Woodstock Jointer Pal W1211 and W1211A Quality Control Issues

 

I have two jointer knife alignment tools - the Woodstock W1211 and the W1211A.  After using the W1211, I was having all kinds of problems with my jointer and it finally occured to me to see if there was a problem with the alignment tool instead of the jointer.  Lo and behold!  The Jointer Pal itself was way out of square.  (Silly me for counting on my calibration tools to be calibrated.)

 

I put a trusted square on the Jointer Pal W1211 and immediately noticed a huge gap.

This shot makes if much more obvious.

 

A dial indicator shows after using this tool, knife alignment is way off...

 ... by .003".  So, I purchased another one.  The new one had the model # W1211A.

 There aren't too many differences between these two tools - the finish is a little different (W1211 on the left, and W1211A on the right,)

 and the stops on the rods are different - retaining rings on the W1211A, 

 And crimping on the W1211.

 But the bottom line is the W1211A is square and the W1211 is not.

This leads me to conclude that the "A" in W1211A must stand for "aligned," with the presumption being the W1211 is not aligned.  Seriously though, I am guessing my W1211 was a fluke - at least I hope it was.  And I have no idea why Woodstock needed to issue a newer model because the differences between the two are negligible.