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After evacuating Congo, leaving my shop behind, and living like vagabonds for months during a global pandemic - we finally have a place to call home AND a place for me to rebuild my workshop!
Lucky for me, I have more than a few angles on my shoulders looking out, one of which pass this Jet JJ-8 Jointer down to me. It needed a fair bit of work, but now that she's smooth like butta'' and hums like a bird - I can't believe how cool it is to have a tool of this caliber kick off my new shop!
I hope you enjoy!
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Music Credits:
Golden Hour
Sarah, the illstrumentalist
player.epidemicsound.com/
The Times
Guustavv
player.epidemicsound.com/
Fumes
[ocean jams]
player.epidemicsound.com/
Lilacs
[ocean jams]
player.epidemicsound.com/
Nep Tune
Dungway
Transcript of voice over**
We bought a house!
Which means through pandemic, evacuation, and abandoning the old one, I finally have a new shop space!
And my first project is refurbishing this hand-me-down, circa 1985 JJ-8 Jet Jointer.
To kick things off, I had to see if I needed to become a small motors mechanic - so after testing the kinetic elements to see if they had freedom of movement - I tried to turn the thing on.
It worked!
This job just got a lot easier.
I started by disassembling the table top of the machine top to bottom.
Removing the broken cutter guard
The fence
The fence carriage and carriage table
the rusted table lock bolts
The opposing cutter head table
The tired belts
And very rusty cutter head
Then, after clearing a literal rat’s nest from the dust collection chamber, I scrubbed the first layer of rust and 30 years of grime from the entire machine.
After getting the main machine in better shape, i set about the same task on the disassembled parts.
Scrubbing and using a de ruster gel to get them back into fighting shape.
The cutter head needed two derusting baths to allow the bolts holding the blades and housing in place to actually break free from their rusty tombs
With the cutter head all derusted, I rinsed with water, used the compressor to dry, and ran the blades over a india oil stone a few times to try and tidy up the edges - not sure exactly how successful I was. But I think new blades are in my near future.
With the pieces of the cutter head ready, I turned to the task of really breaking down the rust of the table.
After letting the chemicals do their work, I used an orbital sander - with tiered grits - to remove the pocks and imperfections left behind.
Doing the same for all of the other disassemble surfaces as well.
Once the table was showing me my reflection, I taped off all the sanded surfaces, bagged up the table adjusters and power switch
And painted a quick top coat on the rest of the machine to try and help mitigate any further rust damage.
Then applied and buffed a layer of johnson’s wax to butter up the table top.
That looks like it’ll do!
With everything tidied up and refinished, I began to reassemble.
Greasing a few of the kinetic pieces where necessary.
Replacing the tired belts.
Reseating the blades
Reinstalling the fence and carriage components
Then dialing in the blades and table top.
Then, giving her a whirl!
To say I’m over the moon excited to have this level of tool working in my shop would be an understatement.
Next time - I continue to rebuild my shop and tackle the restoration of a hand-me-down, 15” jet planer.
Until then.