Contemplating an 8" jointer

I just got a call back, I was told that if the cupping is less than .008" then it's considered within spec. That's measured from corner to corner. That seems way too much for a fence. Any opinions on that?

Maybe I'm midding something here, but I don't see how .008" cup in a jointer fence is going to substantially affect the jointed face. It seems to me that the only case where it would make any measurable difference would be edge jointing a wide board, and even then, the deviation would be so slight as to be hard to measure. I'd think the wood would move more than that just with atmospheric changes.

Despite .008" being 1/128th" which can be a size of interest when fitting joinery, that is the amount I have been quoted for other large tool surfaces as being "in spec". I am afflicted, as I know many of my brethren are, with a paralysis of analysis at times. Things should be "X" so if they are not, the world is on hold. Having embraced and accepted my handicap I urge you to joint some material and see if it gets milled as expected. If it does, you're good .

I will do some experimenting. My concern was that if I edge join say a 6" wide board, which is taller than the fence, I will get a square edge. Now if I keep the fence at the same adjustment and edge join something smaller like a 2.5" wide board the top edge if the board will be referencing the fence in the middle of the cup and therefore not give me a square edge. Maybe it won't be noticeable. I was thinking this in reference to glueing up panels or something else with several boards like a table top. Several boards each with a slightly out of square edge can make for a rather dished panel. My other gripe is that all of the other surfaces on the machine are perfectly flat. The fence on my old jointer is dead flat as is every other machine I have. How hard is it to grind a 5" tall fence. It's cupped .006" or more over 5". As far as I can tell its fine lengthwise( horizontally) but not vertically.

Vaughn McMillan said:

Maybe I'm midding something here, but I don't see how .008" cup in a jointer fence is going to substantially affect the jointed face. It seems to me that the only case where it would make any measurable difference would be edge jointing a wide board, and even then, the deviation would be so slight as to be hard to measure. I'd think the wood would move more than that just with atmospheric changes.

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Seconded

thirded the face being jointed is just being cut the reference on the fence is just to hold it some where close to 90 degrees.. when you get done your gonna be well within wood furniture specs unless you have leaned it more than the fence or have the fence not referenced to 90 degrees at all..

glenn bradley said:

Despite .008" being 1/128th" which can be a size of interest when fitting joinery, that is the amount I have been quoted for other large tool surfaces as being "in spec". I am afflicted, as I know many of my brethren are, with a paralysis of analysis at times. Things should be "X" so if they are not, the world is on hold. Having embraced and accepted my handicap I urge you to joint some material and see if it gets milled as expected. If it does, you're good .

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Here's what I did:
I installed the "new" fence, then squared it to the beds as best I could, basically with my square held on the bed I adjusted the fence till the top and bottom both touched the square then locked it down and rechecked. Then I face joined a 1x6 then edge joined it. Next I face joined a 3x3 then edged joined it. I checked the 1x6 to see if I ended up with a square edge, I did. So I checked the 3x3 and the edge was not square to the face, according to my digital angle gauge it was .4 degrees off 90. Am I right in concluding that if I was making a cutting board with 2x2 stock and had 10 or so pieces that when I glued them up I could end up with a rather curved board. If I were to use the jointer to cut the angles on the staves for my stave drums I build, I wouldn't even be able to glue it up, the compounding error would be too great for the drum shell to have any chance of the glue joints holding. Ill try to get a pic of the cupping. Has anyone else had this problem with their fences?

This is the new fence before I put it in the jointer. The top and bottom of the square are touching but not the middle. And it's not the square, that one is guaranteed to 0.00063" I also checked with 3 other squares

Dave, I see your point on how this could affect jointing boards that are narrower than the height of the fence. In the case of a cutting board or other flat multi-piece glue-up, the error could be negated by alternating which side of each board is "up". On a drum, though, I can see how it'd be trickier.

Vaughn McMillan said:

Dave, I see your point on how this could affect jointing boards that are narrower than the height of the fence. In the case of a cutting board or other flat multi-piece glue-up, the error could be negated by alternating which side of each board is "up". On a drum, though, I can see how it'd be trickier.

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I know that the error can be negated by alternating the edges, but that would require deciding which side will be the show side before jointing, and my biggest gripe is simply this is not a entry level extremely cheap model, its really a top notch 8" model. I could deal with it but in my opinion I shouldn't have to at this price point.

Dave Black said:

I know that the error can be negated by alternating the edges, but that would require deciding which side will be the show side before jointing, and my biggest gripe is simply this is not a entry level extremely cheap model, its really a top notch 8" model. I could deal with it but in my opinion I shouldn't have to at this price point.

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I do find that much deviation troubling. As to where the G0490X falls in the field, I would definitely rate it best bang for the buck. The Powermatic near-twin is nearly $1000 more with less horsepower. There have also been threads about casting issues with yellow, gray and white machines as well. For the $1000 difference in price, you can take the fence to a machine shop and have them skin it. No one wants to have to tweak a brand new machine but, when you get that much machine for that little money, there can be a little extra fooling around required.

Did Grizzly understand that the deviation in the fence was top to bottom? An arc that left .008" over 30" of length would really not bother me. That much difference top to bottom seems out of line. I can see it being critical if you are going to joint staves. I have a machine shop right down the street so I could have the thing "fixed" for not much time or money but, I really don't think that much deviation over that little distance should be in spec(???). Don't get me wrong, I do understand wanting something that cost $1500 to get to my door to be "right". I do not think you are wrong to pursue this further with Grizzly, they should make every effort to make you happy.

The issue i ask is for both buyer and supplier is where is the flatness spec found.
When i purchased my jointer a 8inch grizz i looked everywhere to find what i should reference to.
I could not find a spec that i could use to check my machine so i felt what was the value of questioning flatness instead i kinda said to myself what more can i expect for the $650 ( at the time) i paid for a 4 cutter 3hp machine.

So how does one contest with Grizzly flatness. I agree the gap is bad but their comback does not suprise me cause they get to make the spec up to suite.
Its kinda like saying i am selling x and asking the buyer ...so how much u got in your pocket. Buyer says 300 so you say well the price is 325 but will give it to u for 300.
Fight back Dave is what i say until u happy especially for your project.


sent from s4

I called grizzly on monday to ask whats going on, they told me to send the original fence back and they are looking through stock to find a good one. I sent it back and it arrived to them on friday so I decided to call them friday afternoon to see what the deal is. All they could say was that its being worked on, they are looking through stock to find one to have the service department check it then send it out. I asked how long should that take, they replied about a day. So we'll see what happens. Right now its up to them if they are going to keep any future business of mine.

I got an email from grizzly saying that my order shipped. Hopefully the 3 times a charm.

This makes me wonder. Can you fettle a fence? I'm thinking a large granite plate covered in wet or dry sandpaper. I had fence problems with my Hammer J/P. They sent me a new one with the same problem, but within specs. I considered trying to flatten it, but wasn't willing to screw up the extrusion. Would it even be possible to do this?

Ted Calver said:

This makes me wonder. Can you fettle a fence? I'm thinking a large granite plate covered in wet or dry sandpaper. I had fence problems with my Hammer J/P. They sent me a new one with the same problem, but within specs. I considered trying to flatten it, but wasn't willing to screw up the extrusion. Would it even be possible to do this?

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You probably could - but it'd be a LOT of work!

Perhaps, if granite that long would be a problem, you could use one of the tables on the joiner itself. Raise the outfeed table above the blades (and cover the blades) and use a long strip of paper on it. Unlike fettling a plane, you could likely get away with only going to 120 grit or so on the fence.

Shouldn't be much different that fettling a #8 plane, actually.

Fettling was my plan essentially. Hog it off on the belt sander then finish with sand paper on the jointer infeed table

I think I would just find a machine shop with a surface grinder and let them do it.

if tom bussy can do planes with a surface grinder maybe he could do a jointer fence as well or someone closer like jay said..

Ted Calver said:

This makes me wonder. Can you fettle a fence? I'm thinking a large granite plate covered in wet or dry sandpaper. I had fence problems with my Hammer J/P. They sent me a new one with the same problem, but within specs. I considered trying to flatten it, but wasn't willing to screw up the extrusion. Would it even be possible to do this?

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Keeping the face on axis with the mounting would be my concern(?).