Woodworking 101: MLCS Jointer knife setter

Samstag, 31. Dezember 2011

MLCS Jointer knife setter - easy cheezy

I didn’t really want to spend $80 on this but I did it anyway.
List Price: $89.95
Price: $70.69
http://www.amazon.com/MLCS-9397-Jointer-Planer-Setting/dp/B001NXC6YQ

NOTE: The way the jigs are setup in the picture above is incorrect! The magnets register directly onto the cutter head; they never attach to the table surface!

The reviews were pretty bad, actually, but it works as advertised. It’s made of some heavy duty type plastic with really hard-tugging rare Earth magnets. The way it works on my PM54a:
1) you have to lower the infeed table to get access to the cutter head
2) you first register the tool on the cutter surface with the blades out. There are little articulating arms with magnets on the outside; a center post with magnet that advances with the thumbscrew
3) advance the center plunger until it touches the head surface and tighten the thumbscrew. I’m not sure that the graduated scale improves this tool and I have my doubts about the accuray (but in fairness, they did both register the same reading)
4) insert your knives and gibs and flank your blade with the magnet. The center post will touch your knife edge, bringing it to the precise level of the cutter head (established earlier)
5) these little magnets are STRONG and they’ll tug your gibs up. I used a popsicle stick to keep them down beneath the cutter edge while I tightened the gibs down.

So, all in all, it works. Would I buy it again? No way. Not that it’s a bad device, it’s just that I never need to adjust my cutters more proudly (where the graduated scale excels). I let the infeed table handle the depth of cut. I subtracted a point for the plastic housing. That’s all I got, guys and girls.