Proxxon Jointer

[Shane Rouse]

Ifit sounds like hammering, the blades are dull. (By the way, never plane wood that has any kind of finish on it - that will destroy blades.)

If there are longitudinal lines on the wood, then the blades are nicked. It may be possible to shift one blade slightly to one side so that that blade will compensate for the defect.

It's possible to hand plane to thickness. Below, you can see how I planed a guitar backplate to 3/32" (2.3 mm) by this technique. I placed 3/32" plywood on either side of the rosewood, roughed it down with the No.4 plane, and then used the No.6 plane to plane to final thickness by riding the toe and heel of the plane on the plywood, with the blade cutting only the rosewood. The paste wax on the soles of the planes greatly reduces friction and allows me to put most of the work into cutting the hard rosewood. The wax does not cause any problems with finishing or gluing. I've also planed to 1/16" by placing plastic laminate (e.g. for kitchen countertop) on either side of the stock and then passing the plane over all with the blade cutting the only the stock. Thus the laminate controls the final thickness.

HI Chris. After ten years my Proxxon Planer transfers a very small longitudinal line on the wood. I assume one of the blades is nicked. I seem to recall there are two if them and swapping them out was a pain. But I can't be without my planer so I shall order a new set as well. I see they're only $10+ on Amazon.

Thanks for the feedback ! I read in the manual that the blades can be reversed if they are dull or simply replaced for 10 dollars. I agree Greg - I love this machine it works really well in conjunction with the Byrnes Thickness Sander but much more efficient to dimension wood.

I'm not familiar with this particular jointer, but It's possible to make or buy a block of wood with neodymium magnets embedded in the surface. These will hold the blade at the correct height while cinching down the locking screws. Another source of very powerful magnet is from disassembling an old computer hard disk. You'll also obtain a very very flat mirror-polished disk that is an excellent front-surface mirror. I use it for various things, but that's another story.

Chris - have you tried the Proxxon service center? They were responsive to a previous service issue: _request.php. If they can't help let me know and I'll photograph the blade positions. They're also reversible so, technically, you can just reverse them.

Ill call them Greg - thanks ! The manual is very poor so maybe they can help. There is a screw near the top of the unit that opens a door on the top - if you get a chance to take a quick photo that may really be helpful. I know the issue here is the height of the blades.

The Proxxon customer service just re sent me the manual which is nebulous - if you can send me a quick pic of your blades in position - would really help me and any other owners of this machine on MSW. Thanks - hope you had a nice holiday.

Chris, the cutting edge of the blade should be flush with the fore edge of the piece holding it in place. Should be a continuous angle from edge of cutter to holder. Photo should make it clear. The cutting edge protrudes about 4 mm from the holding piece. Hope this does it for you!

Wow, you just made my day. I have a Proxxon thicknesser but I need to thickness to .6mm and it doesn't quite meet the mark. So I have just ordered a Byrnes Thickness Sander from US. Should get it next week. It came out at $390 dollars but the shipping to UK was a bit expensive @ $198 but Hey Ho. In for a penny in for a pound as we say in UK

This past week, I just finished changing blades on my jointer. I will get the. Old ones resharpened. The cutter head for my Rockwell jointer looks exactly like the one on the Proxxon planer posted above. Two tools drastically simplify the project:

Second, something to fix the blade at top dead center while the blade is being changed. In my case I made a simple plywood clamp to immobilize the drive pulley. My jointer is belt driven, so this may not be necessary for equipment with integral motor drives.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

I've looked at benchtop planers before, but they've had issues: hard to adjust, tables not true, loud motor, etc. This looks a bit more user-firendly and accurate. But at over $400 plus delivery it's a lot for something if it doesn't work.

So just keen to see if there's any feedback, or is it something you'd use or like to have? I like the idea of planing small pieces of wood - cleaner and faster than sanding, but impossible on a 6" machine! I have the Byrnes thickness sander but this could be a good complement to get one edge true for thicknessing, or for tapering planks, milling small pieces accurately, etc.

I know you live in Australia, look up a couple of sites www.lowes.com/power-tools or Harbor Freight, they have planner for $269.00 American dollars and higher priced one too. I will be buying one this month.

Looks pretty neat ,but I think a cheaper Chinese model would probably suffice for the amount a model builder would use it . I've got an old 1950s era Delta bench model jointer that I got at a garage sale for $30. Took it down to the car wash and pressure washed it. Rpainted it and sent the blades out for sharpening. Works great. My jig saw is the same only I got it free. Check garage sales folks one can get a good deal. Ask to plug em in and see how they work. Check bearings for slop and side play. Look for missing guides and adjustment knobs etc. Sale season is just around the corner. BILL

There is a DIY design for a jointer in a back issue of NRJ (Nautical Research Journal) -journal.php . It was in the late '70s I think. NRJ will provide reprints of old articles and I believe there is a complete index online. Just can't find the URL at the moment. Anyway it uses a dremel tool for power and looks like it would be more than adequate for any work you might need on a model.

I believe that jointers are used to create those 'edges' so they can be joined. While planers just create good, parallel surfaces. So, if you want to do both, look elsewhere for a machine that can do both.

If you intend to join lots of boards together on a regular basis then it's probably a handy piece of equipment to have. Personally I think a thicknesser would be more useful. For occasional edge joining a power plane would be a cheaper option.

Thing of it is ,you need to use a jointer to get one side true and flat, then you use the thicknesser, planer, to true the other side to the first. Same if you're using a sander thicknesser. Its hard to get a jointer to cut one side parallel to the first. BILL

I should use a bigger spring, but that small spring was the most suitable one I had lyingaround, and it seems to do the job.In the planer, the motor was mounted to pivot on the shaft (bottom left in the image), with another bolt tolock the pivoting for belt tensioning. I wanted to come up with a mechanism where tightening a screw wouldtighten the belt, but in the end, I couldn't think of anything that would fit in the constrained space, soI just took a piece of aluminium and cut a slot in it. The motor is tensioned by hand, then the bolt tightenedto lock the position. The strip of metal isn't attached to anything, it just pushes against the bottomof the opening.

I wanted to make a piece of plywood that would fit exactly over this shape. Normally, one would just putthe plywood against it and trace around it with a pencil, but if I put a piece of plywood against it,there wouldn't be enough room behind it to trace the outline. What to do?

I'm using two of my blue long-reach C clamps as stops on either end, plus the non fingered end of a fingerboard to press the workpiece against the fence. I don't feel entirely safe using a router table like this, so I wanted to make sure my workpiece was constrained.I milled the slot in about five passes of increasing depth, this photo was taken partway through the last pass.

The fence is a fixed 90 degrees, no bevel capability. I don't use my jointer for bevel cuts, so I figure it's better to have a fence that is always at 90 degrees than to have one that can be misadjusted.

Shavings were coming out the bottom, but they were also blown all around the inside of the jointer,and out the outfeed side. I knew I'd have to make some internal baffles to direct the shavings down, butit sure was odd seeing shavings come flying out the front. I think the wind from the motor may have hadsomething to do with it.

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