Jet 54A planer

[mpooley]

I have a Jet 54A planer on which I am currently trying to use the Dakota knife setting jigs.

I found that i needed to lower the infeed table further than normal so went to my manual to have a look at what all the little gizmo's on the back were.
well :shock:
what an absolute load of rubbish the manual is!

I dont know why i never noticed before

Basicaly it shows you how to use the machine - a little bit of assemby but not much and absolutely nothing about the beds etc.
anyway I am just asking if there is somewhere ont internet or whatever where i can get the info i need
(I Have sorted lowering the bed) but i would like to know more about the machine as i feel it needs a bit of maintenance after running thousands of feet of oak over it.

any advice appreciated


Mike

 

[PaulO]

I have found the US Jet manuals are much more comprehensive for covering adjustment details. They are available for download here:
http://woodworking.jettools.com/Media.aspx?nav=Manuals

Having said that, the page only covers current models, but you can probably find something similar.

 

[mpooley]

thanks!
yes they havnt got my manual. But having looked at a similar model I find that the "Gizmo's" are Gib adjusters
:shock:

all i need to do now is understand what the gib is

Mike

 

[9fingers]

Gib strips are the adjustments on dovetail slides on all sorts of machines.

I also have been playing with the blade jigs and concluded that I could not see a problem with using the table surfaces for the jig references.
Steve Maskery's video and article revolve around the Kity planers which use aluminium tables hence the need to reference off the cutter block.

I agree that the infeed table has to be dropped right down to set the absolute blade projection but as you have found, adjusting the stops on the far side of the machine will let you get enough space to do this.
If you start with blunt blades but in the right place, then working off the table should be fine.

Bob

 

[9fingers]

To follow up on my previous post, I decided to sharpen the knives on my Jet 60A.
This has been near perfectly aligned but just a bit dull from heavy use.

I adjusted the infeed table for nominally zero cut and set the dakota style jigs
using the tables as references and locked the adjusters.

The jet has screws to lift the blades as well as springs to lift them.

When refitting the blades I was a little concerned at the effect of the magnets on my nice sharp knives and the effect of the springs pressing them onto the magnets.

Despite taking lots of care, the resultant first test cut had snipe on the tail end of the cut. I ended up reverting to the traditional 'drag' method as written up in BW and shown on Steve Maskery's video.
After a lot of iterative adjustment of the blades I got back to a snipeless finish at both ends of the test piece.

I'm very tempted to remove the springs and just use the jack screws next time but my enthusiasm does not extend to removing the knives and taking them out now!!

To be honest I don't think the gauges bring much to the party for fitting new blades to a well set up machine.

However, I do think they could be very useful setting up a machine from scratch.
Stage one is to get the knives projecting the correct amount with respect to the cutter head and all cutting edges parallel to the axis of rotation. I feel it fair to assume that the surface of the cutter head will be true to the axis of rotation.
Once the knives are set, the outfeed table can be set by the drag method and then finally the infeed table can be levelled and zeroed with respect to the outfeed one.

Hope this helps

Bob

 

[TheTiddles]

I'm not really sure why there is difficulty on planer setup. I have an AW106PT and so far after changing out the blades a couple of times for sharpening I have...

-Set the blades with the setting tool that comes with the machine
-Brought the outfeed table down till a straightedge contacts the leading edge of the blades at TDC
-Checked that all 3 blades do this to the same degree
-Checked it at both sides of the table on all three blades to make sure it's level
- Repeated the level checking for the infeed table and then lowered it to the cutting depth and off we go...

So far I have only ever had snipe problems when a nut has worked loose and the table has dropped of its own accord. Am I having it easy here??

Aidan

 

[mpooley]

Well I tried today to set freshly sharpened blades in my Jet with the Dakota jigs.
Having watched steves Video it looked really easy!

well I cant understand it but the pippers wouldnt go right for me :?

I hated the way the magnets kept scraping and bashing the new edge and I just couldnt get it right :shock:
I tried over and over again but using the drag test afterwards i almost seemed to get random results.

even checking the blades twice without moving them sometimes gave me different readings? The numbers on the adjuster seem the wrong way round to me also.
I know there should not be much need to use them but I tried to adjust up or down a notch using them and never managed it at all.

I ended up making 2 contiboard strips with magnets in and setting them using the outfeed table as a reference this worked ok for two of the cutters but the third was a pipper :evil:
it either stuck to far up or fell off the magnet and dropped right down. it seemed to get jammed for some reason.

I finally got it all ok - but its not a job I enjoy.

I THINK my jet has lifters ( 2 machine screws that sit below the blades - but they have no springs?)
anyway the wont work to lift the blade as they are not long enough - so IF they are lifters i need to buy longer ones.
The bloody manual is absolutely rubbish!

sorry for rant

Mike

 

[Tony Spear]

I have a Jet 54A planer on which I am currently trying to use the Dakota knife setting jigs.


any advice appreciated


Mike

Whatever you do, don't tell Wizer!

Good enough advice for you? :lol: :lol:

 

[p111dom]

I have them too and find them great. That said I don't use them as intended. Basically I have the blades set correctly before removal, set the jigs at the extremeties of the cutter block and set numbering them with a dry wipe marker. Once set they just sit in the box. I send the blades off for resharpening and just use the guides to set the previous height. There's too much lag in the screw mechanism to wind them up and down accurately but if used this way they are fine.

 

[mpooley]

I have them too and find them great. That said I don't use them as intended. Basically I have the blades set correctly before removal, set the jigs at the extremeties of the cutter block and set numbering them with a dry wipe marker. Once set they just sit in the box. I send the blades off for resharpening and just use the guides to set the previous height. There's too much lag in the screw mechanism to wind them up and down accurately but if used this way they are fine.

I wasnt really sure what was happening but it seemed to me that if you set the magnetic feet on a slighly different place then the setting was different? the cutter block should be round so that shouldnt be it but i suppose if you are over the knife at the wrong point it might cause the problem>

I cant really see that though - i dunno i am confused :?

mike

 

[OPJ]

I wasnt really sure what was happening but it seemed to me that if you set the magnetic feet on a slighly different place then the setting was different? the cutter block should be round so that shouldnt be it but i suppose if you are over the knife at the wrong point it might cause the problem

They central magnets should be positioned as close to central over the edge of the knives as possible. Also, if you rotate the jigs 180° (there is a right and a wrong way!), I think you're likely to end up with different results.

Another thing I've noticed is that they aren't calibrated the same so, if you wind both gauges down to the same reading then they won't necessarily be the same. If you can, it's best to set one knife correctly first (was there a jig with your machine?) and take a direct reading off of that. As Dom says; lock them off and leave them alone. They should work fine. If you don't have a jig then, you could use feeler gauges, as Steve did the with other set of jigs.

By the way, Axminster's own manual is much better than any of the others I've seen (Rutlands, Record Power, etc.). It comes under Woodworking Machinery, Planer Blade Setting Jig. :wink:

 

[mpooley]

I wasnt really sure what was happening but it seemed to me that if you set the magnetic feet on a slighly different place then the setting was different? the cutter block should be round so that shouldnt be it but i suppose if you are over the knife at the wrong point it might cause the problem

They central magnets should be positioned as close to central over the edge of the knives as possible. Also, if you rotate the jigs 180° (there is a right and a wrong way!), I think you're likely to end up with different results.

Another thing I've noticed is that they aren't calibrated the same so, if you wind both gauges down to the same reading then they won't necessarily be the same. If you can, it's best to set one knife correctly first (was there a jig with your machine?) and take a direct reading off of that. As Dom says; lock them off and leave them alone. They should work fine. If you don't have a jig then, you could use feeler gauges, as Steve did the with other set of jigs.

By the way, Axminster's own manual is much better than any of the others I've seen (Rutlands, Record Power, etc.). It comes under Woodworking Machinery, Planer Blade Setting Jig. :wink:

Thanks Olly
I did do exactly as steve did in his video. I set the jigs using the knives that were already set up and just locked them off! I also noted which way round they went and which one was nearest to the fence etc.

so when i sharpened the blades i set them all back one by one as they came out and expected them to be ok :shock:

But they were miles out - thats when the confusion set in

Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

I feel I should jump in here, but the trouble is, I don't know what to say! I don't know why you are having a problem, I found them straightforward to use.

The only problem I had was the very first time I used them. They weren't the same at both ends. The reason was that my outfeed table was slightly twisted WRT the infeed. I'd suspected it for a long time, but these proved it. I fettled the machine with a file (or rather, I got my engineer-friend Brian to fettle it for me). After that it was easy.

The only thing I can think of is if your blades are too tight in the slot when you are inserting them. I could see how then, because of the play in the feet, they might sit at a slightly different position. Just push firmly on them and that should eliminate that as a cause.

If it's any consolation, I've got to change mine again. I've made a pair of bookcases in oak. The guy who brought me his old oak swore blind he'd removed all the nails. Yeah, right. I even found metal in some brand new oak he brought, too, although I think that might have been lead shot. Anyway, my knives are buggered again.

Cheers
Steve

 

[9fingers]

I must admit Steve, that I found the jigs to be in the chocolate teapot category for refitting knives into a well set up jointer and they are too big to fit my 13" thicknesser. I'm glad they were thrown in as a freebie secondhand with something else I bought. They will be staying in the box I think

As I said earlier, they might just have role in setting up a totally out of adjustment machine which can (should?) be done with blunt knives. Like others here I really dont like the idea of magnets hitting freshly honed knives especially when the cutter block has springs.
I also found that the setting of the blades changed on the final tightening of the clamps screws. So for me, final adjustment had to be zero movement on the drag test but just to be able to hear the blade touch the test block, then fully tighten and then the drag is about 2mm.

Bob

 

[9fingers]

I THINK my jet has lifters ( 2 machine screws that sit below the blades - but they have no springs?)
anyway the wont work to lift the blade as they are not long enough - so IF they are lifters i need to buy longer ones.
The bloody manual is absolutely rubbish!

sorry for rant

Mike

Mike, the difference over the springs may be that I have the 60A not the 54A. My blades are a fraction under 18mm wide still, if yours are nearer the minimum of 12mm then maybe the screw lifters are too short.
In the end I found the lifter to be quite good and used the end of the Allen key as a indicator of how much to turn the screw. I did not use them so much as lifters but stops against which to push the blade down (with a piece of wood) There are 5 or 6 locking screws on mine and I did all the adjusting on the outer two.

It is one of those jobs that is a bit of a fiddle but the results are very satisfying and made me realise how dull the knives had become after like yours having planed a lot of oak recently.

Bob

 

[mpooley]

Oh yes its certainly worth the trouble but a bit of a pain - if was easier one would be tempted to do it more often.

did you mean you have 5 lifters?
Im not even sure thats what mine are!! having never seen any i cant really judge.

they are just allen machine screws ! i wouldnt be able to leave them in the up position as the would be loose :shock:
My blades are just 12mm I did think maybe I could slip a piece in as a shim sort of but id have to remove them and tighten the screws back down b4 I used it.

I just cant get over how bad the jet manual is!!! the more i look at it the more i see what is missing from it,
Everything LOL

steve - Yes i am pretty sure its my fault and not the adjusters - apart from the numbers being the wrong way round they seem pretty foolproof

bet then most of the time I am an silly person lol

 

[9fingers]

Oh yes its certainly worth the trouble but a bit of a pain - if was easier one would be tempted to do it more often.

did you mean you have 5 lifters?
Im not even sure thats what mine are!! having never seen any i cant really judge.

they are just allen machine screws ! i wouldnt be able to leave them in the up position as the would be loose :shock:
My blades are just 12mm I did think maybe I could slip a piece in as a shim sort of but id have to remove them and tighten the screws back down b4 I used it.

I just cant get over how bad the jet manual is!!! the more i look at it the more i see what is missing from it,
Everything LOL

steve - Yes i am pretty sure its my fault and not the adjusters - apart from the numbers being the wrong way round they seem pretty foolproof

bet then most of the time I am an silly person lol

No I have two lifters and 5-6 locking screws for the blades.

Yes the manual is poor. I emailed Brimarc (uk Jet re-sellers) yesterday to ask about using it as a rebater and in passing asked about an updated manual - mine is 2003 vintage and some of the illustrations are of a completely different machine and one shows the American pattern guard instead of the European one.
I downloaded the US manual for the nearest machine to the 60A and it is a lot better.

Bob