Planer Knive adjustment

[Gampa]

Has anyone come up with a better method of knive adjustment? I about went blind trying to adjust mine after sharpening and still have not got it right.

[dusty]

Maybe, if you explain what specific problem you are having. The procedure is tedious but it does work.

I would guess that you have difficulty getting depth of cut the same across the length of the blade. Work in good light. You must be able to see to do this. I have to take my glasses off and work up close. The old trifocals just don't do the trick. I move the planer to where I have good natural light, I can see better than in florescent light.

Please give us some more details.
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Making Sawdust Safely

I just reread the instructions and noticed a Caution that I have previously not reacted to. The message being "It is important that you return the knives, wedges and screws to their original position in the cutterhead".

Can anyone delineate the consequences of not abiding by this caution? I readily accept that the knives and wedges need to be returned to their original locations but "the screws" ????

Assuming that I have removed them all and did not keep track, what should be done?

[Gampa]

I bought this planer on ebay and went through the process of adjusting it. To say that the knives were dull would be an understatement. I pulled the knives, cleaned them and the wedges with mineral spirits and then reinstalled them to the best of my ability. I used an incandesent light up close to be able to see as best I could. All that reflection off of bright metal got to be a bit blinding after a while. For the most part I was looking to see if the guage came up off the roller or if the blade was making contact with the guage when I moved the roller forward and back. (my guage is a bit different from the one illustrated in the manual, but obviously a factory supplied guage). I tried planning a piece of scrap wood which chatered like crazy and left a huge divet in the back of the board. I just double checked the planer and realized the infeed roller was way out a adjustment. After adjustment the board now goes through a lot better with no chatter untill the infeed roller is no longer in contact then the board starts dancing like crazy as the outfeed roller does not seem to be able to provide enough tension to pull the board out no matter how much tension is increased on it. The outfeed roller does not appear to be in very good condition and I had already planed to replace it. The part of the board that does get planed looks good as do the shavings coming off. Hopefully I am headed in the right direction.

Thanks for the help.

[dusty]

It sounds to me as though the feed rollers might be your problem. I have no experience that confirms that. I come to this conclusion based on your observations.

I believe the clatter that you describe is the board clattering between the cutterhead and the table. The feedrollers are suppose to hold the board down on the table. The feedrollers are to be held down by pressure of springs (adjustable) on each end.

Maybe adjustment....maybe broken....need a really good inspection.

One thing for certain. When you get this one back together you'll have intimate knowledge of your planer.

Keep us informed.
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Making Sawdust Safely

[Gampa]

Got it fixed and working great. The gauge I mentioned was different from the one in the manual. After a close inspection I noticed a groove part way down the guage that was also on the other side of it. (at first I thought it was just a scratch on the guage). I realigned the blades so they just touched the groove before lifting the guage off the roller. The outfeed roller now does what it is suppose to do and pull the wood through the rest of the way. Before I had the blades set to high and not enough of the wood was left for it to make contact.

[dusty]

gamba

If you could post a photo of the alignment tool it would be helpful. I didn't know there was another.