A Board's First Pass Through A Planer - Lunchbox vs. Stationary

[Glen Blanchard]

I bought a Grizzly 15" planer a few weeks ago from an ad on Craig's List, and I have a question. This may not be specific to the Grizzly, but rather might be pretty much universal for all full size stationary planers.

I have yet to use it extensively, and am trying to get used to how it differs from my DeWalt lunchbox planer. The DeWalt had a small needle which, by deflecting, would indicate the approximate depth of cut prior to actually doing any planing. I always knew when the planer had been adjusted to take that initial bite on a board's first run through the planer based on that indicator. Since there is no such deflecting indicator on my new Grizzly, I am uncertain how to gauge the height of the table for that same first run. The only solution I have come up with so far is to very slowly raise the table as the board passes through it until I can hear it just beginning to cut.

Is there another way without measuring the thickness of the board and then adjusting the table according to the height indicator on the machine?

One more question....regarding the table locks. Those are supposed to be tightened down after each adjustment to the table height????? Really????

[Dave Cav]

The way I do it (and teach my students) is:

With the planer off, lower the table until the board can be pushed through the planer without hitting anything (chip breaker, blade, feed rollers, etc).

Put the board about half way through the planer. Turn it on, and raise the table until the feed rollers push the board through (without the cutter head contacting the board.)

Give the elevation wheel 1/2 to 1 full turn and start planing.

[johnny means]

why wouldn't you want to measure the board?

[Glen Blanchard]

why wouldn't you want to measure the board?

Oftentimes I am relative dimensioning, and not after a partricular thickness, and as such, don't really keep up with the actual measured thickness.

[glenn bradley]

I assume there is no indicator of any kind on the machine(?). Before I put my DRO on my 15" Griz I used the attached rule/indicator and a caliper on the board. If there is no analog indicator on the machine it may be a good excuse to get a DRO. I used this one (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?147491-Digital-Readout-on-Grizzly-G0453Z-Planer).


regarding the table locks. Those are supposed to be tightened down after each adjustment to the table height????? Really????

Yes. Absolutely lock them firmly prior to running anything through the machine to assure a consistent and stable result.

[johnny means]

I am uncertain how to gauge the height of the table for that same first run. The only solution I have come up with so far is to very slowly raise the table as the board passes through it until I can hear it just beginning to cut.

Is there another way without measuring the thickness of the board and then adjusting the table according to the height indicator on the machine?




I still don't understand how using a tape measure is not the easiest, fastest way to do this. Does your machine have no scale at all?

[Rod Sheridan]

I bought a Grizzly 15" planer a few weeks ago from an ad on Craig's List, and I have a question. This may not be specific to the Grizzly, but rather might be pretty much universal for all full size stationary planers.

I have yet to use it extensively, and am trying to get used to how it differs from my DeWalt lunchbox planer. The DeWalt had a small needle which, by deflecting, would indicate the approximate depth of cut prior to actually doing any planing. I always knew when the planer had been adjusted to take that initial bite on a board's first run through the planer based on that indicator. Since there is no such deflecting indicator on my new Grizzly, I am uncertain how to gauge the height of the table for that same first run. The only solution I have come up with so far is to very slowly raise the table as the board passes through it until I can hear it just beginning to cut.

Is there another way without measuring the thickness of the board and then adjusting the table according to the height indicator on the machine?

One more question....regarding the table locks. Those are supposed to be tightened down after each adjustment to the table height????? Really????

Glen, get a piece of flexible plastic about the thickness of a piece of Formica. Make it about the size of one of those Formica samples you get from a supplier.

Cut a couple of slots in it so you can adjust it up and down a few mm. Drill and tap the planer head so the bottom edge of the plastic flap is level with the bottom of your cutter circle.

Now when you put the end of the board against the plastic it will show you where the cutter circle is, and the plastic will just bend like a mud flap when you run material through the planer.

Regards, Rod.

P.S. I only use the table locks on the final pass to make sure that all the pieces are identical

[John Lanciani]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kWqezRzoL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Quick and easy, $11. I glued a magnet to mine and leave it stuck on the planer so it's handy.

[glenn bradley]

I still don't understand how using a tape measure is not the easiest, fastest way to do this. Does your machine have no scale at all?


Quick and easy, $11. I glued a magnet to mine and leave it stuck on the planer so it's handy.

I'm pretty sure the challenge here is that the machine is used and no longer has (or maybe never had) a depth indicator of its own. The depth-of-cut indicator provided on some lunchbox planers lt you know that you are not going to miss completely or suddenly take off an 1/8" and floor standing models that I have seen to not have this.

Despite measuring the board's current thickness, the rub-bar at the entrance of my machine is a fat 1/8" higher than the cutter head. A board coule be run through, the thickness measured and then a measurement form the table to some constant point on the cutter head carriage taken. This difference would indicate the cutterhead position but, I think Glen is hoping for a more user friendly and less fussy method. ;)

[John Coloccia]

I put it through and raise the table until it feeds....then I add a 1/2 turn and start running it through some more.

re: measuring
Measure from where? I use all rough wood. if I happen to measure a low spot, I could be off a huge amount by the time I get to the high spots. The run it through method seems to be pretty conservative.

I don't even have any of the scales on my equipment calibrated. The scales are useless for precision work (where I use a micrometer) and I always mark my boards to thickness and plane to the mark for non-precision work....just like doing it by hand but with a machine instead.

Anyhow, that's just how I do it. The depth of cut indicator is a slick addition that I wouldn't mind seeing on the stationary machines. I also wouldn't mind a precision digital depth indicator that was reliable enough to trust.

Like Rod, I only lock down for the final one or two passes.

[Glen Blanchard]

I'm pretty sure the challenge here is that the machine is used and no longer has (or maybe never had) a depth indicator of its own. The depth-of-cut indicator provided on some lunchbox planers lt you know that you are not going to miss completely or suddenly take off an 1/8" and floor standing models that I have seen to not have this.

Despite measuring the board's current thickness, the rub-bar at the entrance of my machine is a fat 1/8" higher than the cutter head. A board coule be run through, the thickness measured and then a measurement form the table to some constant point on the cutter head carriage taken. This difference would indicate the cutterhead position but, I think Glen is hoping for a more user friendly and less fussy method. ;)

Fairly close, Glenn. Actually the used planer I picked up does indeed have a depth indicator. It kinda boils down to what I have been used to doing in the past with my lunchbox planer. On that planer, as you slide your board up to the infeed roller, there is a small indicator that deflects based on the position of the machine and the thickness of the board. It tells the user approx how much material will be removed with that pass. This information is obtained without ever measuring the board's thickness. If the indicator does not get deflected, no material will be removed. My habit has been to lower the cutterhead until that indicator just slightly deflects, and by doing so, I know that a slight amount of material will be planed from the board on that first pass. With my new Grizzly (without measuring the board's thickness and referencing the depth indicator) I am unable to tell when the table has been raised enough to just have the cutterhead kiss the board on that first pass. The rollers grab it far in advance of any cutterhead contact, and often the board gets run through without actually removing any material. I was just wanting to know if there was a quick, down and dirty method for setting the table height on that first pass. Dave Cav's idea offers just that. Thanks all.

[Prashun Patel]

+1 on what Dave and Jon said. My DW735 has an indicator, but I've never relied on it.

Alternatively, you can accurately calibrate the thickness indicator - assuming you have one - and then just use a caliper on a few points of your board to determine how deep to set it.

[Mike Goetzke]

Glen - I'm getting used to the same swap as you. I use rough sawn lumber so after joining one face the thickness can vary quite a bit on the first few passes. Because of this, even on my lunch box, I used calipers to measure the thickest section and set the DRO on the machine accordingly.


Mike

[Matthew Hills]

I was used to the "ind-i-cut" feature of my little Ridgid planer. The Parks I just got doesn't have this feature. Here is what the manual recommends:


Switch on the motor to start the cutterhead and motor drive. ...

Place the board to be planed on the table with the leading edge just under the in-feed roll. Riase the table slowly by means of the handwheel until the in-feed roll pulls the board into the planer. This first pass may or may not result in light planing of the board.

Raise the table again by turning the handwheel one full turn. By observing, you will determine just how much stock was taken off by the full turn of the handwheel and when making subsequent passes you can better determine how much the handwheel should be turned to give you the desired thickness of cut.

Matt

[David Gandy]

I have a DeWalt 735 with this same feature and I do like it because it works. I just finished restoring a PM120 which is a Powermatic 12" planer manufactured in the early sixties. This was a complete tear down restoration and I set the machine up using Bob Vaughns excellent video instruction which is available on you tube when it came time for the fine adjustments. The segmented infeed roller is poistioned 1/32" or about .031 above the arc of the knives on the cutterhead so if I want to take a 1/16" off the face, I insert the widest end of the board under the infeed roller, crank the table up until I feel a bit of contact, turn the wheel about 1/8 of an additional turn and then remove the board. Turn the machine on and run the board through. This method with the way my planer is set up will then take 1/16" off. I always face joint the board before I run it through the planer if the board will fit on my jointer and I also measure the length of the board with calipers to insure that I don't have a big high spot in the middle somewhere that is in excess of 1/8". My old Powermatic had the pointer for the scale missing when I bought it and since the restoration, I haven't yet made a new one for it but when I do, perhaps I will change my method but this one really works pretty well.
Doer

[johnny means]

Still scratching my head. Seems to me that milling rough lumber calls for several measurements along the length of a board in order to account for variation. What happens when you jam a 1" thick board into your machine and the thickness increases by 3/16" after 7' of board have passed through. Isn't it easier to adjust the planer before picking up the material? If you adjust the planer as your board feeds through, does that mean you have to re-feed at the same setting to thickness the leading end of the board that you missed on the first pass?

[Prashun Patel]

Yes, but you'd have to do that anyway if you initially set the planer to 3/16" higher in the first place. This way, you are sure to find the maximum thickness on the first pass.

[Angela micinski]

I dont like the 735 very much but I must say the gauge that shows you the board has been picked up by the rollers is nice and I can't believe that the Grizzly 15 inch planer doesn't have such a basic thing.

[johnny means]

Yes, but you'd have to do that anyway if you initially set the planer to 3/16" higher in the first place. This way, you are sure to find the maximum thickness on the first pass.

But you wouldn't set the depth 3/16" higher than necessary on the first pass if you measured the board first. You would know exactly where to set your planer in order to remove the maximum amount of material your particular machine could remove on the very first pass.

Does anyone else out there believe that you should measure and set up BEFORE starting any machining process?

[Angela micinski]

If I had to measure my rough lumber every time before I put it through the planer I would drive me crazy.

[johnny means]

If I had to measure my rough lumber every time before I put it through the planer I would drive me crazy.

You only need to measure each board once, it's not rough lumber after the first pass. After that point you should know exactly what thickness you have. Is measuring something really that difficult or time consuming?

[Glen Blanchard]

Does anyone else out there believe that you should measure and set up BEFORE starting any machining process?

I can only tell you how I work wood. I will not be so bold as to tell you that everyone does or should do it as I do.

I would guess that I don't measure just as often as I do. For any machining process. I shave a tenon down until it fits the mortise, not a measurement. If I am duplicating a piece and I need to rip, I use the original to set the table saw fence. If I am thicknessing a panel to fit a groove, I seldom use my calipers. The actual fit tells me when I am done. In general, I am more likely to measure at the beginning of a project. The further I get into it, the more likely I am to mill one piece to fit a piece which has already been milled - and I don't always use numbers to get there.

A friend from another forum, Dave Knipfer, wrote an interesting article regarding this topic.

http://www.woodworkstuff.net/DKRelDim.html

[Myk Rian]

I measure the lumber with a ruler or caliper and mark it with chalk.
It isn't hard to eyeball a board and see that it's thicker at one end, middle, wherever.
If you can't see, or feel a difference in thickness, don't worry about it. The planer will get it.

Measure the wood and set the planer with the depth scale. It isn't hard at all.

[Prashun Patel]

Johnny-
Let's say yr ends 1", but the middle is 1 3/16". If you measure first and then run it thru at 1 3/16", then you still have to run it through again at 1" to to get it all to an even 1".

But if you set it at 1" first, and then raise it if/when it stops, then you still have to run it thru again at 1" a second time.

Either way, it requires 2 passes.

I'm just saying either way works fine.

Personally, I don't really start calipering until I'm close to final dimensions, but to each his own.

[johnny means]

Why would I set my first pass at 1 3/16"? If I had already measured and determined those dimensions my first pass would be at 1". Is there some reason why your first pass would not be set up to actually cut wood? I don't slide my lumber down my rip fence with the fence set wider than my board then adjust the fence to make my cut on a second pass. Why would I do this with my planer?

[Prashun Patel]

You said originally, "What happens when you jam a 1" thick board into your machine and the thickness increases by 3/16" after 7' of board have passed through."

My answer is, raise the cutter if/when this happens. When you run it through on the next pass, the piece gets planed to uniform thickness.

I think our 'debate' is moot, and I think I misunderstood your above post. Regardless, I think we're both happy with how we plane, so let's just end this for now. Best to you!

[Angela micinski]

I just think that lowering the blades till the gauge moves is so easy I can't believe they even make a planer without one.

[Joe Leigh]

...I don't slide my lumber down my rip fence with the fence set wider than my board then adjust the fence to make my cut on a second pass. Why would I do this with my planer?

For me anyway, getting a board to it's final thickness with a planer is a matter of sneaking up on the final dimension through a series of light cuts. It's a much different technique than ripping a board. I would never take a board that varied in thickness from 1" to 1-3/16" and set my height at 1" and make one pass.

[Brian Penning]

I just think that lowering the blades till the gauge moves is so easy I can't believe they even make a planer without one.


Agree with you.