I have an older Rockwell/Delta model 37-315 8″ jointer. The fence will square up with the infeed table but not the outfeed and vise versa. I put a straight edge on it and it is out .019 and the high spot is toward the bottom not the top. I have taken it to three machine shops and the can’t do it because they have no way to hold it. The two others I called did not want to deal with it. I took it to a saw shop that grinds huge paper cutting blades but they have no way of holding it to grind it flat. It seems that hand lapping it would be a great task and I am not sure if I could produce a flat surface.
Any help?
Replies
Are you sure that the fence is warped? Could it be that the two tables are not parallel? If they are not, you can simply shim one of them until they are.
Bob
I put a straight edge on it and it is high in the middle toward the bottom. I raised both tables to the same hight and put the edge to them and they are in line with one another.
Lapping, actually probably a combination of filing, scraping, and lapping would be a relatively easy to do fix for someone with experience and the right tools both for the metal removal and to accurately measure their progress. It is a shame that modern machine shops no longer have anyone on staff who knows how to flatten a casting without a machine.
The easiest fix would be to attach a quarter sawn hardwood face to the fence and then plane it flat, or attach a plywood face and shim it against the original fence to achieve a flat face.
But first a question: does the fence being out of flat actually cause any problems with planing a true edge on stock, if not why worry?
John White
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