jet 20" planer kickback

[mike elmore]

I bought a 20" jet planer at an auction. Seems to be in very good shape. Try to run board through it and it won't feed well and I also get a wicked kickback. Tried adjusting the infeed rollers down and still get the problem.
Any Ideas?

Thanks in advance
Mike

[Jeff Monson]

What condition are the knives in? And are they installed correctly? That would be my first concerns.

[Rod Sheridan]

As Jeff indicated, changing the knives is in order, however it's only step 1.

The knives must be adjusted to obtain the cutting circle specified by the manufacturer, this can be accomplished with a knife setting jig for that planer, or by measuring the knife projection with a dial indicator.

Likewise the infeed roller, chip breaker, pressure bar and outfeed roller all have to be set to the correct position in reference to the knife circle.

The manufacturer will provide those specifications in the manual.

Planers look simple, however for correct operation they need precision measurements to verify adjustments.

Regards, Rod.

[Mike Heidrick]

like Rod said, pull out the manual or look one up.

[glenn bradley]

With any new machine and certainly with a used one I would go through a complete inspection and alignment procedure before using. Kickback from a planer takes some doing; bad adjustments, bad technique, etc. If the infeed roller caught the board and started feeding it, your stock wasn't too thin. If it kicked once it had control of the material; dull knives is my first thought, cutterhead BDC is my next but, there are too many adjustments that work in concert in the feed path to diagnose from here. My vision's not that good :). As others have said, the manual is your friend.

[Dale Friend]

I found this video very helpful when I replaced blades on my planer.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-986589700074242027#

Dale