Jointer Blade Allignment

[t1callahan]

<Long Story>I bought a Ridgid Jointer a little over a month ago. I've never used one so I'm sure my problems start there. After assembly, everything was perfect, was getting glass smooth faces. The Reason I bought is is casue Im building a cabinet out of maple, and needed it for the face frame stiles and rails. It worked perfectly. Until I noticed that it started to leave lines on the wood. The lines were straigt along the direction of the gran where I jointed. And every time. So I'd move the Fence over a bit, then noticed that It would eventially make lines there to. So I checked the blades and I seem to have noticed there were groved worn in them. So I ordered new blades, Freud c400s', and Installed them this weekend. The first cut was horrible. So I adjusted the outfeed table, and that made it better. But I knew that I'd need to re-allign the blades as I was probably not exact enough. I re-alligned doing my best to get precision using a straight edge (checking left and right sides). I definately made improvements. but its not as glass smooth as it was from the factory.</Long Story>
<Questions> What are your techniques to allign those blades? I see some can measure that they are all witihin .02" Whats the technique for measuring? Also, what could I have been doing wront that would have caused the blades to go bad in the first place? I thought it was cause the maple is just so hard, that when i Did repetative edge jointing, that it wore that area of the blades down a bit. But perhaps i was pressing to hard, Or can going against the direction of the grain cause that? I have a hard time on smaller pieces telling what direction the grain is going. </Questions>

Your input is greatly appriciated.

Tom C.

[Tom Slick]

are you getting tear out or marks from the cutter?

going against the grain will cause massive tear out in certain woods.

[jarhead]

I think everyone who owns a Ridgid jointer has the same problem... including me. Maybe the knives used by Ridgid are cheap.

Here are some of the links I saved that explain how to change the blades; the first one has a video:

http://www.ts-aligner.com/jointer.htm
http://www.joewoodworker.com/jointerknives1.htm
http://benchmark.20m.com/articles/Se...terKnives.html

[t1callahan]

I beleive it is tear outs as it seems like chips about 1/8 by 1/8 are missing from the surface. Although significantly less after I re-alligned, it still does it. I beleive I've tried going both ways on the wood.

[jarhead]

Sorry... I was under the impression that you had knicks in the knives causing the lines on the stock.

[LCHIEN]

<Long Story>I bought a Ridgid Jointer a little over a month ago. I've never used one so I'm sure my problems start there. After assembly, everything was perfect, was getting glass smooth faces. The Reason I bought is is casue Im building a cabinet out of maple, and needed it for the face frame stiles and rails. It worked perfectly. Until I noticed that it started to leave lines on the wood. The lines were straigt along the direction of the gran where I jointed. And every time. So I'd move the Fence over a bit, then noticed that It would eventially make lines there to. So I checked the blades and I seem to have noticed there were groved worn in them. So I ordered new blades, Freud c400s', and Installed them this weekend. The first cut was horrible. So I adjusted the outfeed table, and that made it better. But I knew that I'd need to re-allign the blades as I was probably not exact enough. I re-alligned doing my best to get precision using a straight edge (checking left and right sides). I definately made improvements. but its not as glass smooth as it was from the factory.</Long Story>
<Questions> What are your techniques to allign those blades? I see some can measure that they are all witihin .02" Whats the technique for measuring? Also, what could I have been doing wront that would have caused the blades to go bad in the first place? I thought it was cause the maple is just so hard, that when i Did repetative edge jointing, that it wore that area of the blades down a bit. But perhaps i was pressing to hard, Or can going against the direction of the grain cause that? I have a hard time on smaller pieces telling what direction the grain is going. </Questions>

Your input is greatly appriciated.

Tom C.

If you get raised ridges in your wood that's usually a sign that the blades have been hit by something hard and have been nicked - usually can bee seen by eye on careful inspection. really hard knots or maybe leftover nails or other embedded metal objects (even a stray shotgun pellet) generally cause these problems. usually if one of the three blades is nicked they will all be nicked in the same place.

Grooves would have to be made by raised points on the blade(s). That generally is harder to do than nicking the blades.

If you change your blades then alignment is vitally important. .02 would not be sufficient, usually alignment to .002 or more is required.

There's lots of published desciptions on how to align the blades to each other and to the infeed and outfeed tables. Usually a jointer jig or a special dial gauge setup is required.

[Tom Slick]

how far are the knives sticking out of the cutterhead? your outfeed table should be level with the highest point of the knives' arc, anywhere else is out of adjustment.

have you tried turning the piece around so that you are going with the grain in the opposite direction?

a "jointer pal" helps to make knife replacement easier.

[t1callahan]

Jarhead -I think I mis understood what you were asking. Let me clarify. I had lines at first, after some usage on the stock blades. The lines caused me to replace the blades. so now I have chip out, but the lines are gone. So a was interested in know if I caused the lines or was it the maple? and how do I reduce chipout now that I've replaced the blades.

[t1callahan]

Where would I purchase the dial Indicator gadges that are show in this jig.
Would an auto-parts store cary them? I'd prefer to drive over ther to buy so that I dont have to wait till they arrive in the mail.
http://benchmark.20m.com/articles/Se...terKnives.html

Tom

[Tom Slick]

harbor frieght carries them, an autoparts store might have them.

[LCHIEN]

harbor frieght carries them, an autoparts store might have them.

HF has the best deal on good quality dial indicators. They have two nearly identical models with a 0-1" travel, one silver te other black. They are often on sale for $6.99 (reg price $13) which is 1/3 what similar ones sell for elsewhere (usually start at around $21).

The drawback with any DI is the round tip they come with takes a lot of work to keep atop a knife edge to make a good reading. I have bought flat tips for them but they cost almost as much as the indicators themselves. I make my own now, i set the indicator up perrfectly vertical and place a .5 to .75" flat disk under the point on a flat surface, then put a drop of super glue on the disk to bond to the point.

For a flat disk I use a drill press, plug cutter and a old CD-ROM (go to any computer or office supply store and pick up a free one from AOL - LOL). Make sure the bottom is flat and burr free, that will throw off measurements if not.

[Bruce Cohen]

Tom,

I too have a Rigid jointer. Trying to set the knives correctly became such a royal PITA that I broke down and spent $150.00 for a Sunhill Spiral cutterhead. No more dial indicator gauges, no more magnetic jigs, no more pulling out the few remaining hairs on my head.

Here's a link about the installation, which also gives you the link to Sunhill Machinery.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/sto...ml&catref=wd49

I now love my jointer (but not in the biblical sense). It leaves the surface almost dead on smooth, like little to none in the way of sanding.

Bruce