Planer Table Set Up, What's Right?

[the_g_ster]

All,

Tried using my planer last night for first time in a while and got some bowed edges that didn't have before. The centre of the edge had 1mm-2mm peak over the ends, and this was on an around 600mm edge.

I had a look at my tables and when infeed and outfeed are up when I lay a straight edge I find that the start of the indeed side farthest from the cutter block slopes up by 2mm towards the centre cutter block. The part of the infeed closest to the centre cutter lines up perfectly with the level of the outfeed table.

Is this right, should the 2 tables be perfectly in line with the straight edge and parallel. I am guessing when I drop the infeed to actually pass some wood through it's still out.

Any ideas? It's a 260ci, never had to tweak before, been great.

 

[ProShop]

All,



Is this right, should the 2 tables be perfectly in line with the straight edge and parallel.

Yes, they should, I can't help you with the setup of your Scheppach though, never had to adjust one of those.

 

[mailee]

I am not sure if I have this correct but it sounds like the infeed table dips in the middle of it's width? If this is so then the table must be warped! I had a Kity do this on me a few years back and it made it unuseable. If the dip is from the infeed end of the table to the cutter block then this should be adjustable. It should also be adjustable if it slopes from the fence across it's width but if it dips from either end it is warped. It is not uncommon with ally tables and I am just assuming it is ally as I have never owned one. I hope this helps in some way.

 

[OPJ]

I used to work for a company where we had a Scheppach planer-thicknesser (might have been the same model - 140mm thicknessing depth?)...

Anyway, I was experiencing similar problems to what you've mentioned - I just couldn't get a flat reference face and it was riding up awkwardly over the cutter block. Between two of us, we couldn't see what was wrong and as for that manual - it gave no instructions whatsoever on how to adjust the machine!

Boss came in the next day, lifted the tables up and gave it a good blow inside to clear all the dust and shavings - and whaddya know, it was perfect again! :roll:

So, yeah, just check there isn't a build up of any waste between the contact points - it might help. :wink:

 

[bjm]

I use a Woodstar, which definitely doesn't have parallel infeed/outfeed tables, but nevertheless still planes wood flat - but only if set-up properly. I was experiencing similar problems a while back and after much meddling I discovered the knives were fractionally lower than they should have been. I had a habit of picking it up to move it out of the way (on the tables) which probably caused this misalignment.

I don't think a little misalignment of the tables is a problem as your reference is the outfeed side anyway. However, if the knives are not set correctly to the outfeed table then you will always get problems?

Brian

 

[alan wells]

i would tend to agree that the tables should be parralel with each other, i posted a question last week that my planer was giving a slight concave cut and over the weekend noticed that the end of the infeed table furthest from the cutter was about 1mm lower than the end nearest the cutter, a quick turn on the adjustment grub screws to lift the far end and now it cuts fine, so it sounds that perhaps your problem is the mirror image of mine

hope this helps