Adjusting the planer?

rcplaneguy · Post by **rcplaneguy** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 12:06 am

fitzhugh wrote: It will be another week or two until they can ship the manual. .

Try this:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/747/6080.pdf

letterk · Post by **letterk** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 5:09 pm

rcplaneguy wrote:Try this:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/747/6080.pdf

Wow, I wish I knew about this earlier. Thanks!

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 8:41 pm

You just made my weekend!
I've figured out most of it, I think, but I will be much much happier knowing if I'm right, or missing something, or just wrong after reading the manual.

For the height gauge I put a small broken drill bit backwards in the drill chuck and slid it under - or not - the tie bars. broken and backwards because unbroken stuck out too far even when inserted as deep in the chuck as it would go, and backwards because the other end was a sharp broken point. It only stuck out from the chuck about 1/16 inch. I found it helps to sit on a stool so my eyes are level with the bottom of the tie bar and drape a white piece of paper over the knife head so the gauge thing stands out.

I taped a piece of paper under the crank and traced the angle of the crank when it just touched on each side, then used those to check the angle between them. 1/8 of a turn = 1/128" =.0078125 of a turn, and one sprocket = .004", so if I did my math right you adjust one sprocket for each 23.04 degrees difference. Now, I seriously have to check my work because we just had dinner and I'm falling into a deep pizza coma. What made perfect, easy, intuitive sense an hour ago now is a muddled mess, and of course I didn't write anything down. In any case, it will probably say this much more clearly in the manual!

So, time to shut up and go read it! Thanks again!

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:44 pm

OK, so I was close...
The manual shows a different way first: removing the chain, then loosening the set screws that hold the table to the, um, thingies to which the table is held (by said set screws, just to be clear). You have to loosen those set screws first, THEN loosen the smaller set screws that hold the thingies to the barrel nuts that travel up and down the threaded shafts (1/8 and 3/32 allen wrench required). Or at least you have to re-tighten them in that order: table first, then barrel nuts or you will break your planer somehow according to the manual. I suspect doing it in that order allows the parts to align.

It goes on to say you can aim for finer adjustments by just turning the shafts after disconnecting the chain, though I guess using that for large adjustments might risk the aforementioned damage.

I got it to within one sprocket worth of alignment, which is as good as it gets. It wasn't as hard as I feared. In fact, if I just had my shopsmith on a good floor lift like auto mechanics have it would be quite simple. I'm just not that flexible anymore. I am very glad I did this after putting the casters on.

Thanks!

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:40 pm

The 4 degrees is an approximation. Actually 16 tooth sprocket = 22.5 degrees per tooth with 16 pitch jack screw = 0.00390625.

I would only rotate the jack screws to make the height adjustments a small amount at a time. To much deviation from the other three(any one or all) risks damage. You will know if binding occurs(you can feel it when turning the jack screw).

fitzhugh · Post by **fitzhugh** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 7:10 pm

Thanks, I noticed after typing that the .004 had to be an approximation when I did the actual math on the pitch and number of teeth. I actually counted 15 teeth, not 16, but my head was twisted rather upside down and I can't count reliably past 2 with my head upright, so I decided .004 was close enough

The planer is working well now. I've got to play around with speeds and learn it a bit more but I no longer have large amounts of snipe, nor are there grooves from the metal feed cylinder after planing, nor, I'll sheepishly add, is there that LOUD clak clack clack clack of the blades hitting wood when you put the planer on the wrong side of the headstock and try running wood through it. Go figure - they have you feed the wood from the side without the speed control, and from the opposite side as the jointer and table saw. And band saw, sorta, for that matter.

I've banned myself from running the machines until after I get dust collection set up. The DC parts arrive Tuesday. I'm spending the time trying to figure out how to set my shop up so I can actually get to everything so it isn't like I'm taking a break from obsessing over my shopsmith stuff. Those rarely happen.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:27 pm

The sprocket may very well be 15 tooth. I cannot get to mine. If so the increment is 0.00451166666..." per tooth.