setting knives in 20" planer question

[dale rex]

Gotta either sharpen or replace the blades in my Grizzly G0454 20" planer. Im thinking about just replacing them with a better grade of steel, probably T1 from Holbren. The setting gauge that comes with the Grizzly planer just doesnt seem to be a very accurate way of doing it. This is my first time changing blades on the beast and I want to do it accurately and properly. Woodcraft has several aftermarket jigs, one is the Woodcraft version: http://www.woodcraft.com/Family/2004973/Magnetic-Planer-Knife-Setting-Jigs.aspx and the other is planer pals: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003191/219/Planer-Pal.aspx. I have also watched Bob Vaughns videos on jointer and planer knife changing. I really like his gauges, but dont want to spend the time to make them. I purchased a OneWay Multigauge for my jointer and it worked very well for me. But I dont think I can use it for my planer. Any opinions on either one? Big cost difference there too. Any help would be appreciated.

[Paul Murphy]

You can use your OneWay Multigauge. Put the gauge on the bed, but inverted. Zero the gauge on the cutterhead and measure the knife projection. do the same for each end, and the center. If you have to reset zero, your bed is not paralell to the cutterhead. readjust the bed if it is out more than a few thou. If you reset zero at every point your knives will be paralell to cutterhead. If you never reset zero, your knives will be paralell to the bed. If you level the bed first, knives, bed, and cutterhead will all be paralell.

Powermatic used to sell a cast iron base for a dial indicator that straddled the cutterhead. I have one, and it is one other way to measure knife projection relative to cutterhead, but what you have should work just as accurately, and also tell you if the bed is paralell to the cutterhead!

[Josh Bowman]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-986589700074242027#

Bob Vaughn. Used his method on my Delta 380 clone, it worrked great. My planer is very tight getting to the blades, but I figured it out.

[dale rex]

Paul, isnt it difficult to work with the OneWay Multi-gauge when its underneath the cutterhead like that? I personally think it is better, like you mentioned in your post, to reference the knives to the planer bed.

[Steven Satur]

I bought those mag. planer knife setting jigs and returned them. The were plastic junk that just were not accurate. They flexed too much.

[Rob Holcomb]

I bought the planer pals. The metal ones. I could hardly get them in-between the planer housing and the chip breaker. Never could get them to be positioned right on the cutter head so they would work.

[Paul Murphy]

Paul, isnt it difficult to work with the OneWay Multi-gauge when its underneath the cutterhead like that? I personally think it is better, like you mentioned in your post, to reference the knives to the planer bed.

Dale, you are right, it is slower with the OneWay under the cutterhead. I own and normally use the powermatic indicator base which straddles the cutterhead, but I read that handy little item was discontinued. Perhaps you can find it somewhere still in stock, but I would just make one of Bob Vaughn's bases. Search here and the OWWM forum if you want to see how some other folks have done it. I have seen multiple posts of very nice examples, functionally as good as, or even better than my old store-bought base.