Well Im at my witts end with a jointer that has probably held me back from working in my shop wayyyyy more than it should. Considering there are people who build incredible things for years without ever owning one for some reason I have let it stop me from continuing on my journey in my shop. No matter what I do I cannot get the end of the indeed table to be coplanar with the front end. The gap to this day remains about .015 difference from the front of the table.
I purchased a 2nd hand Powermatic Pj-882 for what I considered to be a solid deal about a year and a half ago although it was still costly. It’s a 3 phase setup so my first step was getting it a VFD setup and getting machine a little cleaned up and rust free although it was in pretty good shape for being about 15 years old. Then I started trying to get the tables co-planar watching the the WoodWhisperer video probably 10 times and lucking out that he had the exact same jointer. Well to no avail I decided to go ahead and drop the blades off to be sharpened since it was so cheap and we will see if that helps anything. No luck so I decided to go ahead and change it out to a Shelix cutter head earlier than planned since I was having so much trouble getting things coplanar I didnt want have to do it again if I did get it going.
Well that was about 9 months ago and then I never got it coplanar. I got pretty discourage and worked on a few other projects that didnt require jointing. One day I decided to just throw things together and see how things were working and I was thinking dang I have it nailed and didnt even know it. Well I went through a couple boards just getting used to the machine since its my first jointer and I was just not getting things square and things would always end up sloped on one side.
I decided to check the outfield table and it was off to the cutterhead so I used my dial indicator and have the outfield table front edge within 1 thou on both sides. Then I moved to the front of the infeed table and got that within 1 thought of each side down using .010 where I ended up for coplanar to the outfield table. The end of the infeed table is sitting over .035 and nothing I do will bring it any closer to .032 with the front being at the closest at .021 since moving the back throws off the front.
I have tried for about a week each night try go back and forth between cams thinking oh If I lower or raise this one it will close the gap on the other one and get it closer but nope. Nothing I do will close the gap more than about 15 thou difference between the front edge of the table and I pretty much yet to see end of the indeed table really under .032 while the front is at .021
I am using a 38″ woodcraft straight edge which is probably not the best straight edge but obviously the really long ones can be costly and it will most likely show me the probably is even worst than that. I am convinced the end of the table is sagging and not adjustable and basically the jointer is just a waste of space at this point. I did talk to powermatic and they were somewhat helpful to be honest but that just didnt help enough to make a change. Is there people who do this stuff for a living that could help a newbie? Man I have been in construction for a while and the people who restore old machinery especially jointers and get them coplanar within a day or 2 must be geniuses because I am gonna be in my 40’s before I figure this out at this rate (I’m 37 for reference). Anyways any guidance or experience would be appreciated.
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I don’t know that I can help, I have the PJ882, but not having problems. Decades ago I owned an 8” PM, I think it was a Model 60, that had a warped bed. Powermatic literally showed how to remove it, put a 2x4 under each end, and stand on the middle to “snap” it back in place. :-) Apparently, they would put the “green” cast iron table blanks outside in a pile for a time so any tension and stress in the cast iron would work itself out before they milled the surface flat. But sometimes the finished surface would move a bit, hence the standing on it. I know, it sounds weird, but hey, science. I’m not suggesting you just take off the table and start jumping on it, but you might look into whether that’s still even a recommended fix.
Yes, fortunately there isn't any bow in the middle and the sag is just from cutterhead of infeed table to the back end of the infeed table os it just always falls under adjust the cams with anything I find. Most of the info A) is mostly about dealing with dovetail jointers which mine is parallelogram or B) how to tune it up, deal with a bow by regrinding, or mainly how to adjust the cams which I am more than familiar with.
I am thinking you might be right in that the bed maybe needs to be "snapped" back up so that the cams can be adjusted. The adjustments just only get me within .015 and I have turned them in circles dropping them all the way down and bringing them up. Its pretty frustrating
There is at least 1 (probably more) good videos on the FWW site about leveling and shimming a jointer bed to get the tables co-planar. Don't know if you can access those without a FWW site membership, but they might give you some insight.
It's unclear to me from your description whether you are having problems with getting the tables co-planar or whether the problems is side to side squareness.
Side to side squareness will most likely be solved by making sure the fence is square to the table with a square that has been proven to be precise and accurate. Also, jointers are only made to flatten one side of a board. Thickness planers are made to make the other side parallel once the first side is flat. Using a jointer to flatten both sides will almost always result in a board that isn't the same thickness across its width. Each side will be flat but not necessarily parallel to the other side.
You may know all of this already. I just thought it might be good to provide information on the simple explanations first.
He's got a PJ882, which is a parallelogram jointer. It's not an older style model with dovetail ways. Can it even be shimmed? The advantage of a parallelogram model is so you don't have to shim. BTW, if it comes to it, I believe you can regrind a parallelogram bed, unlike a dovetail model.
I do not see a way to shim it considering the back end is basically cantilevered over the cam. Again I have never owned a jointer except this one but I have dang near read everything I can find trying to fix it and no one I remember has shimmed a parallelogram jointer
My understanding of your problem is that the front end of the infeed table is low compared to the cutter end of the table. And that the infeed table cams do not provide enough adjustment to bring the front end high enough. I call the end of the infeed table that the board enters on the front end. Similarly, the end of the outfeed table that the board exits on is the back end of the outfeed table, and the other end is the cutter head end.
All that matters is that the tables are even with the cutterhead, from one of its ends to the other. And that the two tables are coplaner. Is there still adjustment for the outfeed table's back end? Can you raise it instead of raising the front of the infeed table? Essentially you have a hump between the two tables, and raising either end can remove it.
Did you follow the procedure on pages 16 and 17 of the manual ? I assume you are making adjustments to both tables.
https://powermatic.com/media/akeneo_connector/asset_files/M/_/M_1610079_PJ_882__882HH_Jointer___Rev_F2_EN_59f4.pdf
just remember if the tables are not co-planer, dip in other directions,twist, bow, ect. your lumber will take the shape of your jointer! Also I would not use a straight edge to start with, use a 12" metal ruler( like the one from your tri-square) and measure the distance of travel, about 1/8" from top of your cutting edge to the drop onto the infeed table to set your cut, and then square the tables to be co-planer. hope this helps. see fww for the complete set up on jointers. Ellen & matt in machine set-up
On this Jointer make sure you are removing and/or loosening the two set screws on all the parallelogram adjustments. One screw is on top of the other. By what I think you are describing the adjustment would be on both the far ends?