[mlipps]

Hi,

So I purchased a used Minimax Fs35. The tables are flat when measured against themselves but are not coplaner. Unfortunately, I only have experience with adjusting parallelogram beds and am not sure how to adjust these. I assume there will be shimming involved, but I'm not sure how to, in the case of the infeed table, raise the portion of the infeed table furthest from the cutterhead (beginning of the table). I have a similar issue with the outfeed table. I'm told this is common with older machines as the cast iron begins to sag over time. But I'm not sure how to quite adjust it.

I also noticed that the cutter head has flat spots. It varies from one end to the other about 0.01" with "0.005 variations in between. Is this a major problem? I imagine this can be rectified by a clever positioning of the blades or worst case scenario, buy another cutterhead. But I'd rather not throw more money at this jointer if not necessary.

The manual is of very poor quality and was hoping someone had experience with adjusting these Jointer/planer combo machines, or better yet, has a minimax.

As always, thanks LJers for being such a solid resource.

Regards,
M

 

[AlaskaGuy]

If I were you I'd join the Minimax Owners Group. If it's anything like the felders owners group you'll find a wealth of information there and a lot of helpful knowledgeable people.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MiniMax-USA/info

 

[Loren]

If it's similar to the butterfly hinge arrangement
found on the Robland I had, adjusting the tables
will be achieved by fussing with some bolts.

I found the amount of pressure applied to
the clamping levers affected the position of
the tables and with practice I found the
sweet spot where they were adequately
aligned to produce straight joints and flat
boards.

 

[mlipps]

They do influence the alignment but I plan on keeping them locked and wish to adjust to that. Still any configuration of the clamping levers still don't bring the tables into plane.

 

[wapakfred]

The minimax discussion group linked above has a lot of knowledgeable folks, some of whom have probably been through the same thing. It's hosted by the chief Mini Max guy in the US.