Shopsmith Forums

So, I'm reading through the planer manual - particularly the maintenance section discussing planer table alignment and chain tension. I was wondering if someone can enlighten me how failure to follow these instructions can "ruin" the machine. The admonishments in the manual are surprisingly firm and I'm curious what issue Shopsmith is hoping to prevent from occurring.

hudsonmiller wrote:So, I'm reading through the planer manual - particularly the maintenance section discussing planer table alignment and chain tension. I was wondering if someone can enlighten me how failure to follow these instructions can "ruin" the machine. The admonishments in the manual are surprisingly firm and I'm curious what issue Shopsmith is hoping to prevent from occurring.

I'm by far no expert and been some time since I have read the manual.
But I know you have to be careful to not get the table out of alignment. I guess it is possible to break something in or on the table. I took a tour of the factory and saw the jig they use to build the planer and think I remember something about if you break the table it would be impossible to replace because of the way it is built. The planer is built in the factory around the table.

Bill mayo and others on here were also there that day. Maybe they remember something about it.

hudsonmiller wrote:So, I'm reading through the planer manual - particularly the maintenance section discussing planer table alignment and chain tension. I was wondering if someone can enlighten me how failure to follow these instructions can "ruin" the machine. The admonishments in the manual are surprisingly firm and I'm curious what issue Shopsmith is hoping to prevent from occurring.

I don't know about "ruining the planer" by not following the instructions, cautions and warnings very carefully but you can certainly cause yourself a lot of grief.

The chain is not easy to take off, put on or 'tension properly'. Avoid taking it off if you can. Proper operation of the planer is dependent on an accurate relationship between the table the cutters and the rollers. Once this relationship is upset, getting it back to proper is a tedious and time consuming task. I would much rather be able to make saw dust (or in this case shavings).

What ever you do, be always aware of those cutters. They can render a really nasty gash.