If the steel won't contact both tables at all points, you need to adjust until it does. Shouldn't get out of whack again until you pick it up to move it, and even then won't if you don't grab the tables.

First time through is the most difficult. BTW, if/when you get a nick in your knives, off-setting one sideways will put you back to work fast. Just make sure the height's the same.