Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:

jsburger wrote:

dusty wrote:Just how much precision is really required for this procedure? It seems to me that setup blocks accurate to .005" or better is over kill.

Four blocks of wood cut to be equal in size (accurate to about 1/64") should do the trick.

Good tip though. Hope I never have to do that with my planer.

A 1/64" might be close enough to allow the table to move up and down smoothly. However, the ultimate goal is to have the table parallel (left to right) with the cutter head. If one side of the table is 1/64" lower than the other side the planed stock will be a 1/64" thinner on one side than the other. If that is acceptable for you then you are correct. For me, 0.003" deviation is acceptable across the width of a board. That is assuming a 12" wide board. Anything narrower will be less than that.

Well, 1/64" (.016") is pretty darn close and if everything I cut and planed and sanded was the precise I would be one proud woodworker.

Furthermore, unless I am building something really, really special, I don't mic. the pieces that come off my planer so I wouldn't know.

I wonder, how many of us check the thickness across a 12" board as it comes off their planer. Maybe I am just a crude, unrefined woodworker.

I have never planed a 12" wide board on my SS Pro Planer. That was an example. 1/64" is a lot IMO. You have always expressed your opinion on SS alignment and being able to get it within a few thou. That is achievable. So why not on the planer? The idea of a planer is to make both surfaces of a piece of stock parallel. If you are off by 1/64" that is not parallel and a big deviation.

If I am gluing up wide boards edge to edge to make a wide table top I don't want the joints to be off 1/64" vertically. How much sanding would that take to get flat?

I don't check every board that comes off the planer but, I certainly check them occasionally to insure nothing has changed.

BTW, my Performax 16/32 horizontal drum sander is way closer than 1/64" across the width. If not what is the point of having one?

Hoookaaay, the post threads are 16 TPI, and the sprockets have 15 'teeth'.

So the max a sprocket can be 'off' of 'perfect' is 1/2 a tooth or a smidgen over 0.002".

However one side may be that much off one direction, and the opposite side off the opposite direction.

So side to side can be off by 0.004(MAX).

If a sprocket was off perfect by a single tooth, the error would be 2 smidgens over 0.004". (0.00416666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666...)

So using a gauge with almost 10x (0.0005") better accuracy is quite appropriate.

Have at it guys. Tweak those planers. In the mean time I will be making sawdust.

BTW: Because of this thread and only because of this thread I went to the shop to measure the table height. Using a 2" setup block and a set of feeler gauges, I find that the planer is slightly "out of adjustment". Out of sync by about one sprocket. On the left, outfeed mounting post I had to add a .003" feeler to snug the setup block between the bar and the table.

This is not enough to encourage me to take the planer off of the stand let alone go through the procedure. Since I seldom plane a wide board, I will just take care to plane all boards at approximately the same location on the table.

This test just confirms the quality of the Shopsmith ProPlaner which has not been "tweaked" for table height since I received it new from Shopsmith in 1997. It also attests to the importance of good maintenance practises. I attempt to keep these machines clean and well lubricated and have learned to "fix them" only when there are obvious indications that they are broke.

Pay attention to the sounds and feel when you are using these tools. They will tell you when something is not right and needs to be tweaked or repaired.

Not of late but normally my shop equipment gets a regular workout. Soon I will be back in that mode.

Reason I started doing this was because the housing in my feed motor was crack from being dropped or lateral strike and I could not crank table up or down. I shuddered thinking I would have to take chain off and mess with sprockets. After taking it all apart and using the blocks for adjustment and put it back together it was actually and easy project. I am grateful the threaded posts were not bent either. I just want to encourage any of you to take the task on if yours needs adjustment as it went well.
Thank you,
Tom

woodmeister wrote:Reason I started doing this was because the housing in my feed motor was crack from being dropped or lateral strike and I could not crank table up or down. I shuddered thinking I would have to take chain off and mess with sprockets. After taking it all apart and using the blocks for adjustment and put it back together it was actually and easy project. I am grateful the threaded posts were not bent either. I just want to encourage any of you to take the task on if yours needs adjustment as it went well.
Thank you,
Tom

Good advice. I am glad that all went well for you. I am also thankful that I do not need to follow in your footsteps.

Moving that planer around to do this procedure is more than I want to do right now.

But, to make certain that some adjustment was not required, I just ran three five" boards simultaneously through the planer at different locations on the table. Checking them with my Wixey Digital Calipers indicates that they are all close enough for me. I got readings from .732" to .738" on all of the three boards. Repeating some of those measurements (with the same instrument) at the same location on the boards gave me nearly the same variations. This indicates to me that some of the deviations are influenced by technique while using the digital caliper.

I am satisfied. I can now move my planer back "into storage" until we relocate.

Thanks woodmeister for giving me the motivation to make these checks NOW. Again, I am glad your experience went well.