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We have 2 machines in the wood shop in the SOA to further process lumber and remove the high spots to make them flat and square: a Jointer and a Thickness Planer. They are most often used together in sequence to square-up, or “dress” lumber, for subsequent operations.
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Jointers will produce flat, straight surfaces and edges on planks of lumber, but have no reference surface parallel to the cutter head, and so, are often used in conjunction with Thickness Planers, to achieve finished boards for construction.
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The SOA Wood shop has both a Jointer and a Thickness Planer installed as separate machines. |
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Please read both machine documents to become familiar with how these machines are used together to prepare raw lumber for projects. |
Design of the machine
Fundamentally, a Jointer's table arrangement is designed with two levels so that it consists of two long, narrow parallel tables in a row with a cutter head recessed between them. These are known as the “infeed and outfeed” tables. The outfeed table is set to be the same height as the cutter head. The infeed table is adjustable to be set below the height of the cutter head, typically between 1/32” and 1/8”, depending on how much material the operator needs to remove with each pass over the cutter head. The cutter head is driven by an electric motor. A moveable fence is normally set perpendicular to the tables, though some models may allow settings (adjustments) to various angles. Our Jointer allows fence angle adjustment from 0 degrees to 45 degrees.
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Our Jointer also allows fence angle adjustment from 0 degrees to 45 degrees, for making beveled cuts or “chamfers” along the edges of boards. To tilt the fence, it is necessary to unlock the side handle on the fence bracket by turning it counter clockwise a couple of times, then manually adjust the angle and re-tighten the side handle.
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Never make any fence adjustment while the machine is running! |
Cutter Head / Shroud
The cutter head on our machine is a spiral, or helical, cutting head. This configuration has 44 individually mounted, self-indexing knives that can be rotated to a new edge when necessary. The knives are arranged radially in the cylindrical cutter head such that their cutting edges protrude from the cylinder so that they will come into contact with the board being cut as the cutter head spins. The cutter head's axis of rotation is parallel to the table surfaces and perpendicular to the feed direction. The knives cut into the board in the direction opposite to the feed. The cutter head is extremely sharp, and is therefore covered by a spring-loaded Shroud, to prevent operator injury.
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The shroud is a large cast aluminum plate painted orange for visibility. It is mounted to a spring-loaded post and installed near the end of the cutter head with a locking knob. The shroud should be adjusted to within about 1/2 an inch of the fence, so that the shroud does not hit the fence when it swings shut after passing a board over the jointer. The shroud position can be adjusted by first loosening the locking knob at the front of the machine where the shroud post is inserted, by turning it counter clockwise. Then swing the shroud outward or inward toward the fence leaving a gap of about 1/2 of an inch. Lift the shroud plate upward slightly so that it does not drag across the top of the In feed and out feed tables, then retighten the locking knob.
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Never attempt to adjust the cutter head shroud while the machine is running! |
Dust Collector
The dust collectormust be operating when the Jointer is being used. The dust collector is located directly behind the jointer, between the Jointer machine and the wall. Its power switch is located on the left side of the motor housing, and consists of a large red button with a green center. To turn the dust collector on, pull outward on the large Red Ring. To turn it off,press the Red Ring inward.
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Twisted material is treated in a similar way. The operator lays the timber on the bed of the machine and rocks it slowly from side to side to estimate the amount of twist. If there is, say, 1/8” of twist in the board, he holds the board level and takes 1/16” off one end, then repeats it for the other end.
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A jointer cannot be used to create a board of even thickness along its length. For this task, after jointing one face , a Thickness Planer is used. (See Thickness Planer document) |
Clean-up
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*When you are finished working at the Jointer, make sure the cutting head has come to a complete stop, and the shroud is adjusted to the fence with a half inch gap. |
Please be aware that there are 4 Trash barrels in this room, and that each one has a broom, bench brush and dust pan attached. You must use these items to clean up your work areas at each machine, when you are finished working there. Also, there are scrap barrels at each workstation to deposit scraps of material, which may be useful for someone else. Please do not put materials with stray hardware or glue on them, or food/drink items, only re-useable materials.
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