Tuning up a DC-380 15" planer

[Dave Zellers]

So I'm tuning up my planer that I bought used about 2 years ago and have a couple questions.


The area around the cutter head on the gear side had some oily sawdust accumulated there with a little also on that end of the chip breaker so the seal must be leaking or is a small amount of leakage normal? I replaced the gear box oil when I bought it and I have never seen any evidence of oil on the planned boards. Any problem with just leaving things alone? (my preference)


Also- after meticulously setting newly sharpened knives, I'm getting a little less than 1/64" difference in thickness between the right and left ends. The cause of this seems to be confirmed by the upper body not being perfectly parallel to the bed.


So- here's my problem. There is no way I can tip the planer on it's side as the instructions say to adjust the sprockets and fix the alignment. Can this be done with the planer upright on it's stand? I have the older model stand with open sides. Also, will moving a sprocket 1 tooth fix a less than 1/64th difference?


I sharpen my own knives and use magnetic planer pals to set them so I guess I could insert a feeler gauge to make up this difference when I set the knives but I'd prefer to have everything adjusted perfectly if that's possible.


Thanks for reading. What would you do?

[Alan Schaffter]

Oil leak is a known problem with the DC-380. The journal seal can leak. In my case the gear box drain plug just worked loose, so was an easy fix.

I can 't remember about the chain but think there must be an adjustable idler to take up the slack. All work can be done with the planer upright- including installing a new Byrd Shelix- best upgrade you'll ever do!!