Youll also want to disconnect the dust boot to gain better access.That is, unless the knives are dull or the machines adjustments are out of whack.Nicked knives produce a molded surface instead of a flat one.Planer misadjustments cause end snipe, tearout, chatter marks and feed difficulties.
Until you are sure that your machine is adjusted properly, its hard to tell whether your planing problems originate with the tool or with the user. Northfield Knife And Roller Setting Gauges Install Knives OrFortunately, you dont have to be an experienced machinery mechanic to install knives or troubleshoot your planer. With a little patience and the right tools, you can diagnose and tune up your own machine. Northfield Knife And Roller Setting Gauges Trial And ErrorTo get predictable results, youll need two gauging devices, which will let you observe measurements that you may otherwise gain only by trial and error and by feel. First use a gauge that rests on the cutterhead to set the knives. Then use a gauge that rests on the planer bed to measure the relationships between the cutterhead and the machines other critical parts. These two gauging instruments, which have been used in the woodworking industry for at least 75 years, are simply dial indicators mounted in customized bases. For up to several hundred dollars, you can buy gauges from various machinery manufacturers or aftermarket sources. But if you need to save your pennies for another tool purchase, Ill show you how to make your own gauges using wood (or plastic, aluminum or steel), a few nuts and bolts, and an ordinary dial indicator of the proper size with about a 14-in, plunger range (see sidebar at bottom of this page). Understanding your planer The Parks planer used in this article, though it is no longer made, contains all the common features found on a thickness planer. Your model may not contain all the components Ill address here. Even so, you should still be able to adapt the same principles to make adjustments to your own machine. As a board passes through a planer, it is influenced by the relative positions of seven different components: the knives in the cutter-head (above the stock), the bed and bed rollers (below the stock), the infeed roller and chipbreaker (above the stock on the infeed side), and the outfeed roller and pressure bar (above the stock on the outfeed side). The drawing above shows the relationships of these parts and the initial adjustment settings. ![]() To understand where each of the planers seven components plays its role, its helpful to follow a board as its being planed. First the wood is placed on the planer bed and fed by hand between the infeed roller and the front bed roller. The powered infeed roller grabs the wood and drives it beneath the floating chipbreaker and under the rotating cutterhead. Next the board passes under the pressure bar and out between the powered outfeed roller and the back bed roller as it exits the machine. Having any of these components out of whack will cause problems, so checking each is essential. But before you do anything, prepare the machine, and get the tools youll need.
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