Planer thicknesser setup help

[EBH1]

Afternoon,
I've recently bought a Sedgwick MR planer. It's one of the older ones in the two tone green and 1500mm beds. I seem to be having problems squaring timber.

I've set my straightedge along the beds and made some small adjustments to get the in feed and out feed in the same plane. I've set the blades to the required 5mm drag on a stick, squared the fence and had a go. All seems good until I use the thicknesser, where the timber appears to be coming out slightly wedge shaped across the width. I've checked the blades and they seem to be good and parallel with the table. Is there something I'm missing in the set up? Or could the thicknesser bed be out relative to the cutter block / blades.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Euan

 

[Myfordman]

Find out if the thicknessing table is capable of adjustment. some P/Ts are, some not.

If it is not adjustable, then you have to use the thickness table as the datum, and adjust the cutter block and tables to suit.

Athough not the source of the problem, I'd have said 5mm on the drag test is too much, I aim for nearer 2mm.
Key test is zero snipe at both ends of a pass over the planer.

If you want a quick fix, take a piece of sheet timber a little longer than the thickness table and full width of the cut.

Draw a tell tale pencil squiggle over the surface and pass through the thicknesser, squiggle up until it has cat all over the surface.
Fit two batten across the width on the underside one at each end so it fits over the table and does not slide back & forth. Mark the end IN and OUT and always fit it that way round.

Wax the surface well and now your work should be parallel from now on.

MM

 

[deema]

Dont despair, I think that this is hopefully an easily fixed problem.

The tables need to be set to be parallel with the spindle that the knives locate within initially. If not, then you will see the problem with the Thicknesser that you describe. When ever you tinker with the bed settings you must check that you have not inadvertently caused the tables to out of parallel with the spindle.

Take a clock or some other suitable measuring equipment and on the outfeed table table clock the height of the spindle that holds the knives to the surface of the outfeed table. As a minimum clock the two outside edges and the muddle. Run the clock over the spindle at each place to ensure you measure the height at the top if the spindle. Adjust as necessary to get it plumb. Now adjust the infeed table to be parallel with the outfeed table along the front edge. Adjust the outer edge to get it parallel in all planes. Now set your knives to the outfeed table.

I would set your knives using a clock. The Oneway measure is IMO the best system. It's expensive and I had to order mine from the USA but its ideal for this and plenty other tasks. Set the knives to around 5 thousands of an inch (125 microns) above the outfeed table. I have found this optimises snipe, whilst allowing for blade wear as a consequence of setup misalignment. Once you can measure the blade height you will soon optimise the height for the type of blades you buy.