After 6 months of steady use I noticed that my 8″
Grizzly jointer was not yielding as good a surface
quality as it had. The machine has a helical cutter
head with 36 carbide inserts. I decided to rotate
all inserts by 90 degrees to expose new cutting
edges. The result was worse than it had been. Three
of the inserts were leaving clear ridges on the
workpiece. I assumed that I had not cleaned the
inserts and their seating surfaces well enough, so
re-set the three bad boys, in the rotated position.
This had no effect; the ridges were still there.
I then rotated these three back to their original position.
The ridges disappeared and the surface quality is good.
This tells me that the problem is with the inserts
themselves. Wondering if anyone else has encountered
this and if so, what can be done about it.
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Replies
After 4 years, I just rotated the 40 inserts on my 8 inch jointer finding that the feed force necessary was increased and some chipping was noticeable in cross grain wood. The feed force came down and the surface is still perfect, Your 3 inserts are probably defective, try rotating them 180 degrees and if this does not work , you can buy spares in bags of 10 and replace the 3 units. You could also swap the position of the 3 defectives and if the defect follows the carbide insert then you know for sure its the insert and not the seat.
Good suggestions, thanks!
Stumpy nubs did a thing on this topic.
Good cleaning of the seat and insert and proper torque are often the cure for this frequently reported issue after rotation. If you didn't use a torque wrench and were not fastidious in the cleanliness of your work are while rotating I can almost guarantee this is your issue.
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