Grizzly sent a replacement for the 12″ jointer I ordered that came with the scratched and pitted bed.
I went to put the new one together, and the fence is not parallel to the table. It is about 1/8″ out of parallel between the beginning of the outfeed table, and the end of the outfeed table. The fence is adjustable for “perpendicularity” to the bed (I just made that word up) but you cannot adjust for parallel.
Since Fedex freight has not picked up the origian machine for return, mabye I can combine the machines and get 1 functional one.
Replies
You are saying that the fence is 1/8" askew, which would make it slightly out of square to the cutterhead. Makes no difference that I can see. If you could not get the fence at 90° to the tables ,that's a problem. Have you tried jointing a board yet?
mike
You have the right idea. The more I thought about it, the more I was wondering if it was an issue.
If I want to use the rabbet cutter it does, but for face jointing, or edge work I'm not sure it does.
I'm just being picky I guess. Two machines, two problems. Makes me wonder about the value of my investment long term
I'm not sure which style of fence is on your machine, but I'd imagine that you could shim something somewhere.By the way, on my DJ20, the beds are tapered along the front edges, so I cannot determine how parallel the fence is by comparing two measurements between the edge of the table and the fence. Also, I don't know of anyone who rabbets on the jointer. Anyone here?Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com(soon to be http://www.flairwoodworks.com)
- Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Chris,
I once tried rabbitting on the jointer and the fur got, oh never mind. Wrong one.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Shoulda used the thickness planer.Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com(soon to be http://www.flairwoodworks.com)
- Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Do the two capscrews that hold the fence bracket to the body have enough play in the holes that you could adjust out the 1/8"?
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
You don't say what model Grizz you purchased. I looked and don't see the rabbeting feature on the grizzly 12 inch.
The jet jointer has a lip on the outfeed table that is used to rabbet a board. See pic.
The fence only needs to be used to start to rabbet.
Mike is right. My Jet jointer fence is slightly skewed to the cutterhead. Makes no difference, not even when using the rabbet feature. Try it, you will see what I mean. The fence only dictates the width of the rabbet on the starting end. I actually purposely skew the fence further from the close edge of the outfeed table so as not to screw up the rebbet.
The ends of the blades should be in line with the edge of the outfeed table to run a consistant rabbet. At least on my machine.
Yes I rabbet on my jointer quite often. It works well for long boards and the setup is real quick. But the jointer has to have the rabbeting notch to be able to rabbet.I actually got into the habit of reading my owners' manuals.
Edited 4/7/2009 10:43 pm ET by dynamwebz
Edited 4/7/2009 10:45 pm ET by dynamwebz
I actually got into the habit of reading my owners' manuals.
Ooooooooh, be careful you might start a new trend.
:-)
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Ya know I never even checked mine. I put it together got all the crap (cosmoline) off of it, and did a face and it was flat. Put it up on edge and it was flat and 90 to the flat face and quit looking at anything else. Only problem I have is it makes so much saw dust! (I guess thats a good thing). Enjoy.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
I didn't mean to check mine. It was visible to the naked eye.
As others have said, within reason, that plane of the fence alignment has no effect on the machine's performance. Still, there should be SOME means in the mounting of the fence mechanism to allow for adjustment.
The fact that the machine was replaced for an unrelated problem should have no bearing on your getting this one replaced, if necessary. I'd call Grizzly tech support and ask them for the specs on the fence's relationship to the tables. I'd hope they haves such a spec. It's not something that would ordinarily be listed in a shop manual, but there has to be a manufacturing expectation. Even if there is no spec available, the fence should NOT be visibly out of line, without means to correct it.
I wouldn't hesitate to ask for either (another) new machine or a replacement assembly for the fence and its mounting mechanism.
Rich
Here's my 1950s Yates American Jointer with the "shear cut" feature. You can set the fence at a 10 degree angle for a shearing cut. In those days you had to pay extra for that! ;-)
Pete
The fence being out of parallel is not all bad as it will provide a slight shearing action, which is really preferred as with a surface planer.
The drawback is when rabbeting. Who uses the jointer to make rabbets anymore?
The Grizzly fence is adjustable, I did it on by 8" Grizzly.
Agree it won't matter if you don't rabbet. Also agree it gives you a slight advantage as it gives a slight skew which yields a tad better cut. My Steel City 8" has an adjustment to skew the fence. Several jointers have adjustment to skew but the way you have to do it is a PITA and most don't even realize it's there.
Steel City designed their 8" deluxe to set up to skew in under a minute and also put index pins on the cutter-head that the double sided knives drop onto to eliminate having to set them. The knives have a hole that correspond to the pin to make life easy.
I would swithch the fence as you mentioned if you want to rabbet.. otherwise I would just keep that one and get on with WW'ing.
Sarge..
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