Shopsmith Forums

I am going to replace the indeed and out feed rollers on my planer. Since it has been 30 years in operation I imagine there are some maintenance actions that would be desired.

I will steel wool and wax what I can get to, but would appreciate anything specific or a link to that info in case it has already been answered.

Thanks,

Forrest

I have only had one apart(completely), but here some things I observed.

The elevator screw hardware that attaches to the table required cleaning up and some burnishing to assure smooth operation(not the screw threads, but the mount posts etc.).

I placed a barrier(shellacked printer paper) to cover up the nooks and crannies wherein much debris collects. I think I would use expanding foam if I were to do it again.

There is not much to 'wear' other than the main bearings and the moving elevator parts.

The anti kick-back pawls can be frustrating. Notice how they are arranged and oriented before disassembly.

It is relatively simple, but getting all those shafts etc. into both sides simultaneously can be an issue.

I have a steel feed roll waiting patiently to be installed, so I be interested in your 'experience'.

foam in the "nooks and crannies" sounds like something I should do now. Getting all the chips out from there has always been a hassle.

I have found that I now keep my leaf blower plugged in and handy to do the dust and chip cleanout of the planer, jointer, and table. No high pressure concentrated air like from an air compressor.

Thanks for the tip JPG.

Forrest

I just ordered a planer part from Bill Mayo. He said he's got a number of them for parts, something to consider if you need something while working it over. You've used it regularly for 30 years? I'm encouraged to read that since it seems a bit less robust than the rest of the machine to me, not sure why.

Hope you don't mind my asking in this thread:
The po (not original owner) used only the planer, nothing else, and only on one project involving a fair amount of Douglas fir. The whole inside was just crammed with the waste from it. Is that a sign of poor technique, machine setup (like blade sharpening, feed rate, etc), a truly messed up machine, or just normal for planers? I've never used one.

I saw your posts about blocking bandsaw crannies with paper. Seems a good idea but I worry the paper might actually catch fire if it rubbed a lot in the bandsaw.


Thanks,
Fitzhugh

fitzhugh wrote:I just ordered a planer part from Bill Mayo. He said he's got a number of them for parts, something to consider if you need something while working it over. You've used it regularly for 30 years? I'm encouraged to read that since it seems a bit less robust than the rest of the machine to me, not sure why.

Hope you don't mind my asking in this thread:
The po (not original owner) used only the planer, nothing else, and only on one project involving a fair amount of Douglas fir. The whole inside was just crammed with the waste from it. Is that a sign of poor technique, machine setup (like blade sharpening, feed rate, etc), a truly messed up machine, or just normal for planers? I've never used one.

I saw your posts about blocking bandsaw crannies with paper. Seems a good idea but I worry the paper might actually catch fire if it rubbed a lot in the bandsaw.


Thanks,
Fitzhugh

Ahhh yes. The joy of working with douglas fir. Fine cough inducing dust. I would be surprised if it wasn't crammed with DF crud. Those nooks and crannies are great for retaining all that crap.

Not sure what will rub the 'paper' to cause a fire. Nothing moves fast enough fer that. Because it tends to not stay put, I consider foam a better alternative, but have not done so(yet). Easier to apply I think. In the Bandsaw, it may reduce noise.

As for 'robustness', I think appearance is deceiving. I find it quite stout. I have no experience with the breadbox type but think they look flimsy. My craftsman overhead cutter planer is like a 10E/R(all CI!), but only 6" wide.

I found the thickness planer manual was excellent to follow compared to some machine manuals. I find taking pictures as you disassemble each part really helps later. I use a large roll around table as you need plenty of room to lay out the parts as you work through the planer. There are shims/washers on many parts that you need to keep track where they go. I do have the remains of a few planers that suffered problems during their shipping and I was able to buy the remains. Check with me offline if you need any sharpening services. Thanks.

billmayo wrote:I found the thickness planer manual was excellent to follow compared to some machine manuals. I find taking pictures as you disassemble each part really helps later. I use a large roll around table as you need plenty of room to lay out the parts as you work through the planer. There are shims/washers on many parts that you need to keep track where they go. I do have the remains of a few planers that suffered problems during their shipping and I was able to buy the remains. Check with me offline if you need any sharpening services. Thanks.

I followed the instructions that were packaged with the rollers and the Assembly section is perverse: they say to install the roller feed gears before the cutter head and bearing support. That won't work since the cutter head (at least with blades installed can't get past the gears. They must assume that blades are installed because they are careful to say that the blades are sharp.

Along the way, does anyone see what is wrong with this picture that was taken from the out feed side???

[ATTACH]24902[/ATTACH]

Spoiler alert! the answer follows this line.



Right! The chip deflector is on the wrong side of the cutter head. Would make honing the blades a wee bit tough.

The amazing thing (at least, to me) is that the slots to fit the deflector are symmetric. This picture was taken with the deflector still incorrectly installed.

[ATTACH]24903[/ATTACH]

That never occurred to me.

Forrest