This is a question about using a jointer. I've had my Ridgid 6" jointer for about 5 years. Early on I only used it for edge jointing since I bought s4s lumber and never had a problem. In the last couple of years I've been purchasing rough cut lumber from lumber yards. My problem is face jointing. I've checked the machine set up many times. The infeed and outfeed tables are coplanar, the blades are still fairly sharp and top dead center is still at the height of the outfeed table. This morning's work demonstrates my problem. I was trying to face plane a piece of 4/4 18" long Bloodwood. It was very rough but pretty flat with no appreciable cup or twist, so I took several passes on the jointer. It was set to take off 1/32". I used the push block that came with the jointer on the front of the board and a Gripper with a drop down hook on the back of the board. After the 3rd pass i'd only planned about 3/4 of the board and the front of the board was thinner than the back, giving the edge a triangular profile. (See attached photos) Since the machine seems to be set up right, but the end result is wrong, that tells me that I'm broken. My guess is that I'm not applying the proper pressure at the right places as I feed the board across the cutter head. That, or, there is a problem with the machine but I don't know what it is. This is driving me nuts, not to mention the cost of the wood that I've ruined trying to work it out on my own. Has anyone else had this problem and learned how to correct it? As always, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Posts by Barry747
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David, i checked the tables by raising the infeed table to the height of the outfeed and used a couple of my longest straightedges to make sure they were flat from end to end and from front to back. The knife blade just barely touched the straightedge. Then, I took my Wixly angle gage, set it on the outfeed table and zeroed it. I moved it along the entire length of both infeed and outfeed tables and it remained at zero. Then, I lowered the infeed table about 1/2", which is more than I've ever lowered it, and the angle gage remained at zero which showed that moving the infeed table didn't cant it in any direction. Again, if there's more that I can do please let me know.
From what i've read, i might be putting too much pressure on the outfeed too early and letting up on the infeed too early. Tomorrow, if it's not too hot in the garage, I'm in Florida now, I'll experiment with some scrap lumber. I really can't afford to keep wasting hardwood.
And, Don, if I had the money to put helical heads on my jointer and planner, I'd use it to air condition my garage.
From what i've read, i might be putting too much pressure on the outfeed too early and letting up on the infeed too early. Tomorrow, if it's not too hot in the garage, I'm in Florida now, I'll experiment with some scrap lumber. I really can't afford to keep wasting hardwood.
And, Don, if I had the money to put helical heads on my jointer and planner, I'd use it to air condition my garage.
Quick update. I pulled a muscle in my back putting some shelving in a new closet so I haven't been in the shop in a few days. This morning I decided to check the jointer setup once again. It turned out right but I had a "Duh!" moment that, somewhat embarrassing, I want to share. I knew the infeed and outfeed tables were coplanar. I checked it multiple times with every straightedge that I have in the shop. The last thing was the blade height. I had eyeballed it by laying a an engineers square on the outfeed table and turning the blades. They just touched it but that was eyeball. Then I began to wonder if there was some way I could use my Digiline gage to check it. I bought it for my table saw and that's all l used it for. I looked at the directions that came with it and it was all about table saws. As I turned the box around, there was a picture of how to set it up to check jointer blades. After my headache passed from slapping my forehead with the palm of my hand I decided to try it. Although the tip of the gage is round, a flat one would work better, I was able to check each knife at both ends and in the center. They were all within .002 so I figure that's close enough. Hopefully, in the next day or two my back will permit me to cut up some lumber and run it through the jointer taking note of how i'm putting pressure on the piece as it moves across the cutter head.
I guess my take away from this is to "think outside the box" since that's where the picture was
I guess my take away from this is to "think outside the box" since that's where the picture was
I think I solved the problem. Shame on me.
Today my back felt well enough so that I could spend some time in the shop. For those of you who don't want to read a long story, it was the infeed table. For those of you who want to say "I told you so", you're more than welcome to do so. I hang my head in shame.
Longer story. I had someone pick up a full sheet of 3/4" plywood for me (I don't have a truck) so I can put a new top on my workbench. I decided to extend it another 6", it's only 48" long due to space constraints when I first built it. The top is held up by a frame of 2 x 4's. I'm going to add a 6" frame to the end of it so I wanted to joint the 2 x 4's, that i'm going to use for the frame, so that the edges will be flat. As I said in my first post, I never had a problem with edge jointing, just face planing so I didn't expect to have a problem jointing a couple of 2' long 2x4's. Well, I did. Same darn problem as face planing. At this point I figured it has to be the setup. Over the weekend I found a 50" straight edge that had gotten buried in my last move. I had been using shorter straight edges to determine if the tables were co-planer. When I laid this one across the entire surface, the straight edge was flush to the outfeed table and touched the beginning of the infeed table in the same plane. However, the edge of the infeed table next to the knives did not touch the straight edge. I was able to get about 3 or 4 sheets of paper under it. Suddenly it all made sense since the tables were not coplanar. The jointer has been moved between houses twice in the last year. I'm guessing it happened in the first move. Anyway, I played around with it long enough that i got everything to line up. I jointed the other side of one of the 2 x 4 and I had it flat in two passes. I then took the bloodwood piece that originally caused me to post the problem and after 4 passes it was almost flat. About 10% of it was still rough but I didn't want to lose more of the board for that.
So, I hope I have the problem solved. If not, at this point, I may give it to a friend of mine who has a boat and tell him to use it as an anchor.
Thank you all for taking the time to make the suggestions that you did. You learn from your mistakes. I think I'm working on my PhD.
Today my back felt well enough so that I could spend some time in the shop. For those of you who don't want to read a long story, it was the infeed table. For those of you who want to say "I told you so", you're more than welcome to do so. I hang my head in shame.
Longer story. I had someone pick up a full sheet of 3/4" plywood for me (I don't have a truck) so I can put a new top on my workbench. I decided to extend it another 6", it's only 48" long due to space constraints when I first built it. The top is held up by a frame of 2 x 4's. I'm going to add a 6" frame to the end of it so I wanted to joint the 2 x 4's, that i'm going to use for the frame, so that the edges will be flat. As I said in my first post, I never had a problem with edge jointing, just face planing so I didn't expect to have a problem jointing a couple of 2' long 2x4's. Well, I did. Same darn problem as face planing. At this point I figured it has to be the setup. Over the weekend I found a 50" straight edge that had gotten buried in my last move. I had been using shorter straight edges to determine if the tables were co-planer. When I laid this one across the entire surface, the straight edge was flush to the outfeed table and touched the beginning of the infeed table in the same plane. However, the edge of the infeed table next to the knives did not touch the straight edge. I was able to get about 3 or 4 sheets of paper under it. Suddenly it all made sense since the tables were not coplanar. The jointer has been moved between houses twice in the last year. I'm guessing it happened in the first move. Anyway, I played around with it long enough that i got everything to line up. I jointed the other side of one of the 2 x 4 and I had it flat in two passes. I then took the bloodwood piece that originally caused me to post the problem and after 4 passes it was almost flat. About 10% of it was still rough but I didn't want to lose more of the board for that.
So, I hope I have the problem solved. If not, at this point, I may give it to a friend of mine who has a boat and tell him to use it as an anchor.
Thank you all for taking the time to make the suggestions that you did. You learn from your mistakes. I think I'm working on my PhD.
Kelly, the push sequence is important. My problem wasn't the way I feed the piece, it was the downward slant of the infeed table in relation to the outfeed table. It was very small but it adds up through multiple passes. When I begin to feed the piece all of the pressure is on the infeed table. Once there's enough of the piece on the outfeed table then that's where the pressure is with only horizontal pressure in the infeed table to push the piece past the cutters. I had to edge joint another 2 foot piece of 2 x 4 for the frame i'm building to extend my workbench. It took 3 passes and it came out fine. No taper. Since I work with a lot of exotic wood i'd love to have a helix cutter head but it would cost 1/2 as much as the entire jointer so it's a bit too pricy for me right now.
Lee, I agree and I guess you know how I feel about working on the jointer based on my posts. I really like using it, when it works, but I really hate futzing around with the settings. So much so that i'm living with blades that are still sharp but have a couple of small nicks in them. This leave very small raised lines on the work piece when I face plane. For edge jointing I move the fence over the nicks so I get clean cuts. It only takes a couple passes with some sandpaper to remove the raised lines. I'm waiting for the blades to get dull or the nicks to get bigger before I try to change the blades. To me, the choice between changing and setting the blades, and having a root canal, is a toss up.
Jerry, when I lived "up north" most of the lumber I bought was already milled and only some of it was rough cut. Since moving to Florida, and finding a lumber yard that includes a saw mill, all of the lumber I buy is rough cut from their own mill or from mills in South America that they own. So, the jointer and thickness planner are always the first machines I use in any project. That's why I originally made this post since I was losing too much lumber on the jointer. Hopefully, that won't happen any more and, if it does, I have a better idea now of what to check.
Since I buy rough cut lumber I'm not always sure of what the boards really look like. I don't own a hand plane that I could take with me to the yard. But I'm rarely dissatisfied with what I bring home. To me, one of the joys of face planning a rough board is to really see the figure as the rough outer surface is planned away. Most of the time i'm pretty happy with the result, occasionally, i get a dud. Even those without great figure have uses.
Jerry, when I lived "up north" most of the lumber I bought was already milled and only some of it was rough cut. Since moving to Florida, and finding a lumber yard that includes a saw mill, all of the lumber I buy is rough cut from their own mill or from mills in South America that they own. So, the jointer and thickness planner are always the first machines I use in any project. That's why I originally made this post since I was losing too much lumber on the jointer. Hopefully, that won't happen any more and, if it does, I have a better idea now of what to check.
Since I buy rough cut lumber I'm not always sure of what the boards really look like. I don't own a hand plane that I could take with me to the yard. But I'm rarely dissatisfied with what I bring home. To me, one of the joys of face planning a rough board is to really see the figure as the rough outer surface is planned away. Most of the time i'm pretty happy with the result, occasionally, i get a dud. Even those without great figure have uses.
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