right ive been playing this morning found the reason for large groove take your bickie jointer with the guide plate at 90degrees loosen alen screw expose blade strait edge across blade from one side to the other the edge nearest vent has a small gap other side slightly bigger hense blade running out of line slightly and over sized slot due to the superior quality of the spanner i am unable to remove the blade as yet [spanner keeps doing a uri gellar] you will also see why the vent gets blocked [grotty design big all
blunt chisel. The Ferm biscuit jointer is excellant value for money considering that it has a 3 year guarantee. big all just showed. As with most tools, it needs tuning to get it right. Plane maker Lie-Neilson says "A tool that doesn't work right out of the box is a kit." The price of his planes reflects the fact that they DO work straight out of the box. Cheap tools seldom do but need tuning for them to work right.
OK Dewy, it may be obvious to the professionals on here, but for the benefit of the others, including me, please can you give some information as to how you'd "tune" a biscuit jointer. If I hadn't found out here that it was needed, I'd have certainly used mine straight from the box (well, OK, I'd have made sure nothing was loose and the spring action was smooth) and not known any different. And as I'm intending to buy one of the Ferm jointers soon, I'd be grateful for any information which will prevent me ill-using the tool, or not making as good a joint as I'm going to be capable of. And while you're at it, can you say what size cutter it comes with, as I will obviously want to order some biscuits with it, and I'm not sure which size to order. Regards, John
Read big alls post above. That shows how to do it. I never had any problem with mine apart from a plastc nut stripping its thread so I replaced it with a steel one. Now I use a spanner when I want to change the fence angle.
It sounds like it's a bit of a luck of the draw with this product. I will be getting one soon, hope it's ok Coggy
Hi again Big All, you think if I change the blade for a better quality one it might work better then?. I was wondering if the blade has one of the cutters on it slightly larger thus making a bigger slot. I can't see any runout on the blade but there again I haven't got a dial guage to check this.
Mailee, I said about the blade running out of true because I had seen someone else saying how he managed to adjust it. The instructions aren't in the manual that comes with it though. That's why I kept pushing in this topic about it.
boys and gals to much happy juice worked out 2 solutionts will post later no other parts required happy big all
The same happened to me twice one day big all Now if I expect it to be a long post. I type it into notepad & copy/paste it into the forum after making sure I am logged in.
don't worry mailee no need to change blades if you do a plunge test and its tight then you know its ok just plunge into wood 3 or 4 times now cut agroove if its tight at the ends and loose in the middle you know its out off line now you have about + 1.5 or minus 1.5 play in the guide rods [ all you have to do is asuming you have worked out which end is high or low ]you hold the guide at one end and ajust the the other end to line up with the blade you may need 3 hands for this when its ok tighten the lever this grips both rods now working on the principal 90 percent of work is betweem 18 and 25mm you should be able to set it by trial and error till it lines up then leave it
now method 2 if you soak 10 percent of your biscuits [i soaked them for30 minutes]then dry them out they expand to about 5 mm [now mark them with a pen] and when you come to assembly you put about 1 in 5 swollen dowels which lines them up perfectly will read again in the morning and correct any ba11s ups] big all
Glad you found how to adjust it big all. It will proove invaluble in the future. I will have to look at mine to see exactly what you did.
Thanks big all, If you guys can use the ferm BC, then thats good enough for me. I'll be getting hold of one with my next order. As a new groupie, its great to know help, advice and more, is only a click away. Blunt Chisel.
And blunt chisel. You should never have any of those. Find a way to sharpen them. You could always try the easy option as posted a couple of months ago. If you have a belt sander, chisels can always be sharp. Oh no. That will get Wolf going again. No. I never sharpen mine that way.
Many thanks Big All, I shall try the adjustments on mine. I am afraid at the moment I have no workshop so must wait for the weather to break to try them, pi**ing it down here for the last two days. I do appreciate all your help.
another idea if you get a bit of wood or any other firm material[plastic metal ect] the thickness you want your guide to be set to say you want 9mm you get 9mm ply set the adjustment to max push the blade out position the wood on the blade push the fence onto the wood hold it firmly with all three of you hands now tighten the lever and this should line them up parable with the blade [similar to what you do when setting up a rip fence] dont forget to reset the depth stop now we can all go happy plunging big all
right lads n lassies fine tuning time if you use the block of wood idea make sure two teeth are in contact with the bit of wood the clip on plastic bit is quarter inch [6.35mm] so you could set up the fence with a bit of 15mm wood which is ideal for worktops then clip on plastic gives you 8.5mm ideal for 1 inch plained or sawn another point bought a ferm angle grinder £16 probably will get next to no use because its main purpose is if required to become a doner for the bicie cutter hope this long winded 10 or so postings helps someone good grooving people big all
Scraps of wood get far more uses than going into the scrap bin dont they big all? I keep a few decent scraps for just that sort of thing. I use the screwfix dovetail jig for my router & the fiddliest bit was setting the depth to 27/32". I had some scrap teak from a broken table rescued from a friends bin & machined it to that thickness & now use that on the base to set the correct depth 1st time every time.