NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1983, No. 43, $3.50 Making ... - Wood Tools

JOInter is nice, but what good is it if it's toO short to true a
long board? Then there's the matter of switching from one
function to the other. Aside from the nuisance, you can't use
both jointer and planer simultaneously. This can force you to
use more inefficient sequencing while truing your wood.
I was disappointed with the Belsaw. Its low price isn't
much of a value if half of the combination doesn't work. The
people at Belsaw were helpful and happy to talk to me on
their toll-free number, but goodwill can't offset a badly designed
machine. Unless you are severely constrained by money,
I can't recommend the Belsaw 684. On a tight budget,
I'd consider Belsaw's model 804 planer-molder, about $550,
and a separate jointer.
The Emco-Rex 2000 is probably the better budget choice.
It gets the job done, but it requires more care and skill to get
good results than do the more expensive machines. Its sheetsteel
construction gives me doubts about its durability.
The Makita is a worthy machine which I liked better than
the Belsaw or Emco. Yet it suffers in comparison with the
Hitachi. The $150 lower price tag hardly offsets its draw-
backs. Makita's lack of customer service (see box, below) persuades
me to take my future business elsewhere.
My difficulty is in choosing between the Hitachi and the
Inca, machines that have obviously been designed according
to different philosophies. Both are well designed and well
made, though one is light and elegant, the other heavy and
sturdy. I favor the Hitachi's side-by-side design, but I admire
the Inca for its compactness and engineering fInesse. I think
the Inca would be best for the craftsman who does careful,
low-volume work and who doesn't often need to straighten
long boards. I'm glad I bought the Hitachi, however. Apart
from face-jointing wide boards, it can do all that the others
can, with considerably more ease.
u.s.
It was the only machine on
which the fence and tables were perfectly flat and straight. It's
0
built like a tank, and the people who sell it are knowledgeable
and helpful. For me, that's a winning combination.
James Rome is a part-time woodworker and full-time plasma
physicist. He works for the fusion energy program
in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Photos by the author.
Don't answer the phone while adjusting jointer knives
I was installing the knives in my Makita
2030 jointer-planer when the phone
rang. When I finished the call, I went
back and turned on the machine, forgetting
that I hadn't tightened the bolts.
As the knives whirred up to speed, a
horrible screeching noise ensued, followed
by a shower of shrapnel. The
jointer guard deflected most of the metal
shards and I wasn't hurt.
After I regained my composure, I realized
what I had done wrong. It was a
cheap lesson in how not to set jointer
knives. Valuable as the experience was,
I learned even more when I tried to fix
the thing.
Just taking it apart was a chore. The
jointer tables are attached to the planer
by hardened-steel drift pins. Driven into
blind holes, these pins seem designed
more for fast factoty assembly than for
easy removal. Hours of tugging finally
opened up a gap large enough to insert
a hacksaw blade into. Several blades later,
I cut through the pins and separated
the tables.
There followed another struggle to
remove the jointer head from its pressfit
into a bearing cup in the outfeed table.
While doing this, I realized that if
the drive belt connecting the motor to
the shafts ever breaks, the jointer head
will probably have to be removed to replace
it. In principle, it might be possible
to slide apart the coupled pulleys
that connect the planer and jointer
shafts, but in practice, forget it.
I had to decide whether to fix the
48
tables or to buy new ones. This decision
was surprisingly difficult. Although
Makita stocks parts at various locations
throughout the countty, each distribution
center has different prices and tells
a different Stoty. Makita in Atlanta was
willing to sell me a new outfeed table
for about $400. Makita in New Jersey
claimed that they had a sale on an oldstyle
outfeed table and the price was
Rome 's knife-setting accident tore chunks
from both infeed and outfeed tables. Here
they are reinstalled, after being built up
by nickel welding and flat grinding.
$30. Makita in Atlanta said there was
only one style of outfeed table. Makita
in New Jersey said the sale was over.
I decided to repair the machine. It
cost me $ 5 0 to get the cast-iron tables
welded back together with nickel. It
cost another $ 50 to have the tops of the
tables ground flat. The nickel was hard
enough to ruin several carbide tools. I
had to belt-sand down the bottoms of
the welds facing the jointer head.
Reassembling the 2030 was relatively
straightforward. My struggles, however,
were not over. Without the jointer
blades, the machine ran smoothly up to
speed. But when I installed the knives,
it vibrated severely enough to walk
across the floor of my shop. I weighed
the blades and their cover plates, and
found them to be perfectly balanced. I
bought a new planer head (another
$70) and readjusted the drive pulleys.
The machine was still unbalanced.
In disgust, I sold it, as a planer only,
to a friend. He found the problem.
When I ordered a new spring-steel
blade holder, Makita had sent me two
of them stuck together. This raised the
blade and its heavy cover abour 1;6 in.,
causing the out-of-balance condition.
My misadventures with the Makita
explain why I am now the owner of a
Hitachi F- lOOOA. -J.A.R.
EDITOR'S NOTE: To
technical problems, Makita has recently
sort out customers'
added a national service manager to its
staff. Write to 12950 E. A1ondra, Cerritos,
Calif. 9070 1, or call (2 13)-926-8775.