although you might not initially think about it I believe that calibrating a jointer is really as important as calibrating any other tool in the shop I want to know that when I come to this pointer and I set it for a specific depth of cut and I make a pass that that's exactly how much material it's taken off one example of where that's really important is in set drawer fronts if I have a measurement for an inset drawer which means the drawer front is going to be inside the face frame of the cabinet when I make a jointer pass and go back and insert that front into the opening I want to make sure it's a perfect fit so that means knowing exactly how much material I'm going to take off here it's very easy to make this happen have a look here it might set up what I'm going to do is using a square I'm going to mark a specific location on this board this is so that when I take measurements I always take those measurements in exactly the same spot the key now is in knowing exactly how wide that board is so I could take this measurement with a tape measure with my trusty stick rule the best way to get accuracy out of this without question is a pair of digital calipers so I'm going to span the board at that point and take a reading I'm going to write that reading right here on the board I'm not too concerned yet what my pass is I'll go ahead and make a cut then we'll come back and measure that again now again using my digital calipers I'll measure again and now I have four and thirteen thirty seconds so if I make this talk in sixty fourths I can take this fraction up thirteen thirty Seconds is twenty six sixty fourths so I have removed one sixty four of an inch now if I look at my pointer here every one of these lines is 1/32 of an inch because this total is 1/8 so 1/4 of 1/8 is 1/32 good thing I'm checking this because what that shows me is that that pointer is actually inaccurate right now it's pointing to the first line that's 1/32 of an inch so it's very easy to adjust these typically I can loosen that pointer get it in the right spot tighten it back up from here I would do a test cut make sure that that actually confirms that you've got the setting right once you know that to accurate you're good to go know exactly how much you're taking off every time you use your jointer you