Shopsmith Forums

I picked up a pro planer last week. I have replaced a bad out feed roller and brushed out the threads on the four corner posts and put some graphite powder on them. Wow what a difference the table moves much easier now. After all the cleaning and lubing I ran a board through a few times. This is a huge improvement over my Shopsmith mounted planer. I have one small problem. The table creeps down as the planer is running. The chain tension seem ok. My mounted planer's chain is looser than this new units. I did find a little slop in the table down at the lower mounts. A little tightening of the lower nuts took care of that. The table crank handle feels like it is adjusted right for the amount of force to raise and lower the table. Do any of you have any suggestions as to what I might do to fix this problem.

Thanks much
John

Its sounds as if your graphite lube may be working so well that the jackscrews are backdriving. Does the height adjustment handle turn as the table creeps down?

Hi Dennis;
The answer is yes the handle moves as the table creeps down.Would it help if I tried to remove some graphite from the table adjustment screws.



Thanks for any help
John

The jackscrews are supposed to be self-locking. So yes, you probably need to make them less slippery. That should be easier than adding a locking clamp somewhere else!

Thanks Dennis;
I will remove some graphite and test again. I am thrilled to have finally gotten a pro planer. I bought a shop smith mounted one in 1985. I must have been too poor to afford the pro at the time.
John

I don't know. I have not put graphite on mine but it too creeps as described. I'll be watching this closely for a solution.

Are you adjusting the height only from the bottom up?

That and are all 4 followers taking up the slack simultaneously?(chain timing)

Thanks everyone for the reply's. I did as Dennis suggested and wire brushed the four posts. Then I took a rag soaked with lacquer thinner to them. It worked beautifully.No more creep. I didn't think that some graphite powder would make it that slick..Happy Camper here.
John

Now that I have that problem solved how do you guys move these planers around. Mine came with no wheels. It might be a portable base or being the cheap Yankee that I am I might try to rig up something. I have a lot of one inch square steel tubing. I might be able to weld up a frame and put some wheels on just one side allowing me to tip the unit up a bit to wheel it out of the way. I may check you tube for some ideas on this.

JPG wrote:Are you adjusting the height only from the bottom up?

That and are all 4 followers taking up the slack simultaneously?(chain timing)

The manual has two fixes for this problem. The first is "Synchronizing chain too loose. Increase chain tension.". The second is "Thickness improperly adjusted. Adjust thickness from greater to lesser.". As you said, from the bottom up.

Of course after the initial starting adjustment with multiple passes the adjustment is always up. Depending how you determine the initial adjustment it could be either up or down.

I have adapted a Wixey readout to my planer. It allows the initial adjustment to set the planer to the exact thickness of the board and then I go up 1/64" for the first cut. I have never seen any table creep here that I know of.