Wixey on a Woodmaster

[David L. Anthony]

Anyone put a Wixey planer height gauge on a Woodmaster 718? I have a Woodmaster height gauge and it has to go!! Worst $50 I ever spent :mad:.

BTW, I just replaced the stock belts with a link belt. Best $25 I ever spent :D.

Dave

[Bob Falk]

see thread below. I can send you more pics, if needed. bob

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1036887#poststop

[Jim Dailey]

Dave,

The "worst $50 I ever spent"....

Was it the Woodmaster digital gauge you referring too...? I've thought about getting a pair of these for both my Woodmaster planer & Woodmaster drum sander.

I'd like to hear your feed back.

Thanks, jim

[Neal Clayton]

i have woodmaster's on my planer, don't have any problems with it?

[Don L Johnson]

I have the one that came with my Woodmaster drum sander. After replacing the batteries, I can only get it to work if the height guage shows a minus in front of the number.

[Neal Clayton]

don, when you replace the batteries it 'zeroes' itself. you'd need to set the machine to its max depth, set the gauge to that on the positive side, and then the number should get smaller, toward zero, as you go back up.

[David L. Anthony]

I find the Woodmaster gauge to need constant readjustment, and not all that accurate. I have changed batteries so that's not the problem. I still need to check all my planed stock with my Wixey digital caliper while planing stock down to make sure it's the thickness the gauge says it is. If I don't have to reinvent the wheel to much, and with Bob Falks help, I am going to install the Wixey. Hopefully the Wixey will be what I thought the Woodmaster should be.

Dave

[Bob Falk]

I find the Woodmaster gauge to need constant readjustment, and not all that accurate. I have changed batteries so that's not the problem. I still need to check all my planed stock with my Wixey digital caliper while planing stock down to make sure it's the thickness the gauge says it is. If I don't have to reinvent the wheel to much, and with Bob Falks help, I am going to install the Wixey. Hopefully the Wixey will be what I thought the Woodmaster should be.

Dave
Dave,
With the Wixey, I can now plane boards to 0.001"....as confirmed by my hand held micrometer. I will be happy to advise you, however realize that you are going to have to do a fair amount of fiddling to get it properly aligned. I concluded that the only possible place to mount it was on the right side of the table (right as you are facing the infeed). I attached a piece of angle iron (about 1x1x 1/8x 12" long) with a couple of bolts drilled and tapped into the bed of the planer. The scale on which the caliper rides is then bolted to the angle iron. For fixing the movable part of the caliper, I used a piece of scrap aluminum angle (about 1/2x1/2) that spans from the fixed frame of the planer and attaches to the electronic caliper (this had to fit between the planer cover and the fixed frame...see photo). BTW, I didn't use any of the nuts, bolts, metal pieces supplied by Wixey. The placement of this aluminum angle left to right took a little head scratching as well, as it needed to clear the right side threaded planer bed screw and still needed to attach to the caliper.
Where to place the scale vertically on the angle iron is paramount. I made the mistake of removing the Woodmaster scale and then by trial and error tried to figure out where vertically to place the scale (realize that the Wixey scale range needs to coincide with the scale range of the Woodmaster).
My suggestion would be to not remove the Woodmaster scale untill finished. Mount the angle iron and then set the height of the table by the Woodmaster scale at mid-range (say 3") and slide the Wixey caliper to the same value. I would then securely tape the scale temporarily to the angle iron and fix the aluminum angle to the electronic caliper. You can then move the bed through the full range (from 0" to 6") to make sure the range of the electronic scale and the actual bed movement are in sync. If not, untape and move the scale up or down on the angle iron to correct until zero is zero and 6" and 6" are the same on both scales. Only then drill to bolt the Wixey scale to the angle iron.
This may be confusing, but this is the best I can explain it after two glasses of wine...(probably a better explaination than if I had had not imbibed!)

Cheers, Bob

[Paul Demetropoulos]

Dave,
With the Wixey, I can now plane boards to 0.001"....as confirmed by my hand held micrometer. I will be happy to advise you, however realize that you are going to have to do a fair amount of fiddling to get it properly aligned. Where to place the scale vertically on the angle iron is paramount. I made the mistake of removing the Woodmaster scale and then by trial and error tried to figure out where vertically to place the scale (realize that the Wixey scale range needs to coincide with the scale range of the Woodmaster).
My suggestion would be to not remove the Woodmaster scale untill finished. Mount the angle iron and then set the height of the table by the Woodmaster scale at mid-range (say 3") and slide the Wixey caliper to the same value. I would then securely tape the scale temporarily to the angle iron and fix the aluminum angle to the electronic caliper. You can then move the bed through the full range (from 0" to 6") to make sure the range of the electronic scale and the actual bed movement are in sync. If not, untape and move the scale up or down on the angle iron to correct until zero is zero and 6" and 6" are the same on both scales. Only then drill to bolt the Wixey scale to the angle iron.
This may be confusing, but this is the best I can explain it after two glasses of wine...(probably a better explaination than if I had had not imbibed!)Cheers, Bob

Bob, that's funny, I just finished my second glass of wine and I understand you perfectly, but I think think you're stuttering.

[Leigh Betsch]

I can't unsderstand a word of it. Heading to the wine cabinet right now.
By the way I'm considering a wixly for my Woodmaster drum sander.

[David L. Anthony]

Thanks Bob! I don't drink wine, but maybe after a few beers I'll go back and re read your post http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon7.gif. Once I have the Wixey in hand it will all make perfect sense. The offer of pictures is appreciated. I'll take you up on that for sure.

Dave