Introduction and some advice on a Scheppach 2600ci

[Maximus]

Hello folks.

I've been reading this forum for a few weeks now and am humbled at the wonderful resource available here. I only wish I had found it sooner. The time has finally arrived for me to sign up and join your community.

A bit about me. I have been around woodwork of varying degrees for the last 12 years, making simple furniture mostly from pine, second fix carpentry and quite a lot of kitchen installations. The time has come for me to expand on my skills and start making furniture out of hardwoods.

This change in direction has been prompted by inheriting the use of my fathers workshop. It has all of the tools I should need to begin making some furniture, with the only notable absence being a spindle moulder and lathe.

Included on the inventory for the workshop is a Scheppach 2600ci Planer/Thicknesser. The machine is 2 or 3 years old but has never been assembled and used. I spent yesterday cleaning off all of the protective machine oil coating and assembling it ready for use. I gained experience last year using an old Wadkin Bursgreen Planer/Thicknesser, this was my first time using a planer/thicknesser and I familiarised myself with the set up and use of it during the 8 or so months I had access to it. Whilst old, it was a very well engineered, solid machine and this was proven by it's reliability. I think it's fair to say that the Scheppach isn't quite in the same league as the Wadkin in terms of it's engineering, thats not to say that there is anything bad with the Scheppach, it's still a very capable machine. The fence is alloy as opposed to solid cast steel and unlike the Wadkin, you have to lift the outfeed table up out of the way to use the thicknesser underneath. The machine is sitting on a firm, stable and level floor. After carefully assembling the machine and running a few pieces of timber both over the planer and through the thicknesser there appears to be a couple of problems. Reading the instructions over and over doesn't shed any light on resolving them.

The first problem is snipe. As the timber passes from the infeed table to the outfeed table it drops fractionally onto the cutterblock leaving a scallop in the end of the timber. The infeed table is at it's highest setting to remove the smallest amount of material for each pass. The outfeed table doesn't appear to have any height or level adjustment to it at all, except for a single threaded stud on the underside of the opposite side to where it's hinged and close to the cutterblock. I can't lift the outfeed any higher to get it level with top dead centre of the blades in the cutterblock. The only way I can see of eliminating the snipe is to drop the blades lower into the cutterblock, although they are pretty low down already. Is this the best way to overcome this problem? Does anyone else have the same machine and experience the same problem?

The other problem is when passing timber over the planer, it is not coming off with a perfect right angle. The fence is set to exactly 90 degrees with my engineers square to the infeed and outfeed tables. The planer blades are set parallel in the cutter block and this is confirmed when I thickness a piece of timber as it is coming out with both faces parallel to each other. Would the best way to overcome this be to set the fence to say +/- 1 degree to 90 degrees and get the timber square coming off the outfeed table? With such little adjustment on the tables I'm not really sure what else to do.

Apologies for the long post, I hope I have explained myself clearly enough to allow you to help me with this.

Once this problem is solved I hope to contribute to the forum with my activities in the workshop which will hopefully include a workbench and tool cabinet WIP as well as various furniture items I have already been asked to make.

I have learned much already from reading many topics on this forum and I look forward to learning more and maybe one day being able to help others.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[condeesteso]

Hi Maximus - I have the same planer so here is my guess of what may be happening.
SNIPE: it's happened to me too - but as the stock is emerging on the out side, support it underneath to ensure it is up against the outfeed roller BUT also firm to the bed. Longer stock (in particular) can drop slightly as it leaves the infeed roller, resulting in a few inches snipe at the finish end. The reverse of this applies at the start. Make sure the tail end of the stock is held up until the outfeed roller has picked it up - the first approx 8" or so. When I say held up, I mean enough but not loads. If you work really long or heavy bits a roller support or two may be necessary. On really short pieces I generally fix onto something longer (scrap mdf) using double-side tape. I'd call short say under 10". This trick is good for really thin too.
SQUARE: - very odd this. If the fence is square and the infeed / outfeed true to each other (they will be!) there is only one possibility. If you first create the face side say (ignore fence and concentrate on flatness to beds), then to form the face edge the face side has to be right on the fence, regardless of flat to table. Push sidewards into fence and concentrate on that only. Depending on how out the stock was you can help yourself a bit when planing the face (1st cut) - apply pressure to the high edge more to get closer to the 90 degrees you want, so when you come to the adjacent face (the face edge) you are close to the 90 degrees already.

Sorry, hard to explain in words - but the basic is press against the fence for the second face, ignore the tables totally. If this isn't it, then I'm baffled, truly!!

PS - quick thought - for the face edge (2nd side) if you have an acute angle get that to the fence, not the obtuse one - far easier to hold the stock flat to the fence this way. Obviously this ignores nicest grain, grain direction etc, but if you have the choice, the tight angle to fence, every time.

 

[bosshogg]

Hi Maximus,

check that both your surfacing and planing tables are exactly parallel to each other, in that way when you are paralleling the blades to the surfacing table both will be in balance. If you have no means of adjusting the outfeed table how are you setting your blades? these should be sett to the exact height of this table, it sounds as if yours is not...bosshogg

No man is an island

(homer)

 

[condeesteso]

re blade to outfeed - I've never touched the outfeed on my 2600. The blades set using an allen key to adjust nuts under back of blade, til it is level with outfeed. Never even read the manual!! If this machine is fairly out of the box (OK, stored but not messed with) I'm pretty sure the infeed and outfeed will be true. Fair point though to double check the blades to outfeed. Here's a trick!! There are other ways to set blades, and fancy jigs with magnets and stuff... but try this. Every shop has at least one piece of plate glass, yes? About 8" x 18" roughly is fine. Get your wd40, and clean the outfeed. Now slacken the fix bolts that hold the 2 blades, then back off the support adjusting bolts (2 per blade) with the allen key, just enough so the blades are below the outfeed datum. Spray plenty of WD onto the outfeed surface, lay the glass on it, pinch up the fix bolts so there is no slop in the blade but it can still be adjusted, then slowly adjust the blades up til they just touch the glass. You'll know when they do because the meniscus of the wd will catch the blade tip (you need wd on the blade edges, just wipe it all down later). This is how i do mine. If I lift the glass and slip a .0015 feeler over blade at TDC, then the wd meniscus on the table and along the blade breaks away. I believe this is good to within half a thou - that'll do for me
Hope this makes sense, easy to show, harder to explain in words. Be inclined to trust your 2600 - unless you just dropped it it should be set up straight.

 

[Maximus]

Thank you for the replies guys, apologies for leaving it a while to respond.

If you have no means of adjusting the outfeed table how are you setting your blades? these should be sett to the exact height of this table

bosshog
The outfeed table has no adjustment to it, the only movement it has is to lift it up on it's hinge/pivot to use the thicknesser table underneath. It's this lack of adjustment that left me scratching my head.

Here's a trick!! There are other ways to set blades, and fancy jigs with magnets and stuff... but try this. Every shop has at least one piece of plate glass, yes? About 8" x 18" roughly is fine. Get your wd40, and clean the outfeed. Now slacken the fix bolts that hold the 2 blades, then back off the support adjusting bolts (2 per blade) with the allen key, just enough so the blades are below the outfeed datum. Spray plenty of WD onto the outfeed surface, lay the glass on it, pinch up the fix bolts so there is no slop in the blade but it can still be adjusted, then slowly adjust the blades up til they just touch the glass. You'll know when they do because the meniscus of the wd will catch the blade tip (you need wd on the blade edges, just wipe it all down later). This is how i do mine. If I lift the glass and slip a .0015 feeler over blade at TDC, then the wd meniscus on the table and along the blade breaks away. I believe this is good to within half a thou - that'll do for me

condeesteso
Thanks for the set-up tip. It's a great visual way of seeing where the blades are in relation to the table. You were right to say trust the set up out of the box. I lowered the infeed table out of the way, set both blades to the outfeed table using the glass method and then checking again with a small ruler after wiping down all of the WD-40. Re-attached the fence and set it to 90 degrees to the outfeed table.
Guess what, everything is parallel and square to each other!!! =D>
I gave it a bit of a workout yesterday running through some Oak, Pippy Oak, Ash and English Walnut. Suffice to say I'm chuffed to bits with the results.

Thanks for taking the time to respond guys, much appreciated.

M

 

[bosshogg]

No man is an island

8)

 

[theblindwoodturner]

I too have had this series of issues. there is a slight design floor in the planer. it is not the fault of the user. the manual even in PDF isn't very helpful. The fence has a slight twist. this is primarily because of how the fence sits to the lock plate and is not supported to the other side hence left floating. as it's aluminium it can deflect..

the tables can suffer from slight deflection.

the adjustments come in the form of the insert bolts on the outfeed bed of the surface side right hand at the back of the rig. besides this you may need to undo the plastic cover which will expose the main drive shaft and will give you the advantage of belt tensioning. make sure your main drive belt is nice and tight. this will give better transmission from motor to spindle. There's two allen bolts which need to slacken slightly to help reset the table for outfeed purposes. a very slight lift is enough. using a steel rule at 3 points on the surfacing tables will help.

after this, close the cover and re screw in.

the snipe issue is a common problem on short bed thicknessers. basically this is generated when the guide forks engage first with the first feed roller causing a lift before the cutter block. you can notice this on other planer thicknessers and straight thicknessers as the wood is being presented with the force of the opposite side of the wood as a heavy weight thereby causing lift..

a further area to highlight...

Feed roller maintenance...

disconnect planer from mains. remove fence, lift lever to lift table up, remove plastic panel above power switch where cutter block is. the large plastic cover I refer to on the top.

what you do next is to use some wire wool. Don't use cleaning fluid. First with some gloves on, rotate the cutter block so that the knife is no where near you. this will stay in place. now rub the roller with the wire wool and this will take off any debris if the machine has been used for softwood processing.. to rotate the rollers, use your hand to drive the belt (this is a thin belt on the blade spindle where a drive chain sits close driving both feed rollers. rotate the spindle with the belt several times to expose further roller wear. clean this again until the roller is cleaned throughout. the other roller is virtually the same but this is done with your hand under the bed. this is where some care should be taken. Rollers need to be maintained regularly to prevent slip or drag.

whilst the cover for the chain and belt is open, check how the belt is tensioned. this is a two way tensioner. there is an allen key if I remember right you need to undo which supports a shaft applying weight to the chain and belt. you will need a piece of 2x1 timber and a hammer to help push down and across to tighten both chain and belt for effective drive.

re install the cover, re assemble planer to normal mode.

lew