Minimax FS 30 Smart

[Dave Novak]

I'm having a little problem with this combo machine in Planer mode - the infeed roller just isn't grabbing the wood well enough. I have to use way too much force to get the wood in, and the rollers aren't grabbing it and pulling it through. It's easy enough to see the allen screws used to adjust it, but I'd really like some sort of instructions as to how to adjust it properly. There's no information in the manuals that came with it. I'll call minimax tomorrow, but thought someone here might have done this before and have some insight. Thanks!

[brian platt]

Dave,
I had the MiniMax CU410 combo machine and occassionally had problems with the infeed rollers also. Especially after I ran a large load of mahogany that was rough. Have you cleaned the infeed rollers? I found that if mine got very dirty then they had little grip. Are you seeing the same problem with the outfeed rollers?

Before adjusting the infeed roller pressure, I would clean both infeed/outfeed rollers and anti-kickback fingers. Are you finding the problem differs depending on the board width and position you place in it?

I also found that particularly with wider boards, if I lifted the board slightly and put a corner in first, then straighted it out, it would work better. Especially if I was taking a heavier cut, it help get the board started.
Brian

[Dave Novak]

Thanks Brian. I don't think it's a problem with the rollers being dirty, they seem to be perfectly clean. I'm just a garage hobbiest and i've only used the planer a handfull of times. It's almost like I need a hammer to get the board into the planer, and as I make slight adjustments to the table height to make it easier, the infeed roller just won't grab it.

[Doug Shepard]

By any chance is there a gearbox lever that needs switching like my Hammer J/P has? Mine has 2 settings for jointer mode and planer mode. If I forget to change it when switching from J to P, the feed rollers do absolutely nothing.

[Dave Novak]

Good question Doug, yes there is a lever you have to throw to engage the feed rollers. I can see the rollers spinning, they just aren't grabbing the wood. My Minimax rep gave me some guidance regarding the adjustment proceedure and a tech support phone number. Took him a whopping 12 minutes to respond to my email!

[Mike Hollingsworth]

That's a great machine.
Try waxing the bed.

[Rod Sheridan]

I'll second Mike's suggestion.

Since there are no bed rollers, the bed has to be clean and lubricated.

Clean the bed with some solvent and scothbrite, the dry it and wax it a few times........Rod.

[Dave Novak]

Thought I'd come full circle on this question and say thanks as well. I admittedly didn't take the suggestions to clean and wax the bed seriously enough. It felt as slick as it ever was. Anyway, after hours of fiddling and fussing adjusting the rollers without success, I broke down and cleaned/waxed the bed. Now it works better than the day I purchased it. THANKS!

Best advice I'll probobly ever get to offer goes out to the other forum novices - trust what folks around here say, it will save you a lot of frustration!

[Dan Duperron]

Sorry to resurrect an ancient thread, but I'm doing this for posterity and future searchers. There is not a lot of FS30 troubleshooting info on the web.

I purchased this machine from Dave (no regrets BTW, thanks Dave!) and initially had problems with the feed - just as he did. If you got the roller pressure just right it would feed, but otherwise it would stall. I removed the front and rear plastic covers so I could see what was going on. The serrated infeed roller is attached to the drive train via a sprocket, fixed with a big nut. I could see that when the infeed roller stalled the sprocket continued to turn. My solution was to give the nut about 1 second burst with my Makita electric impact wrench to snug it up. Problem solved. Why the sprocket isn't keyed to the shaft to keep it from spinning I don't know. Ask the Italians.

Originally I could barely plane 1mm off a board without stalling if I was lucky. Now I can take off the maxiumum 4mm without a problem, it's night and day.

So if you have severe feed problems with your FS30, pull the covers and see if that sprocket is spinning on the infeed roller shaft.