"Doug Miller" wrote in message
t...
In article , "George"
wrote:

If locking the spindle is important to you, though I cannot figure why,

When setting knife height with a dial indicator, it makes the job easier
if
you can keep the head from rotating once the knife is at top dead
center...

lower the infeed table, clamp a stop on it and insert a piece of wood
between your stop and the leading edge of the knives. It's go/no go
again,
but it will hold each knife in the same relative position.

.. and that's one way to do it. Sort of. That prevents the head from
rotating
forward, but it's still free to rotate backward.

Another is to clamp a block of wood to the fence; of course, that suffers
from
the same deficiency.

A rare-earth magnet attached to the block might keep the head from
rotating
backward, though....hmmmm..... think I'll give that a try next time I need
to
adjust the jointer knives.

If you don't have jackscrews or springs won't suffice, try cow magnets.
They're long enough to get a good reference to the outfeed. Principle
behind that other device sold for adjusting, the "magnaset."

Nice thing about adjusting by the "carry" or touch method is that it
promotes understanding of the operation of the machine itself, not the tool
used to set it. True of almost all the old methods of adjustment. You
don't have to learn a secondary device's tricks to get the primary going.

One thing I _won't_ rely on is the spider they send you with your Grizz
jointer. I've worked three, and the cutterhead isn't milled or set close
enough in its bearings to make it worthwhile. Even after you've reworked it
and get the fence and guard ends color coded, it seems you can only get
_two_ knives set properly, so you might as well pitch it. Yes, I know that a
feeler gage would solve the problem, but once again I'm screwing around with
the secondary device rather than the primary. The one on my old
Rockwell/Invicta planer is an instant good.