LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

I'm about to give up (on my jointer).......

5K views 78 replies 45 participants last post by  BLarge 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
so I bought this jointer off a guy on craigslist for only $200. Its a Sunhill. He said the majority of its life has been sitting in storage - and it showed. I had to get a lot of rust off of it - mostly surface rust, thankfully. Everything works great, except I can not get these knives out to be sharpened and realigned.

I'm assuming in order to get the knives out (there's 3 of them) I need to get the bolts loosened…as shown in the pictures below. I can not for the life of me get these bolts to loosen. I've got the right size wrench. I've tried WD40 and Liquid Wrench with no luck what-so-ever. The bolts are starting to get stripped from trying to loosen them….

Am I doing this wrong? Is this how I get the knives out - by loosening these bolts??? I need some thoughts, or ideas. Its getting really frustrating!!!!!!!!

Furniture Table Wood Flooring Floor


Wood Gas Bumper Household hardware Machine


Wood Computer desk Gas Cabinetry Flooring


Brown Wood Road surface Flooring Tints and shades


Wood Flooring Tints and shades Composite material Hardwood


PLEASE HELP!
 

Attachments

See less See more
10
#4 ·
You can get a cheap torch at Home Depot for $20. Have you tried spraying a lubricant and letting it set overnight? One of my friends is a boat mechanic so a lot of stuff he works on is rusty and impossible to loosen. A trick he showed me once is to slightly tighten a frozen bolt before trying to loosen it. Doesn't seem like it would make any sense but I have seen it work on otherwise stuck bolts.
 
#7 ·
I'm not sure which way the bolt comes off….maybe i'll try and get a better pictures of the threads. I've tried turning them both way, and nothing budges….and on top of that its starting to strip the bolts….
 
#9 ·
the next thing I would try is to take a good heavy punch, and smack the bolts. Not hard enough to break them, but hard enough to possible break them loose.

The other observation is: if I was doing it, the penetrating oil (Liquid Wrench) would be oozing from everywhere. Soak those suckers good. WD-40 isn't a good enetrating oil in my opinion.

How long have they soaked? I'd have continually soaked them for a day or two.

Also +1 on the heat. It doesn't take a lot, they don't have to be cherry read to be effective.
 
#12 ·
In my opinion 30 minutes is not anywhere near long enough.

I would agree with pushing toward the fence. Thats assuming they are threaded into the shim bar, which is what the picture looks like.
 
#14 ·
Dakremer,

If you're still struggling with the bolts, try some Bluecreeper

I've found that this is the BEST penetrating oil product I've ever used (and I use a lot of different ones in a twenty year career in the Navy as a shipboard maintenance electrician…).

Soak the bolts down with this stuff, wait a while for it to work and that's all it takes.

Good Luck!

Be Careful!

Herb
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
tightening them 'down' (clockwise)
actually loosens them up

when they are 'loosened'
(or turned counter-clockwise)
they get tight against the cutter block
and push the blades tight
to the other side of the block

it's all 'backwards'
but it works that way

chrisstef has done what i did too
i have had to grind the 'cheeks' of the wrench
to fit into the tight space there
those thin stamped wrenches don't work for long

and a tap with a hammer
on the end of the wrench
towards the fence
can jar them
 
#16 ·
Doug, Liquid wrench is pretty old school. They have some much better products out today that penetrate rust.
I soak them overnight in something like PB Blaster. the best one I've ever used is called Cyclo but I can't find it much any more.
They look like they got rusted in. I think most of them are right handed so you turn them like you are going to screw them into the plate or or tighten them. What they do is back out of the plate and against the knives- like jack screws that lift things. ...........Jim
 
#17 ·
Push the wrench towards the fence is correct. When you loosen the bolt it moves out of the thread and the head of the bolt pushes against the drum face which tightens the blade. When you tighten the bolt the threads move in thus giving space between the head of the bolt and the drum.

If you cannot use heat then soak the drum in penetrating oil for several days. I have never done this but maybe someone who has might know if using electrolysis will work?
 
#18 ·
I've heard good things about kroil as well for penetratiung oil

Hit them with a good shot 2 or 3 times a day for a couple of days, smack them with a good punch, add a little heat from a hand held torch and if they don't come out, they're probably not going to.
 
#19 ·
Kroil….also i would try to go to an automotive shop and find out when the tool truck comes. Buy yourself a
Snap-On brand wrench. They are more precise in size and they don't spread when you apply pressure. Very likely, you are spreading the jaws on the wrench causing the corners to round. I have done this a couple of times with what I considered a good wrench. Get a high wuality liuke a Snap-On and it will come out.
 
#20 ·
At this point I personally would cut them off.

Sometimes I've drilled into the bolt head from the
edge and then you can put a punch in the hole and
use that as a lever, but that's not much different from
cutting them off as it does kind of mess up the bolt.
 
#22 ·
If you do cut them off, you may try to do so through the top of bolt head (flush with cutterhead inner flange). It's more cutting, but when you remove the shim you have enough bolt head left to extract it with socket type wrench. Socket wrench engages all 6 corners and you can apply 3 times the torque of the open head wrench without stripping.
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
Do you have a manual? PB Blaster always did the trick to loosen bolts and nuts on old motorcycles for me. Got to shoot it on and let it set and work. Spray all around the top and bottoms of the nuts/bolts. Sometimes a "persuader" works to help the loosening process along :)
 
#25 ·
The gib screws, bolts holding the knives in, should be a left hand thread. Get some penetrating oil, WD40 is no good. Get some Kroil or PBlaster. I prefer Kroil, look for it at your local gun shop if the hardware stores dont carry it. Or, kroil.com. Heat will also help, get a small plumbers torch and MAPP gas, burns hotter than propane. If still no luck, take the cutter head out as one unit and get it on the bench. You can also then put it in the freezer for a couple of hours and then heat the bolts.
 
#26 ·
dak,

I have what looks to be an identical jointer as yours (but it's a Grizzly) and it has the same story as yours AND I am have the same exact problem as you!

I too have nearly rounded off some of the bolts and tried WD40 with no avail. Glad you started this thread. I really hope you can get those suckers off, if and when you do be sure to let us know what the secret was!

Good Luck!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top