Chipped planer mouth reduced performance ??

[headandhaft]

Hi There

first time posting !

I am looking at purchasing an old sedgwick planer thicknesser, i went to see it and it has two small chips in the mouth of the surface planer bed on the lead side. will this effect the performance of the machine, and is there a chance of tear out, or dodgyness, or might it be ok ?

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

cheers

 

[heimlaga]

It all depends on how big the chips are and if there are any cracks leading further into the table.

I would also examine the cutterhead and it's gibs thoroughly as those missing chips indicates that it has thrown a knife at some point during it's life. If the chips are small and the cutterhead all right the machine should be as good as any. If the cutterhead is damaged the machine has to be prized accordingly as replacement cutterheads tend to be rather expensive. If the chips are large this is a question for the old machinery experts amongst us.

 

[headandhaft]

5 or 10 mm. Shallow no cracks. Could they be filled. The machine works fine

Thanks for the response

Cheers

Chris

 

[Peter Sefton]

This may have been caused by a metal object (screws or similar) being pulled from the timber being planned. This may have only caused localized damage, is it near the front or back of the planer or in the middle? Better to be one of the extremities if it has damaged anything. Take a straight edge to see if the beds look flat or distorted.

I don’t feel it would give you any extra tear out issues - the standard gap between the cutting circle and beds is now 6mm max to comply with Regs. This is specified more for Safety rather than quality of cut.

If possible try before you buy to see how well it works, you may ask yourself has the planer been abused generally?
If you need any training on setting it up, check out our wood machining course.

Cheers Peter

 

[headandhaft]

Cheers peter

its right in the mouth on the outer edge, probably 8 or 9 inches towards the fence side of a 12 inch surface, only relevant for wider stuff i guess. No distortion, and all is flat and fine. It looks more like something has been dropped on it and as its the thin edge of the table where it tapers towards the blade it has chipped off.

thanks for replies

cheers
chris

 

[Peter Sefton]

I don’t think you will have any major issues using the planer; I wouldn’t bother trying to fill or repair the damage. Some planers come with notched or castellated edges to the tables where they meet the cutter block to reduce noise, so you just have a homemade version of this.

Peter

PS I will be demonstrating the new Hammer spiral cutter block at my open day next month.

 

[wizard]

do not buy it just tell me where it is for sale :lol:

 

[heimlaga]

I think it is all right the way it is......after a suitable prize reduction because of "minor faults"

I have read somewhere that people have filled in that kind of damage on a planer just for cosmetic reasons but I have no clue how they did it. Probably some chemical compound.
Peter Sefton is right about the size of the gap being a safety issue more than an issue with the qualitry of the cut. Some old square head planers have huge gaps between the cutter head and the table edges. Though those they are notorious finger eaters and fortunately most are either modernized or taken out of professional use by now.

 

[headandhaft]

Thanks for all your responses, what a brilliant source for instant information this is.

cheers
chris