I'm having a tough time with my jointer lately. Everything was running smoothly until about a month ago, and now I find myself constantly adjusting one side of the cutter head using shims made from beer cans. I'll manage to get a decent cut, but come back the next day, and it's back to being out of whack. I've switched to a tracksaw for edge jointing, but I still can't do much for the board faces. Recently, there have been some significant temperature swings, and my workshop isn't heated, though it hasn't dipped below 9°C (48°F). Could these temperature changes be affecting my equipment? The cutter head seems to be the issue, but I'm also wondering if the base is shifting slightly with the temperature fluctuations. I'm really starting to hate this jointer!
1 Answer
It’s true that different materials expand differently with temperature, but for cast iron like your jointer, minor temperature changes usually don’t cause major issues. It sounds like you might want to check if the bed is properly shimmed instead of the cutter head. Sometimes sag in the infeed table can lead to these frustrations. Have you checked for any sag or misalignment in your setup?
Yeah, I noticed a bit of sag on the infeed after leaning on it too much—oops! I fixed it with a folded shim. The real problem seems to be with the cutter head since the knives are uneven; the difference in height goes up to about 0.5mm, making everything pretty unusable.