After 25 years of woodworking I made my most serious woodworking mistake involving my jointer. After replacing the three blades, I stood away from the machine as I always do, and turned the jointer on for a test run. I had failed to tighten one of the blades and all hell broke loose. The blade shot from the machine and hit the ceiling. The part (that I didn’t tigthen) that holds the blade rattled around the cutter head, then dislodged against the outfeed table breaking off some small pieces from th outfeed table’s bracket and causing it to wobble on its base. Yea I know, HOW STUPID!! OK. This is about a ten year old Star 8″ jointer (discountinued Japanese made) that I had spent countless hours with shimming tables and finally had it aligned and cutting beautifully. Can parts be had to repair this machine or should I just look for a new jointer? I know I’ll need a new cutterhead and probably an outfeed table.
Thanks for the advice and please don’t trash me to hard for my mindless error!
Jimmy
Tupelo, Mississippi
Replies
I can't help with your question but your post is a reminder to me to be carefull around the shop!!!!!!!
Anticipate the worst! If it doesn't happen, no loss. If it does happen, at least you won't have a trip to the emergency room..
Sorry about your incident but thanks for the real time reminder!!!!!!
Hi Jimmy,
I'm glad you didn't get hurt.
Paul
ps just off the cuff, it sounds like you better get a new jointer
Jimmy, remove the motor, switch, anything that might be used again.Trash the jointer. If you need a new cutterhead and the outfeed table it would not be worth it to try and repair. The outfeed table after installation has to be ground in the same plane as the infeed table,not a job for woodworkers.If you were lucky and the outfeed table was good out of the package,then you still have to take account the costs.
mike
Jimmy,
Sorry to hear about the bad luck," It was just an accident and good,bad right or wrong accidents happen.
Look at the bright side, It was by the grace of god that you or know one else was hurt, it makes a person get the chills just thinking what could have happened. Eeeeeee!!!!!!! I had a blade come flying out of my grandads old "4 Craftsman jointer many years ago, I can honestly say and I'm sure you can attest that it's a sound that a person won't soon forget. Needless to say the old "4 Craftsman is now just used as a keep sake paper weight that I can't bring myself to get rid of since it was my grandads.
Besides there's always a silver lining to every dark cloud ,Now you get to go shopping for a new jointer and just a jointer because since you or anyone else wasn't hurt no medical personal get to dig deep into your pockets.
If you lived a bit north there's a "6 Jet over on the classifieds that could get you by for now until you got a chance to get something a bit bigger.
Good Luck,
Sincerely,
Jim at Clark Customs
Jimmy-
The way I read it the most important line in your post was
"...I stood away from the machine as I always do..."
Sounds like ingrained safety habits saved you from serious damage. Everybody makes mistakes-having good safety habits can help to survive them.
Good luck with your search and I hope you end up with the same sweet performance that you had reached with the Star.
Fritz
First, thanks for sharing. We can all learn from this. You might look at selling the few good parts on ebay to help finance the new one. Just a thought
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