Shopsmith Forums

I bought this planer new just under 2 years ago. I don't use my tools all that often. I tend to do marathon sessions every few months. After spending a few hours with the planer today getting some very knotted cedar planed down smooth enough for my needs, the planer table needed a wax again. When I finished up with the wax job, along with honing the knives, I noticed that the rubber on the outfeed roller didn't look quite right. To me it looks like the rubber has come loose from the shaft it is on and is sliding to one side. It also appears to have some bulges along the length.

I guess my questions are:
1) Does this need to be replaced?
2) What would cause this to happen?
3) How difficult is this to replace, is it simply dismantling one side of the planer to pull the roller out, put the new one in, reassemble, then do all of the synchronizing and adjusting steps in the manual?

adrianpglover wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:28 pm I bought this planer new just under 2 years ago. I don't use my tools all that often...

I'm not qualified to answer, I have the DW 735, but I'll bump the thread back to the top. Your manual should have a guaranty/warrantee section. I thought the current standard was 2 years, but maybe that is just for Marks. If it is 2 years, I'd contact SS CS first thing.

- David

Given how new your planer is, I would contact Shopsmith and see if you can discuss with Jim McCann in engineering about it. Shopsmith may have seen this kind of issue before, e.g. if they had a manufacturing issue or supplier issue at some point. They may take care of this for you. Just a thought. I don't know if anyone on the forum has seen this before, but hopefully if someone has they will respond soon. I am wondering if you put your hand around it and try to move it does it move easily? I mean does it slide back and forth or is it where it somehow moved off center but it is now fixed there?

I agree with RFGuy on contacting SS. I bought my Pro Planer new from SS and it is over 20 years old. My out feed roller is just fine.

IMO it needs to be replaced.

I can't really get my hands around the roller due to the cutterhead spacing, but I was still able to easily spin the rubber slowly and coax it back down the shaft and get it centered again. I'll still call SS support about it and see what they say.

I also noticed early on with this planer that the indeed roller segments are loose, all but the two on the far left. I can't get the Allen set screw to budge in the one on the other end, so it's likely got some loctite on it.

DLB wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:27 pm Your manual should have a guaranty/warrantee section. I thought the current standard was 2 years, but maybe that is just for Marks. If it is 2 years, I'd contact SS CS first thing.

The manual says 1 year warranty. The manual also states it was printed in 1992 and mentions a store front that you could bring it to back then. It's crazy, but when I got the planer they sent something like three different addendums to the manual for revisions that should've long since been incorporated back into the manual.

I'm sorry, but there's no excuse for waiting almost 30 years to update the manual with two different parts diagrams and multiple leaflet inserts telling you that instruction 32 on page 14 is wrong and needs to be changed to this, but oh wait, the next leaflet says to change the instruction to this other one, but the page number doesn't match up with the instructions it's telling you have changed. Okay, I'm done with my soapbox (for now).

adrianpglover wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:08 am . . .

I'm sorry, but there's no excuse for waiting almost 30 years to update the manual with two different parts diagrams and multiple leaflet inserts telling you that instruction 32 on page 14 is wrong and needs to be changed to this, but oh wait, the next leaflet says to change the instruction to this other one, but the page number doesn't match up with the instructions it's telling you have changed. Okay, I'm done with my soapbox (for now).

All that depends upon how many 'original' versions are in the warehouse.

All except the page confusion! That is simply sloppy.

Shopsmith should have updated the Manual but since it was introduced in 1982 the Mark Mount Planer has had few changes. Originally there was a manual feed version available too. The changes I know about are to the table height handle, the cutter head becoming generic to the Mark Mount and Pro Planer and some dust collection changes. There could be other minor changes too. I am not sure when these changes occurred and some or all may be prior to 1992. These didn't change the operation much at all but the parts diagram and parts lists should be updated to reflect them. I guess that is where your addendums come in. Interesting item to note is the Pro Planer Manual is dated 12/91 that I received from Shopsmith a couple years ago. It did not include any addendums but the first two I received had one page missing replaced by a repeat of a different page. SS ended up having the manual reprinted correctly. The parts list and diagrams I have for the Pro Planer are separate from the manual and no date.

As for the problems you are having with the infeed and outfeed rollers you should contact Customer Service about that.

To be exact (engineer here) the planer manual I have is the same printing mentioned above, 845051 12/91. It came with three addendums - a parts breakdown (no part number or date, just three pages stapled together in the corner), a 845072 10/93 update to the original manual with updated directions for specific steps on specific page numbers, and a 845672 Rev A 11/13 addition to the manual for when using the planer with a PowerPro headstock (but not actually instructions updates for the original manual). Looking at the paperwork now I suspect that the issue is the original source material, and in fact the computers, software, and people all related to the original manual, are now long since gone. The original manual and updated instructions are copyrighted to Shopsmith, while the PowerPro additional instructions is copyright of RLFSHOP, LLC. It may be that the items were lost since then. Besides that, in '91 they were likely using wordperfect or some other predecessor to our current suite of publishing software.

In any case - an update to my situation. I sent a lengthy (who, me?) email to customer service this morning explaining the situation in a straightforward manner. I also mentioned the issue I have noticed since the beginning that the right most infeed roller segment wasn't tightened onto the hex bar, so it allowed most of the segments to move back and forth, and that the right most segment had actually dug into the casting of the right side frame a little. On my way home from work today I received an response stating that they were going to issue me an RMA for both the infeed and outfeed rollers, providing me with a shipping label for the return and instructions for the replacement of the rollers, they'd replace the parts for free, and for my troubles they will also be sending me a Shopsmith gift card. Talk about customer service! The unit is out of warranty. I should have contacted them immediately during the warranty period to have the problems corrected, but I left it alone because this is just a hobby for me and I don't have a lot of time at the moment in the shop. I've seen this level of customer service only a handful of times, and it usually comes from the smaller businesses where they're reputation for customer service is one of their main priorities. I'm not saying that this will happen for others, but this is definitely a company to show loyalty to.

I've got the planer dismantled now with a moving blanket over it in the hopes that my kids will leave it alone so it stays synchronized. While I was taking it apart today I think my 2 year old "helper" ran off with my 5/32" t-handle Allen wrench - can't find it anywhere. I think when this thing was put together the assembly team just wasn't having a good week. Here's one more item that I have a feeling was incorrect, see if you can spot it. Thinking I have some copper tubing about that size around here...