Ridgid Planer R4331 Gouging/Marring

[Tanner Hawey]

Just recently purchased a new Ridgid R4331 planer and I am noticing that when the board comes out it has a gouge in the wood. There is usually a 1/4" width one and a smaller on that consistently occur on the board.

I looked up a couple of recommendations on why this was occurring:
- Defect in planer knives: I have checked over and rotated the knives, problem still occurring
- set screw or other sticking out that is impacting the wood: no visible screws or other items that could nick the surface
- debris on rollers: cleaned rollers multiple times

I'm fresh out of ideas as to why this could be happening but it is quite frustrating considering this is a brand new unit.

Hoping there may be some additional insight from the members on this forum.

[Steve Peterson]

Is it a gouge or a ridge? Nicks in the knives would cause a ridge. It seems like there must be something scraping to cause gouges. If it was a sliver of wood caught on the rollers, it would move around with different passes.

Steve

[Tanner Hawey]

Is it a gouge or a ridge? Nicks in the knives would cause a ridge. It seems like there must be something scraping to cause gouges. If it was a sliver of wood caught on the rollers, it would move around with different passes.

Steve

I would say more of a gouge but not extremely deep. I can get the gouge out with some work from a card scraper but I still want to know what is causing this from the machine. It's only happening in the middle part of the planer, the sides don't produce this gouge.

[John Gustafson]

You mentioned you "cleaned the rollers multiple times" Was there any indication of debris when you cleaned them? By their very nature planers, and jointers generate a lot of chips. Have you put any sort of dust collection on the outlet? I had a similar issue with my DeWalt planer. Until I got the discharge hood and ran it with a shop vac attached I had that problem consistently. I soon learned that the shop vac and a 2.5 hose wasn't enough either. I finally put a small dedicated DC unit on it and it solved the problem.

[Tanner Hawey]

You mentioned you "cleaned the rollers multiple times" Was there any indication of debris when you cleaned them? By their very nature planers, and jointers generate a lot of chips. Have you put any sort of dust collection on the outlet? I had a similar issue with my DeWalt planer. Until I got the discharge hood and ran it with a shop vac attached I had that problem consistently. I soon learned that the shop vac and a 2.5 hose wasn't enough either. I finally put a small dedicated DC unit on it and it solved the problem.

That is a very good point as I may not be sufficient dust collection to extract all of the chips. The only thing is, the marks in the wood are consistently in the same spot each and every time. There was some dust on the rollers, but nothing that would stand out as being large enough to create that impression in the wood.

I have a shop vac hooked up temporarily to the planer as I am in the process of getting my dust collection organized for installation.

[Don Jarvie]

Make sure there is no wood chips stuck between the blade and cutterhead.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Is there something else hitting the wood? I remember when I purchased a thicker than normal blade for my planer (different brand), so i needed to NOT include this extra metal piece that holds the blade in place. So, when I screwed it in place, the screws stuck out enough that they hit the wood and left a path in the wood..... I know it is a long shot, especially new using stock blades.

[Tanner Hawey]

Is there something else hitting the wood? I remember when I purchased a thicker than normal blade for my planer (different brand), so i needed to NOT include this extra metal piece that holds the blade in place. So, when I screwed it in place, the screws stuck out enough that they hit the wood and left a path in the wood..... I know it is a long shot, especially new using stock blades.

I did double check all the screws on the metal piece holding the blade in place and they were not sticking out further than the blades.

[Dave Sabo]

Try removing the knives and running a smooth piece of wood through it.

That will narrow down whether it's a knife problem or a drivetrain /roller issue.