Jointer help

I was contacted by a reader wanting help with his Delta jointer. It was causing snipe at the end of a board, but he was at his wit's end trying to figure out what was wrong, and calls to Delta brought no hope. He was thinking about buying another brand. 

The fix was rather simple. And is related to an understanding of how the jointer works. First, the infeed table and outfield table must be perfectly in the same plane. You can check this with a long very straight piece of wood. Raise the infeed table until it's at the same height as the outfeed table and observe that there are no gaps underneath, either at the middle or at each end. Then when assured that the tables are perfectly aligned, lower the infeed table and with the flat board resting on the outfeed table, adjust its height up or down until the knives, as you rotate the cutterhead by hand, barely touch. 

My reader, following the steps I prescribed, found that his infeed table and outfeed table were perfectly parallel to each other as they must be, and then adjusting the outfeed table as I just prescribed, got perfect results with no snipe at the end of the board being planed. Snipe is a small deeper cut that can take place during planing or jointing wood.

It's nice to be able to help.

Make, fix and create.