Spruce juice - Anyone had this problem

[Losos]

A friend of mine recently took delivery of a new Hammer A3-41 Planer / Thicknesser (About two weeks back)- I think he's quite chuffed with it but he's having problems machining about 50 board foot of spruce. He says the 'pitch' or gum in the wood is causing problems with the rollers and with the blades. He's had to clean both several times and he also reckons the blades having blunted much quicker than he was expecting them to. Has anyone any comments? I'm sure someone on this board has made something out of Spruce

 

[ProShop]

Losos,

The Hammer usually comes with the Chrome steel blades and as you mention planing green Spruce blunts these very quickly. You can get from Hammer the Colbalt tool steel blades and these last much longer & IMHO cut better (of course they cost more too ) I suspect the Spruce is still a bit too green hence the excessive sap.

 

[Scrit]

Hi Losos

Second what John says about HSS blades. The other thing your friend is going to have to de is clean out the resin/juice regularly. It eventually goes hard and causes real problems.

Scrit