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Hi Jeff,

That's a wood eatin' Bear you got there. :rofl:

Great job restoring that beast! :thumb:

DT
 
That thing is a beast. Great resto job, Jeff. :thumb:

Personally, I'd be using push blocks with that bad boy. (Heck, I use 'em religiously with my little 6" Grizzly.) One catch and the stock could go shooting, leaving your hands right in the wrong place...pushing down. At least the push blocks buy you a little reaction time. ;)
 
I agree Vaughn, I just have to make some this week. I have saved a couple of mouse pads just for this purpose. Plus I have some plans... well photos, of some pushers I really liked the design of. But hey, a kid has to play with his new toy!

I thought this thing would scare me to death but with the guard it's doesn't. But trust me I have a HIGH respect of this thing. It may not show but I am watching everything that happens as I am using it!

I ran A LOT Of walnut through it yesterday. At least two trash cans of chips. I have been a little disappointed in the finish of cut. I also noticed the chips were really big so I was thinking I was feeding to fast. I am looking for tachometer so I can find out what speeds I am running. It may be to slow.

Meantime, I started it back up mid day and belt rolled off the pulleys. Then I noticed something and realized that it the belt had loosened and the cutter head was slipping. Tightened it up and noticed an improvement (and increase in nose!) immediately. Just part of the learning process.

I found a 12" wide piece of pine I was going to use for the video and discovered another small problem. My guard is just a tad to wide at the pivot point. I can only cut about an 11.5" inch wide board. It's simple fix and I have been thinking I want to refine the shape of the guard just a little anyway. Plus my guard will bend just enough for the UHMW pad to catch and the cutter head shattered one and the brass screw nicked my knife. So I need to work on that design.

But overall, I am impressed with it and I LOVE being able to joint an 9" wide rough board and see what it looks like before I start cutting it up!
 
Wow, that's one finger eatin', err...I mean wood chippin' piece of arn!

I shuttered watching your cut on that, and especially with no push blocks.

When I was a kid in high school a friend of mine cut his index finger off at the first knuckle in wood shop. I was there, but didn't see it. It happened on the jointer. Gee was there a lot of blood... never found the end of his finger...

Unfortunately I will never forget that...

If it was me, I'd forget about dados, fix up that round cutter on the 2nd one, or replace yours. But it's not me, and it's you in your shop...My old Crescent 8 has a round safety head, so my next jointer will most likely be it. It does do dados, but I don't care much about them as I can do that with a hand plane easy enough. My Yates-American J-31 can do dados also, I haven't used it for that yet.

Be careful Jeff, you can always replace a machine, but you can't replace a finger so easily...my friend Jim will tell you...his has been gone since high school...:eek:
 
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Wow nice video, well done. It kind of makes me want to get my old jointer fired up and running, but unlike you I am scared out of my mind to fire up that old beast. Its not a square head but its big, old and chunky!!
 
.......but unlike you I am scared out of my mind to fire up that old beast. Its not a square head but its big, old and chunky!!

Knowing the machines you work with/on/around I am surprised to hear you as a a machinist say that! I always like to work in the machine shop(s) but the tools always intimidated me. Especially watching a 3 jaw chuck spinning on a lathe!!
 
OK, I finally got to watch this............. :eek:

Jeff, make them pushers SOON :D

My jointer is also a two knife head, but NOT a square head, and it is PLENTY scary :rolleyes:

You have done a great job on this one! :thumb:
 
Knowing the machines you work with/on/around I am surprised to hear you as a a machinist say that! I always like to work in the machine shop(s) but the tools always intimidated me. Especially watching a 3 jaw chuck spinning on a lathe!!

Engine lathes have very little power and their cutting edge is very small and you know exactly where it is and where it is going since it has such a defined path. At the same time it loves SLOWWWWWWW....

I have to admit, when I worked for the railroad turning those traction motor wheels while out on a siding somewhere, (we had a portable cnc lathe that was cool unto its own right) anyway it could be nerve-wrecking. The traction motor set weighed about 25 tons, while the locomotive suspended above it might weight in excess of 200 tons. Kind of scary when you were underneath it working.

Still the number of people killed by dropped locomotives compared to woodworkers with lost fingers from a jointer is pretty lop-sided. That's why a big jointer scares the crapola out of me. (LOL)
 
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