RobertMP
Established Member
I've never used a planer or thicknesser before so having bought one I'm having to learn fast. I bought two planks of oak with the idea of making a small table and getting to know more about how to go about things.
Having fitted the legs etc to the P/T and got rid of the packaging (and having been back to the shop to replace the fence which was bent) I ran a handy small offcut of softwood across the cutter and sure enough it planed it. Today I tried to plane the surface of a 7" wide by 2ft long bit of inch thick sawn oak.
I expected to just pass it across the cutter a few times and end up with a flat face. What actually happened was I made a curved (convex) face with variable curve depending on where I held the workpiece. When out of curiosity I tried planing an edge using the fence it was even worse. Once I accepted the fact that it couldn't be me being *that* bad at operating it I set about looking for the problem.
I spent ages checking the tables with straight edges.... I slackened off the leg bolts in case I'd induced a twist in the frame... nothing found. Then I measured the blade height - bingo! My brand new shiny machine with its German brand had one of the blades fitted with 0.6mm of height variation from one end to the other! Spent some time resetting both blades as per the instructions and what a difference!
Now I can plane things flat just by sliding the wood across the table and it comes out the same wherever I hold it and it cuts without the scary vibration. Annoying having to do things like this (especially when you are not experienced with this sort of thing) but satisfying when a problem is found and solved.
Still to try the thicknesser so hoping for no surprises there.
Having fitted the legs etc to the P/T and got rid of the packaging (and having been back to the shop to replace the fence which was bent) I ran a handy small offcut of softwood across the cutter and sure enough it planed it. Today I tried to plane the surface of a 7" wide by 2ft long bit of inch thick sawn oak.
I expected to just pass it across the cutter a few times and end up with a flat face. What actually happened was I made a curved (convex) face with variable curve depending on where I held the workpiece. When out of curiosity I tried planing an edge using the fence it was even worse. Once I accepted the fact that it couldn't be me being *that* bad at operating it I set about looking for the problem.
I spent ages checking the tables with straight edges.... I slackened off the leg bolts in case I'd induced a twist in the frame... nothing found. Then I measured the blade height - bingo! My brand new shiny machine with its German brand had one of the blades fitted with 0.6mm of height variation from one end to the other! Spent some time resetting both blades as per the instructions and what a difference!
Now I can plane things flat just by sliding the wood across the table and it comes out the same wherever I hold it and it cuts without the scary vibration. Annoying having to do things like this (especially when you are not experienced with this sort of thing) but satisfying when a problem is found and solved.
Still to try the thicknesser so hoping for no surprises there.
