10b tuning up your thickness planer
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Jan 24, 2024
10b tuning up your thickness planer
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0:00
There are three things you need to do to keep your thickness planer running well
0:06
And I want to show you each of them right now. The first thing you need to do, and it applies to all thickness planers on the market
0:13
is to regularly wax the bed. If you don't do this, your wood is going to stick and it won't feed through properly
0:20
Now as for wax, this is what I use, Johnson's Paste Wax
0:25
I bought it in the late 70s, and as you can see inside
0:29
there's still plenty of wax in there. I figure I got maybe 5, 10 more years out of this can
0:34
Just put a little bit on the rag and run it in circles around the bed
0:40
You don't have to be fancy, just as long as you get complete coverage
0:44
Let it dry for a few minutes and then lightly buff it off with a clean rag
0:49
It's amazing how long that's going to allow your wood to keep sliding smoothly while you plane it
0:56
The next two tune-up operations happen inside the planer. Now how you get it to your machine might vary from what you're going to see here
1:04
but the basics are the same. You're going to have to take the top off to gain access to the cutter head inside
1:12
With the machine unplugged and the cutter head exposed, you can get to work changing the blades
1:18
which is the second maintenance operation you need to do on your planer
1:22
You know that the blades need to be changed when the planed wood comes out
1:27
with little raised bumps along the length of the wood. That means that there's a nick somewhere in the blade
1:34
and it's causing that berm of wood to be left behind. A few of them is okay, you can sand them out
1:39
but when they start to get large and numerous, then it's time to get to work inside the machine
1:45
The knives on all planers are held by a whole bunch of bolts, like you see here
1:51
Regardless of the machine you have. What you need to do is to start loosening off all the bolts and then remove them
2:01
Now before you do that though, I want to show you a little trick
2:05
The bolt holes in most blades aren't round, they're actually oval, like you see here
2:11
That allows you to slide one blade or the other from side to side slightly
2:17
The advantage is if you've got just a little bit of ridging on your planed boards
2:23
and you want to get that planing really well for an important project
2:27
but you don't want to change blades, you just loosen off the blade anchoring screws
2:32
slide one blade a little bit to one side, and then the nicks in the blades that caused the groove in the first place don't line up
2:40
and you get perfectly smooth results, at least for a little while
2:44
If you really do have to change your blades, you're going to find the job very easy
2:49
Today's blades are double-sided, they're sharp on both edges, and they're disposable
2:55
Also, each blade has holes for registration pins. These are small round protrusions of metal that come out of the cutter head
3:04
and lock the blade in just the right position, so you don't have to worry about getting the height right
3:09
When the blade's in place, you put your metal cap strip on top
3:13
tighten all of the bolts down, go back and forth several times to make sure you've got them all tight
3:18
and then you're good to go. Now, when you're changing the blades and you've got the cutter head exposed
3:23
there's one more thing you need to do. This is the third bit of maintenance
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and that's applying paste wax to the inside surface of the shroud that surrounds the cutter head
3:33
This greatly reduces the buildup of pitch that would roughen that surface
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and cause your planer to jam up during heavy planing. Take care of these three issues
3:43
and you'll have smooth wood every time you walk over to your planer and turn it on
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