Shopsmith Forums

I'm just finishing up a complete re-do of a Shopsmith thickness planer and, after a loose assembly of the cutter head, I'm ready to set the knife height but I did not get a setting gauge with the planer. and I've watched sawdust Session #20 showing the alternate method.

I have a dial gauge but would have to make up a jig to do it that way and before I take the time to do it, I thought I'd ask if anyone knows of a scale PDF of the setting gauge that might be cut from some thin plywood or plastic.

Maybe that wouldn't be precise enough. Just wondering.
Also, He mentioned that the knife height above the cutterhead is .0132. The video isn't real clear, but I'm guessing that is the distance measured from the tip of the sharp side of the knife directly down along the knife to the cutterhead body. If that's so, has anyone just made a little block that (.0132) thickness & held it to the knife & cutterhead & set the knife accordingly?

In my description of the measurement, I meant to say from the bevel side of knife straight down to the cutter head.

As I expected, I searched many drawers and cabinets without finding any planer knife setting gauges. I know I have at least 2 some where. I did take measurements on the cutter head in my planer and looked at about a dozen planer blades that had not been cleaned. The distance from the cutter head in parallel to the knife edge was .260" +- .005". This was from the front of the blade. The distance from the tip of the blade to the wedges, back of blade, was from .240" to .255". I firmly believe if you set the knives .250" from the cutter head, you will be well within the ballpark. I believe the feed rollers will handle this setting without any problems. Of course, the key is setting all the knives at the same height. I am sure you can make a wooden jig spanning the cross bars with a notch for each bar and an adjusting screw over the knife edge that you can move to get the right knife setting. Once the screw is set, then adjust all knives to the same height. Very similar to the metal knife setting gauge.

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The dimensions are 6.25" x 0.75"

Mike

Bill, good to talk w/ you today, as always. I think I get your meaning as to where to measure.

Mike, Thanks for the pic and the measurements. Looks like all I need to do is to make my print of that to the dimensions you gave me & trace to a piece of plastic.

The only critical parts are circled and the spacing between them.

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If you have a few things on your shopsmith order list to spread the shipping cost out I'd just buy one.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/item ... =Find+Item


Ed

I did the math to resize the pic and cut out a template from a small piece of aluminum, did the rough cuts with a small hacksaw & carefully filed down to the lines.

I set the knives last night & tested on a couple of boards with great results. If I were keeping the planer, I would definitely order a gauge, but I need to get it listed on ebay to help with some bills. (I have another planer & while I've never been opposed to keeping more Shopsmith stuff than I need, we're planning a move to South Carolina soon and really need to thin out my extra stuff)

Thanks to all who added to this thread.

What part of SC are you headed to?

Our son & daughter-in-law live in Fort Mill & we've been to the Charlotte area & like all the amenities in that area, so we've been looking into the SC communities near there. Rock Hill, Lancaster, York, & others in that area. Gotta sell my WI home, though.