Chrisgiraffe wrote:
Last night I rummaged through every industrial and woodworking supplier
I could to look for dial indicator deals and realized there are quite a
few doo-dads and gizmos that claim to help set the knives.

Yes there are! The existence of these products is a testament to the
failure and frustration that people have using traditional trial and
error methods. A few are good. Most reflect a very poor understanding
of machinery alignment and Metrology. You don't really need any of
them.

What is sad
is that there isn't a standard practice/device for the operation

The standard practice which reflects a good understanding of machinery
alignment and Metrology is contained in the link that I provided
earlier in this thread:

http://www.ts-aligner.com/jointer.htm

or:

http://www.ts-aligner.com/alignmentmyths.htm

The standard device needed for this operation is the dial indicator.
You don't need to have a TS-Aligner Jr. to do this. You can perform
this technique with any dial indicator jig that can point the dial
indicator down. A standard magnetic base is fine or you can make your
own from wood. Unfortunately, there are a few nay sayers in the group
who would insist that you must do it the hard way (trial and error) and
make it sound like getting a dial indicator is a monumental mistake.

and
what's sadder is that the jointer I have has no locking mechanism on
the spindle. I don't know that other jointers have this feature since
every advice I've come across talk about finding center and working
from there. It's kind of nuts that manufacturers might build this
machine knowing full well owners may one day have to change the knives
and have to perform a Houdini trick to get the task done right. At
least, one would think, they could put a pin that you could slide to
lock the spindle.

I agree, one would think that such a thing would be possible. After
all, top dead center will always be located in the same place for each
knife. I bridge a high strength magnet between the side of the
cutterhead and the side of the infeed table. This holds the knife in
place while doing the alignment but doesn't prevent fine adjustment.
You can also clamp a board between the motor and cutterhead pulleys.
I've done it this way but it wasn't very convenient.

Also, after looking through industrial catalogues (i.e. Enco, MSC) at
metal milling machines I find that accuracy is built into the lowliest
of machines where as manufacturers who build machines for wood allow
much higher tolerances. Yeah, we can sand out imperfections and
materials are less expensive but don't we deserve the same treatment?

Alas, as you have noticed, most woodworking machinery is built for the
lowest possible cost and the least acceptable accuracy. And, most
woodworkers (especially the trial and error crowd) never notice the
difference. They can't fool the machinists into buying such poor
machinery but they have many woodworkers eating out of their hands.
Once you learn how to use a dial indicator, you will be a much more
discerning buyer (eating from your own plate!).

Anyway, I will be buying a dial indicator but until that arrives I'll
see what I can do by hand using the methods suggested in this forum.

It will definitely keep you busy.

I
have to say I've gotten more out of this forum about jointing than I
have in any woodworking book. In some sense it makes me appreciate the
incident.

Yes, it's a good place to come and discuss such things. You do have to
wade through the opinions and sift out wannabes and dogmatics.

Thanks guys and gals! Happy wooding and feel free to add to the
conversation.

You're welcome. Feel free to send me email if you have any questions.

Ed Bennett

http://www.ts-aligner.com