Hi, <!—-><!—->
I’m a novice woodworker. I just purchased a used jointer. Most of the table was covered w/ that waxy stuff so when I cleaned it, it looked great. There was a 1” strip of fairly heavy rust, after it was cleaned I found that the cast iron is pitted. My question is: How bad is too bad for the pitting? What is my best remedy if the pitting is too bad?, and what would I expect to pay for that remedy?
Thanks,
Rich
Replies
As long as the table is flat and coplanar the pitting will not affect the use of the jointer. Wax it up and try it before you worry about anything else. Like Click and Clack say..."it ain't broke until it's been fixed enough". If you have problems it's going to be most likely technique, dull knives or improperly set knives or a combination of the three things. Whites book on setting up machines is recommended reading. http://www.cambiumbooks.com
Has anyone ever tried filling pitted cast iron with something like JB Weld?
Get the jointer running first before you do anything. The pits will not affect the jointer unless they are really huge and large chunks of the table are missing and from your description it sounds like the pits are in a strip. I've tried filling cuts on an aluminum saw fence and it didn't work well at all. I ended up glueing a sheet of hardened aluminum with carpet tape to the fence to fix it. It was a much simple solution.
Rich,
As long as the pits don't affect the overall flatness of the table, and they shouldn't from your description, they are harmless. Filling them won't make them any less visible and having the table ground down will cost many hundreds of dollars.
John W.
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