Record Power PT260 Planer Thicknesser help

[Old Chippy]

Hi. This is my first post as a member. I am 75 years of age. I've had a Record Power PT260 Planer Thicknesser for many years. I purchased it new in about 2005. I was setting up a small workshop in my garden and also purchased a woodturning lathe. During the first year or so, I used it to make a clock case and a coffee table. I stopped using it shortly after that and it has remained covered and unused since then and still looks new. I never really new how to use a planer/thicknesser properly. I noticed that after using the thicknesser it left millions of tiny indentations on the surface of the wood that I had to sand off. These marks were I believe caused by the metal feed rollers. Is there a way to adjust the pressure of these rollers, or are you supposed to leave the wood slightly thicker and then plane it through the planer? I was never trained in woodwork and like most hobbyist's I learnt as I went along. Now I have decided to have another go at making something, using the machine to prepare the wood. As I said I'm 75 years of age so any help I can get is very important to me and very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[clogs]

Had the same thing on my old Wadkin......
age and pitted the feed rollers were.....
so sent them to a comp to have them machined down and then refaceem with a white rubber compound.....no more trouble.....
someone on here had a similar question and a few places were recomended for the work.....
there are only a few places that do that work in the UK as they worked mainly for cotton printing.....
If u get stuck PM and I'll try to find the old invoice for mine.....it was about £70.....

 

[Old Chippy]

Hi Thanks for replying. The feed rollers have nothing wrong with them it's just the gripping surface that Record put on the rollers. I was hoping there may be a way of reducing the pressure. Can you tell me. Is the correct way of using a planer/thicknesser to always plane after sizing the timber?

 

[Yojevol]

Your feed roller has got a gripping surface on it which, as you realise, can indent the wood. However the indentations should subsequently be shaved off by the blades. This does mean that the final pass cutting depth has to be sufficient to achieve that. I usually aim for a final cut of at least 1/2mm.
It's also possible that the cutting block will leave a regular slight ripple which, if unacceptable, needs to be hand planed or sanded off.
With regards to the general use of the P/T, the timber should be prepared by sawing, leaving a planing allowance of, say, 5-8mm. Use the surface planer with its fence to produce 2 flat and true faces at right angles to each other. These 2 faces (known as face side and face edge) are then used as the datums when planing down to final size through the thicknesser.
I hope that is of some help.
Brian

 

[Old Chippy]

Your feed roller has got a gripping surface on it which, as you realise, can indent the wood. However the indentations should subsequently be shaved off by the blades. This does mean that the final pass cutting depth has to be sufficient to achieve that. I usually aim for a final cut of at least 1/2mm.
It's also possible that the cutting block will leave a regular slight ripple which, if unacceptable, needs to be hand planed or sanded off.
With regards to the general use of the P/T, the timber should be prepared by sawing, leaving a planing allowance of, say, 5-8mm. Use the surface planer with its fence to produce 2 flat and true faces at right angles to each other. These 2 faces (known as face side and face edge) are then used as the datums when planing down to final size through the thicknesser.
I hope that is of some help.
Brian

Thank you Brian, really good advice

 

[clogs]

David
just to say, 5-8mm might be good generally but often the wood we buy is so warped n twisted those dimensions aren't enough....
this wood can worse than live edge timber....esp this fast grown pine c@rp....
get one edge straight and the next at 90deg's.....plane those two edges on the planer / jointer .....this will get them properly level and flat....pls read on.....
then if the timber needs further sawing (close to size) now's the time to do it....
using those 2 edges as reference...
once that is done or ur close enough then put the wood thru the thicknesser....
the thicknesser will copy the level/straight surface u've just prepared....
also, I'm sure u know already now is the time to get all the boards planed to the same thickness....as in a table top etc....
I will say that the longer the tables on the pln/thicknesser the flater ur wood will be....
I have a sweet little 8" Wadkin jointer with extra long tables.....for the more fancier jobs....

as for the rollers there's a comprimise here.....they are spring loaded...which ur's could be just a tad to tight but too loose and the wood will struggle to get thru the machine.....
I got fed up with the marks produced on my Wadkin and replaced those serated rollers with white rubber.....
it's just a better job all round....but production shops won't care about the marks.....
but for me surface damage on expensive Oak and the like was just not acceptable.....
I was producing miles of 12" wide Oak boards for skirting prep....

I also seem to remember that Record offered an option for rubber rollers....??
they wont last as long in a production shop but for us our grand childeren will inherit the machines, still with good rubber rollers....

lastley, I used to buy and sell machines in France, if it was a major rebuild they ALWAYS got new/remachined rubber rollers....

 

[Old Chippy]

David
just to say, 5-8mm might be good generally but often the wood we buy is so warped n twisted those dimensions aren't enough....
this wood can worse than live edge timber....esp this fast grown pine c@rp....
get one edge straight and the next at 90deg's.....plane those two edges on the planer / jointer .....this will get them properly level and flat....pls read on.....
then if the timber needs further sawing (close to size) now's the time to do it....
using those 2 edges as reference...
once that is done or ur close enough then put the wood thru the thicknesser....
the thicknesser will copy the level/straight surface u've just prepared....
also, I'm sure u know already now is the time to get all the boards planed to the same thickness....as in a table top etc....
I will say that the longer the tables on the pln/thicknesser the flater ur wood will be....
I have a sweet little 8" Wadkin jointer with extra long tables.....for the more fancier jobs....

as for the rollers there's a comprimise here.....they are spring loaded...which ur's could be just a tad to tight but too loose and the wood will struggle to get thru the machine.....
I got fed up with the marks produced on my Wadkin and replaced those serated rollers with white rubber.....
it's just a better job all round....but production shops won't care about the marks.....
but for me surface damage on expensive Oak and the like was just not acceptable.....
I was producing miles of 12" wide Oak boards for skirting prep....

I also seem to remember that Record offered an option for rubber rollers....??
they wont last as long in a production shop but for us our grand childeren will inherit the machines, still with good rubber rollers....

lastley, I used to buy and sell machines in France, if it was a major rebuild they ALWAYS got new/remachined rubber rollers....

I thank you very much indeed for all the advice I've been given. In 1999 I had to stop work on health grounds (heart) and wanted to keep myself going , so I purchased my first woodturning lathe and joined a couple of clubs. One club was the Kent branch of the AWGB. and that was when I started to do things with wood

 

[Inspector]

Marks left by the feed roller will be the same intervals as the grooves in the roller. If they are 2mm apart you'll get 2mm spaced marks. If the marks you see are under a millimetre they are the cutter marks produced as each blade takes its scoop of wood. That is normal and is more obvious as the blades dull. Some wood will show it a little more than others depending on the light. That is why we sand, hand plane or scrape our projects before finishing. The only time I would leave the wood un-sanded is if it a painted or outdoor construction project. Perhaps it is time to have the blades sharpened but make sure you know/remember how to set them before you do.

Pete

 

[suvman]

For what its worth i have the Record Power PT260 machine and contacted Record Power many years ago to try resolve it but there response was there is a trade off between roller slip and indentations. I personally only see the roller indentations when using softwoods like Pine or Spruce, whereas with oak or beech or maple for example they are still present but hard to see and easily removed by final sanding using 120 grit and higher if needed. So in essence what you are seeing is normal for these type of machines. Hope that helps in any way.

 

[Old Chippy]

Marks left by the feed roller will be the same intervals as the grooves in the roller. If they are 2mm apart you'll get 2mm spaced marks. If the marks you see are under a millimetre they are the cutter marks produced as each blade takes its scoop of wood. That is normal and is more obvious as the blades dull. Some wood will show it a little more than others depending on the light. That is why we sand, hand plane or scrape our projects before finishing. The only time I would leave the wood un-sanded is if it a painted or outdoor construction project. Perhaps it is time to have the blades sharpened but make sure you know/remember how to set them before you do.

Pete

Thanks for the info. I am OK with setting the blades. but the marks are not the blades but the rollers. I found Record power to be unhelpful in the matter.

 

[Old Chippy]

For what its worth i have the Record Power PT260 machine and contacted Record Power many years ago to try resolve it but there response was there is a trade off between roller slip and indentations. I personally only see the roller indentations when using softwoods like Pine or Spruce, whereas with oak or beech or maple for example they are still present but hard to see and easily removed by final sanding using 120 grit and higher if needed. So in essence what you are seeing is normal for these type of machines. Hope that helps in any way.

Hi. The marks I had were in oak and sanding removed them ok but I had thought at the time when it happened I just stopped using the machine and never made any more Items.

 

[Old Chippy]

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my post. I now think I have all the help that covers the problem and it seems to be a common problem that I thought that was only happening with my machine. I believe my post has run out of steam. Again thanks to all

 

[Daniel.l]

There are 4 bolts with springs underneath the blade on both side of the thicknesser bed in the frame of the machine. These bolts go into 4 plastic bearings you could call them that hold the feed rollers. I know all about them I had to make one yesterday. You can loosen or tighten these bolts to adjust the force of the feed rollers. My method of testing them was to push on them from underneath and when each corner was relatively the same spring force I ran a test piece. Luckily it turned out to feed very well and left no indents. Its a bit of trial and error sometimes though

 

[Old Chippy]

There are 4 bolts with springs underneath the blade on both side of the thicknesser bed in the frame of the machine. These bolts go into 4 plastic bearings you could call them that hold the feed rollers. I know all about them I had to make one yesterday. You can loosen or tighten these bolts to adjust the force of the feed rollers. My method of testing them was to push on them from underneath and when each corner was relatively the same spring force I ran a test piece. Luckily it turned out to feed very well and left no indents. Its a bit of trial and error sometimes though

Hi. Thanks for that. I will have a good look at that as soon as I can. It will be in a few weeks time as at the moment I am recovering from a dislocated shoulder following a fall I had, and who knows how long that will take.

 

[Daniel.l]

Oh sorry to hear that hope you recover soon.
I'll attach some pictures of the bolts when I think of it

 

[Old Chippy]

Oh sorry to hear that hope you recover soon.
I'll attach some pictures of the bolts when I think of it

OK Thank you