DW733 Planer Roller Question

[Bob Elliott]

A friend gave me a DW733 planer this weekend. He owns a custom woodworking shop and this is the first planer he had when he started about 10 years ago. It has has hundreds if not thousands of board feet of wood through it.

The problem with the planer is it won't feed wood. It will start and then when it gets under the cutterhead it stops. I suspected a problem with the rollers.

I took the planer apart last night to inspect the rollers. They were clean and free of pitch and debris. I used a caliper to measure the diameter and found that the infeed roller varied 0.025" across the length and the outfeed roller varied 0.045" across the length.

What is the acceptable variation for the diameter of these rollers? is the taper of these rollers acceptable? I priced new rollers and they are about $85 shipped. I am not sure of I want to invest $85 in a well used tool.

Thanks,

Bob

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Bob, are the rollers slipping on the material, or are the rollers just stopping?

I would say try new knives (dull knives will contribute to poor feeding); wax the bed, and make sure there are no burrs or other 'catches' on the bed; and clean the rollers with rubbing alcohol.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Yep if they move intil it hits the knives I would check the knives. remove the knives and run a board through it

[Bob Elliott]

I'll try new knives, cleaning the rollers and rewaxing the bed.

Does anyone know what the acceptable deviation of the diameter of the rollers along the length is? Like I said this planer is well used and the rollers are visibly worn.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I'll try new knives, cleaning the rollers and rewaxing the bed.

Does anyone know what the acceptable deviation of the diameter of the rollers along the length is? Like I said this planer is well used and the rollers are visibly worn.

Bob, I am not sure deviation in the diameter of the rollers would matter, since they are spring loaded. I suppose if they were seriously deformed to the point where only a small area of contact existed (between the roller and the board) then you could have this issue.

FWIW, I had the same frustration with stuff just not moving through (while I was trying to build/test a planer sled). new knives (old ones were fairly dull) and cleaning the rollers (they were pretty dusty) made a big difference.

[Bob Elliott]

Because of wear the rollers are npo longer cylindrical. I used my digital calipers to measure each roller. I measured at hte extream end and zeroed my caliper. I got a deviation from this diameter of 0.045" along the lengeth. The opposite end repeated the initial measurement.

What this tells me is that the roller isn't getting 100% contact with the wood it is feeding. What I don't know is how much deviation is acceptable.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Because of wear the rollers are npo longer cylindrical. I used my digital calipers to measure each roller. I measured at hte extream end and zeroed my caliper. I got a deviation from this diameter of 0.045" along the lengeth. The opposite end repeated the initial measurement.

What this tells me is that the roller isn't getting 100% contact with the wood it is feeding. What I don't know is how much deviation is acceptable.

They should be spring loaded, to follow any contours of a board; I would imagine that should also work due to any devision in the roller itself. I think you should more closely observe what's going on while it stops to move the board through - does the roller just stop (could be a problem with the roller drive chain, etc) or does the roller keep rolling but slipping on the board?

it might also be good (as said above) to remove all the knives and make some "dry runs" through the planer. A good experiment (with no knives installed) might be to see how difficult it is (using your hand) to cause the board to stop feeding.