Ridgid Jointer Adjustment Tolerances and Use of the rear adjustment hand wheel.

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  • jon_ramp
    Established Member
    • Feb 2007
    • 120
    • western Chicago burb
    • Craftsman 21829

    Ridgid Jointer Adjustment Tolerances and Use of the rear adjustment hand wheel.

    I have a Ridgid jointer that is not 'perfect'. But I am wondering if it is actually good enough and I shouldn't messed with it. When the fence is set to 90 degrees, it is dead on with the infeed table. There is a 0.005 gap at the bottom of the fence using my machine square when checking the outfeed side. The only straight edge I have that could be used as a true straight edge is the 12" blade of my PEC comination square. Resting 2" of the blade on the infeed table, the outfeed gradually drops off 0.008 over the last 10" of the blade on the outfeed table. At first I was going to figure out how to adjust it if possible and then I thought, close enough, leave it alone. Would appreciate your thoughts.

    Also, what is the purpose of the rear adjusment hand weel? Nowhere in the manual does it state the use of that wheel. The only reference, is it being labeled in one of the diagrams.
  • cwsmith
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2005
    • 2737
    • NY Southern Tier, USA.
    • BT3100-1

    #2
    "rear adjustment hand wheel"?

    I'm not familiar with what you are referring to. I have jointer (JP06101), but I don't recall a "rear hand wheel". There is a hand wheel for adjusting the in feed table height ("Depth of Cut Hand wheel) and another for adjusting the out feed table, though I generally don't touch that one. On the back there is a somewhat large "fence lock knob", which secure the fence from slipping out of position, once you have it adjusted to your use.

    No where do I find a reference to a "rear adjustment hand wheel". Are we talking about the same tool?

    CWS
    Think it Through Before You Do!

    Comment

    • jon_ramp
      Established Member
      • Feb 2007
      • 120
      • western Chicago burb
      • Craftsman 21829

      #3
      Only reference to the rear (outfeed table) wheel I could find in the manual.

      Comment

      • cwsmith
        Veteran Member
        • Dec 2005
        • 2737
        • NY Southern Tier, USA.
        • BT3100-1

        #4
        Okay, now I know what you are referring to, so thanks for your quick come-back.

        Frankly, as I mentioned I don't touch or use that hand wheel, as it serves no purpose for normal day to day operations. If when the jointer was originally set up you would find that the infeed and outfeed tables could be properly aligned with both tables co-planer with each other and, more importantly, the outfeed table factory-adjusted to the cutter blades. That given, it is only the infeed table that would normally be adjusted for the desired depth of cut; that being that you would always lower or raise the infeed table to give you the difference that you wanted to plane off your stock.

        For example, you'd lower the infeed 1/16th inch if you wanted to shave off that much on your stock. The cutting wheel should always be the same height as the outfeed table, so that you feed the stock on the infeed table, and the cutter planes the stock and the outfeed table excepts the new thickness perfectly.... looking at the profile of a piece of stock only partially fed, you should find that the bottom of the old thickness lies flat on the infeed table, and the bottom of the new planed thickness lies perfect flat on the outfeed table..... and top of the entire piece is level through it's entire length (like it shouldn't slope up or down.

        The challenge of course is keeping the cutter head properly aligned to to the outfeed table. Initially that requires that you adjust each of the three knives as they are positioned in the cutter head. That is described, starting on page 29 and requires that each knife is positioned level with the outfeed table over their entire width and not tilted left or right. Each of the three knives are retained with four lock screws.

        On page 30, it is noted that, "the out feed table is adjusted at the factory". The instruction go on to explain that adjustment of the out feed table may at some time require adjustment to properly align with the cutter height. (I imagine that at some point the width of the blades would narrow because of wear, and perhaps not reach to the height of the factory-set out feed table.) With that concern, instructions are given to use the "outfeed table hand wheel" (the hand wheel that you question) to adjust the outfield table height. Fig. 42 illustrates the proper alignment.

        I hope this helps,

        CWS
        Think it Through Before You Do!

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