It's the most stable, and therefore the most neglected piece of machinery in the shop. Unfortunately, a jointer is so reliable that most of us fail to notice when it finally falters. With just two moving parts - a rotating cutterhead and an adjustable infeed table - it doesn't seem like much could go wrong. But given the length of its bed and the width of its knives, even a minor deviation can wreak havoc on your next project.
The three most common maintenance issues with a jointer are aligning the tables, collecting debris and changing or adjusting the knives. This station addresses all three tasks. By providing easy access to the underside of the machine, it removes the biggest problem associated with aligning the tables. You'll never again have to crawl underneath your jointer to make an adjustment, then stand up to check it and crawl back under again to tweak the new setting. The hinged deck on the station lets you do all that work in comfort. Jointers create chips, rather than sawdust. This is a big advantage to those of us whose dust collection systems are already stretched thin. Rather than vacuuming the debris, we can let gravity do our work for us. A removable bin collects all the chips, and a Plexiglas (TM) window tells the operator when it needs to be emptied. Plus, the next time you have to change or adjust the knives on your jointer, you'll enjoy the ease and accessibility of the station's built-in cutterhead lock.

Because of all the photos, this project takes up a lot of room. So, we're going to split it up over several pages. Just click on the links at the bottom of the page to go to each section when you're ready to move along. And scroll down for the Bill of Materials...