Operating Manual for Planer Thicknesser

[countryboy64]

Hi, I'm new to forums and hope that they can of some help to me. I'm a Design Technology Technician at my local school and have recently been donated a Lurem, Former RD30 Planer Thicknesser (its an old model) to our workshop. We were very grateful, but unfortunately the user guides and manuals have been lost. I've trawled the web for hours now but with no luck. So I'm hoping that someone out there can help me.

Cheers,
Countryboy.

 

[misterfish]

Record also sold the Former RD26 and RD30 with their own badge and livery but still with all the Lurem labels as well. I bought a '26' some years ago and the manual covered both the models. After my original manual was badly chewed by mice I eventually got a pdf of the manual from Lurem - http://www.drosera.f2s.com/former_RD26_RD30.pdf and was also told that Record Power Ltd are their UK agents and are the source for blades (and I assume other spares).

Misterfish

 

[mind_the_goat]

Hi
Bit of luck for me finding this post, just acquired an RD30 too.
Record are the agents, bit concerned that spares are expensive (their words, not mine) so let hope they don't break.

I don't have the setting jig, looks like a straight edge with a couple of marks on it, can anyone confirm that and possibly measure the locations of those marks?

Many thanks for the pdf.

 

[9fingers]

I don't have the setting jig, looks like a straight edge with a couple of marks on it, can anyone confirm that and possibly measure the locations of those marks?

Those sort of jigs typically have marks 3 mm apart.

Bob

 

[misterfish]

OK. When it gets light I'll go and photo and measure the setting gauge and post back.

As for spares costs - the blades for my RD26 (with assorted slts and holes) are about £90. I can get them a bit cheaper (£75) from somewhere in Austria, but I'd rather stay in the UK.

Misterfish

 

[misterfish]

The setting gauge is an aluminium extrusion 48.9 x 25.3 x 119.7mm with the aluminium 1.2mm thick. There is a label stuck on with the two marks. the first is 24.75mm from the end of the block and the two marks are 3.4mm apart.

Misterfish

 

[mind_the_goat]

Fantastic, thank you.
I guess I could buy a gauge from record for £30 (guessing) or print my own label for 3p (or scribe 2 lines) . Decisions, decisions.

 

[9fingers]

You can even put off that decision - I generally use a bit of planed scrap wood and two pencilled lines

Kinder on the blades too.

Bob

 

[misterfish]

If you want I could scan the face of the gauge directly and upload the image file.

(a few minutes later...)

No, in fact, here is a scan of the face of the guide converted to a pdf that if printed at 100% is the correct size. Just download it and print it.
http://www.drosera.f2s.com/GS.pdf

Misterfish

 

[mind_the_goat]

Cool, thanks
Must admit I'd discounted the scan, print option as the chances of getting the scale right seemed low, but I'll try it.

9fingers - reminds me of the myth of the design of the 'Fisher space pen':
NASA spent a large amount of money to develop a pen that would write in the conditions experienced during space flight, including zero gravity and the final result was the Fisher Space Pen, the Russians however, also gave the problem some serious thought, and decided to supply their cosmonauts with pencils.

 

[mind_the_goat]

Just made some adjustments to my P/T.
I tried to plane an edge on a couple of blocks of softwood that make up the top of a welded angle iron workbench I acquired some time ago, with the intention of glueing them together to make a better working surface. I was dismayed to find when I placed the blocks together that there was a gap of several mm in the middle.
A bit of research on the web and i this forum led me to adjusting the blade height. I had the impression this a job that could be a real pain, but with the manual and setting info supplied here it proved quite easy. The only minor issue was that after setting the height on the adjusters the blades were pushed out when I tightened the fixing screws, so it came down to trail and error.
This failed to fix the fault so more searching on the forum led me to check the table alignment which showed the outfeed table was sloping away from the cutter. A bit of poking around on the machine led me to discovering that this was also rather easy to adjust, so using the edge of a piece of mdf (well it was all I could find that was long enough) I straightened up the tables, readjusted the blades and now have a perfectly fitting joint on my bench top.
The machine is clearly showing a lot more signs of use than was suggested when I purchased it but so far it has been surprisingly easy to maintain. My main criteria for the machine was a good fence as this seemed to be common cause of complaint on newer budget machines.
Anyway, I'm easily pleased and just wanted to share this small success