jayread2001

I am new to the whole forum thing and have been learning alot just reading through it all. I have a grizzly 1182 6" jointer and I have been having a terrible time using it. I believe its because the jointer tables are not perfectly parallel. when I lay a straight edge on the receiving table and measure down the the feeding table there is a difference of about 1/16 of an inch from the side closest to the blades to the side furthest from the blades. Correct me if I am wrong but shouldnt the tables be absolutly perfectly parallel? If so how can I make this adjustment? Thank you for any help in advance.

AZ Termite

I hope I am understanding your question. Here we go. You want the infeed table to be lower than the outfeed table. The reason is that as the wood passes over the blades the outfeed table will support the piece that has just had that part removed. That keeps the piece running true. There should be table adjustments on both ends, with somekind of scale, I don't have grizzly but should be similar. you want to set to infeed table to the desired height 1/32 1/16 and so on depending on the amout of the material you want to remove. then set the outfeed table at 0. It should be the same height as the top of the blade to receive the piece as it passes though. I hope I am making sence and that this helps.

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jayread2001

well the problem lies with the outfeed table. It runs ever so slighly downhill. When I get the board a few feet past the knives the end of it is about 3/16 above the outfeed table. I dont know where to make the adjustment.

clampman

Jay,

This is a common problem with jointers. I have only owned "old iron" jointers, and the adjustments for the outfeed beds rarely do what they are intended to do.

The infeed beds on all my jointers have been the type with hand wheels, ways and gibs, not parallelogram mechanisms. So over the years the infeed bed ways wear more at the ends of the ways where the weight and friction are concentrated.

So the ends of the infeed bed sag and point uphill towards the outfeed bed. There is no easy way to fix the infeed bed since it must move. Just clean it well and keep it lubricated to slow down the wear.

So you must bring the outfeed bed into parallel with the infeed bed.

Some outfeed beds have elevation knobs which are basically useless for virtually anything. So what I do is loosen the outfeed bed enough to jam chunks of steel feeler gauges between the bed and the casting to elevate the end of the outfeed bed to become parallel with the infeed bed.

Before tightening down the outfeed bed rock solid, check for parallel with the infeed at several different depth of cut settings. When using handwheel jointers you must always set your depth of cut by turning the handwheel clockwise.

So to increase the depth of cut, first go too deep by cranking counter clockwise, then crank clockwise bringing the bed up to your desired setting. This proceedure loads the leadscrew and leadscrew nut on the proper side of the threads so it will stay put under a load.

You may find that the angle out of parallel will change slightly when you change the depth of cut. Then you have to pick the area of depth of cut you use most frequently, and go with that.

I have never investigated the operating mechanism of a parallelogram mechanism, but it would be very, very simple and inexpensive to make adjusting them child's play. If that is the kind you have, you should be able to do a search on google to find instructions.

The guy who would know would be Bob Vaughan. Maybe he will see your post and chime in.

Good luck.
Jim

Paul K

I had a Grizzly once that had a sag in it too. Yes, it is fixable on the outfeed table, as the other poster said. Your table runs on gibs that are slanted downward away from the cutter head. So as he said, you need to go get some shim material, maybe some stainless or some brass, can be had in lots of different thicknesses. You need to put a little piece of shim down near the lower part of the slope so that the end of the table tilts back up to be parallel. So you need a good straight edge so that you can see when you have done enough or two much. It isn't a difficult job, you will have to put some grease on the parts, and they will stay, because you don't move the outfeed table often. good luck.

jayread2001

Hey guys thanks for the great tip! I will get on it. I am really looking forward to using my jointer without causing me alot of frustration!