Planer blades are not straight

Discussion
1

Hi @woodtechs,
The blades on the planer/thicknesser are very off.
They are high on the near side and low on the far side. Both of the blades seem to be like that.

I’d been using it as a thicknesses a bunch and had not even noticed, but using as a planer is pointless. It immediately turns boards into wedges.

2

I’ll take a look tomorrow am if you’d like to join

3

Thanks. Unfortunately I have to be at work, would have joined otherwise.

4

I will try to get in tomorrow too

5

If it is fine as a thicknesser and coming out square, it is not the blades that are out, it is the infeed or outfeed table

1 Like
6

Where are you measuring this from? There are 3 blades on the planer

7

When I say fine, I didn’t go as far as taking a caliper to check they were parallel. It’s possible the boards are off but just by a fraction of a millimetre.

With the planer the error compounds with every pass. Also the blades on the far side are almost below the surface of the outfeed table, meaning that no wood is getting removed there.

I measured relative to the outfeed doing the thing where you put a straight piece of wood, rotate the cutter by hand and see how much the wood gets grabbed and moved forward. Honestly though, you can see it with the naked eye, blade’s bevel is not parallel with its slot.

8

Worth noting that the cutter head is not by any means round and level (which is why they are set using the outfeed table).

I didn’t have issues planing stuff a couple of weeks ago which suggests the issue has emerged or is transient. Possibly the outfield table has shifted - either way checking the tables is the first step.

9

Any luck with it?

Just asking out of curiosity — I ended up planing the board by hand so won’t be using it myself for a while anyway.

10

The outfeed table was out by .25mm. Mark and I took it apart and made some adjustments so should be good

3 Likes
11

Outfeed and infeed table are now set up, in no account is anyone to touch the outfeed table, apart from @woodtechs
Remember the order to use the planer thicknesser is as follows:-

  1. Use top planer/jointer to establish one flat face.
  2. Use this face as a reference against the fence to establish 90 degree edge. These are your references going forward.
  3. Use thicknesser to bring opposite face parallel to first reference face
  4. Use table saw to bring final edge parallel to the other edge.
    **Important **
    Shallow passes are always better !
    Please check the cyclone bag regularly before and during use.

When finished clean the machine and empty the cyclone bag. It is your job to do this, not the next user!!

5 Likes
12

I’m sorry to be bringing this up once more, but it seemed to me this evening that the tables were off again. I couldn’t stay very long so I didn’t have time to inspect them carefully.

Also the blades feel noticeably duller than a couple months ago, I think they may be due a swap. There’s a lot of vibration/chatter in the board at the start of passes, even with very shallow passes.

@woodtechs

13

Those blades are at the end of life ,

14

Coincidentally, the machine is due an exam in April, which is basically now. I’ll have some free time on during the day on Wednesday so if I have woodtechs’ blessing I’m happy to run through the whole procedure.

Also is there any way we could move the air infeed for the hovercraft to the back of the machine instead of where it is at now? It’s a bit of a trip hazard at the moment when using the machine.

15

I’ll be in tomorrow, we can take a look at it

1 Like
16

Sure sounds good

17

I’ll be there a bit after 11

18

If you want to take photos of the blade-setting procedure so I can write that one up too then :+1:

19

How did this go? Was planning to do a milling session next couple of days if is working as expected now?

20

@woodtechs
Sorry to tag but will do this session tomorrow if I can, don’t want to make the trip to the space if the planer is out of order
Thanks