Long Bed for a Delta 22-540 Lunch Box Planer

[John Baum]

I inherited a Delta 22-540 (S/N S9235) from a neighbor. It still runs fine. It has always had a 'snipe problem.' I am attempting to address the problem by extending the bed to 7’ 2” with a length cut from nice flat exterior door removed during a recent remodel. I cut the door to fit just inside width of the planer.

Today I discovered that the bed of the planer is a sheet metal bed mounted between two very short fences that are held in place by 4 hex cap screws on each side. When I push down on the sheet metal, it ‘gives’ a little bit. Perhaps this is a design feature? Perhaps it also contributes some to the snipe. I’d like to remove the fences in the hope that something flatter for the long-bed to rest on will make for a more stable cut.

Am I borrowing trouble if I remove this bed and set it aside in a bag so I can find all the parts in the future? Should I anticipate difficulty in reassembling the bed and fences accurately if I wish to do so?

Here is a closeup of the existing bed:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/1553/planerbed.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/planerbed.jpg/)

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I have two 102” long pieces of 1-5/8” Unistrut (and other parts like shelf supports) to support the planer and extension table as a single unit.

You can see I'm still exploring possibilities for what fits where. The plywood with struts in the foreground fits neatly into the recess under the 22-540.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6393/planerextensionbedbase1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/208/planerextensionbedbase1.jpg/)

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I am open to comments and shared experiences on what works and doesn't work in lunch box planer bed extension projects.

Thanks,

baumgrenze

[Rick Potter]

John,

I see a couple problems with your proposal. First, that door slab will not be very slippery, and the planer will possibly have trouble feeding. Secondly, you need the side fences. Sooner or later a board will go off track and cause problems.

May I suggest trying something just for chuckles? Get a piece of melamine coated particle board, like the pre-made shelves at HD, and cut a piece about 30" long, and the width of your planer bed. Put it in the planer so it sticks out evenly on each side, and install a simple 1X2 cleat on the bottom of the infeed side (so the board won't be sucked into the machine).

On my machine, this is all I needed to do to get decent cuts. There is still a minor snipe, but easily sanded, at least on my planer. If it works, you can tack on some simple fences. A further benefit of any board on the bed is that you can now plane thinner material than without it.

Oh, forgot. If this helps....wax it with paste wax.....works even better.

Hope this helps,
Rick Potter

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

I agree with the slippery part, but I've never found a need for side fences. My table is 3/4" MDF with plastic laminate on the top. I made my table around 20 years ago, and it has worked well for me. I still get snipe, but I can run a short piece of scrap in front of and behind the part being planed, no snipe. My table is based on one in FWW, I think the author was William Lego.


http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz35/HarveyMelvinRichards/P3101370Large.jpg

[John Baum]

Thank you Harvey and Rick for your replies.

I wet sanded the much aged latex paint surface on the door to 500 grit and pretty flat. I'd planned all along to use some Trewax we acquired 45 years ago in Vancouver, BC, to maintain our hardwood floors. It works great on the top of my 1970 Sears & Robuck 10" saw, and other such tools. Since I doubt I will be faced with anything thicker than 8/4 stock, I've no problem with the stock clearance on the planer, even with a bed as thick as a door. If it proves necessary to 'fence in the stock' I will tack down a couple of strips of 1/4" thick full-temper Masonite in the area where it passes through the planer, with a tapered opening each direction, mostly for symmetry and aesthetics. I will start by supporting the bed on several lengths of Unistrut, supported by 1/2" all-thread with lock-nuts to let me adjust its height up an down a bit. I'm still not clear on just how much deflection the drive rollers and cutter will produce. I will be certain to have supports just each side of the planer and further out on each end. I will allow a good 15" on the infeed end and use the remainder as an outfeed table.

I'm still open to further comment. In particular, I'm interested in whether or not some springiness in the manufacturer's bed is a standard feature of lunch-box planers.

Once this thing is set up and running, I will snap and send a photo, just for the record.

Thanks again,

baumgrenze

[HANK METZ]

I too noticed the bubble in the platen, what I did was to cut one side of the upright slots free and peen them down to help flatten it. I also took the time to painstakingly align both folding tables to the platen surface both front to back and side to side. This seemed to help control snipe and brought it to an acceptable presence (less than 1/64”). Where possible I try and feed at a slight horizontal angle, easing into the head, this also helps reduce the snipe. The major contributor to the problem is gearing backlash or “deadbanding” which allows the cutterhead to rise and fall ever so slightly during infeed and outfeed, thus making snipe the most common complaint about not only lunchbox planers but some stationary ones as well. Some have suggested elevating the tables with a slight pitch to compensated for the head float, but all I found that would do is give a cupped result, not flat as desired.

- Beachside Hank
Do not use remaining fingers as push sticks.

[Myk Rian]

I think you'll find waxed paint still has too much friction. I'm with the "Slippery to start with" crowd.
Leave the OEM table on. No sense losing parts.

[Charlie Jones]

I have a 3 foot auxiliary bed made from formica on my 540 and I never bothered with the side fences. A trick I use is to hold up on the board as it comes out of the planer. No snipe.

[John Coloccia]

I have a 3 foot auxiliary bed made from formica on my 540 and I never bothered with the side fences. A trick I use is to hold up on the board as it comes out of the planer. No snipe.

This right here. Lift up going in, lift up coming out. Not a lot. Just enough that it's definitely not angling backwards. I never have any snipe. I think this is almost a forgotten piece of knowledge, or maybe it's one of those little secrets you're not supposed to tell anyone, because you rarely hear this but it's critically important.

[John Baum]

Just for the record, this was not a problem at all. I was planing some recovered 5-1/2" wide 1-1/8" birch door casings to 7/8". They slid right through.

[Matt McColley]

I've got the same planer and it is indeed a sniper.....

here was my solution...

235858
...

235859

helped a lot on the tail end of the board.... still snipes on the front end....

[John Baum]

I promised a photo once I was up and running. Here is a composite of three views.

The planer is sitting on a 1/2" plywood base. There are 1/2" wooden cleats that fit the underside of the planer to keep it from moving. It is screwed to the base via the cleats. I had to raise the bed on 13 gauge (0.072") thick shims to clear the original bed and its side guides. With hindsight, once I’d flattened the door to my satisfaction (I dragged a solid aluminum block edgewise through the area 12” either side of the cutterhead and scraped and sanded until the gray was uniform across the surface.) With hindsight, I should have then lowered the face of the cutterhead, between the knives, until it just touched the aluminum block and then shimmed between the cross supports and the underside of the bed before drilling the screw holes for the Unistrut hold-downs on the edge of the bed.

I hope to come back when I don’t have a promised project on my schedule and try to check the distance between the bed and each knife edge, end-to-end, and also to check the cutterhead to bed distance between both knives, where the Planer Pals sit to register the blade. I don’t have a dial indicator. I was thinking of threading a hole for a #6 – 32 bolt in a flat plate and flattening the bolt head and using it as a crude micrometer. At 1/32” per turn, a 1/10th turn would be a little over 3/1000”. It would be a place to start.

Thanks to everyone for the input.

baumgrenze


http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/6074/planerproject0712.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/planerproject0712.jpg/)

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[John Baum]

As you can see from the photos, the planer is mounted on 1/2" plywood. I am tempted to conclude that this is not sufficiently thick. Today I used the planer again and was plagued by two levels of snipe on the infeed and single snipe on the outfeed. I watched and thought I saw the planer move as I fed the board in.

I grabbed a couple of bar clamps and an old hardwood slider door stop and used the combination to more tightly clamp down the planer to the Unistrut bed support. The front snipe was eliminated. I had only one more bar clamp at hand. I tried putting it on one side on the outfeed end. This did not end the outfeed snipe. Unlike in the past, if I push down on the board as it leaves the planer, the outfeed snipe is reduced.
I quit experimenting and finished my planning, satisfied with half a loaf.

Before I use the planer again, I plan to install 1-5/8” strongbacks on the plywood base beneath the infeed and outfeed ends. Then I will add cross members to the Unistrut frame under each strongback. I will start by trying a C-clamp at each corner. If it proves necessary, I’ll bolt down all four corners using all thread and angle irons across the top. The only other refinement I think might be nice is to use some large fine-thread bolts to allow me an adjustable way to shim the bed across the width of the planer.

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/8291/planersnipefix1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/planersnipefix1.jpg/)

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baumgrenze

[Jim Neeley]

John,

If all of the snipe here disappears, then I'd say it's time to stop but if it doesn't...

I remember (about 5 years ago) seeing a magazine article where they'd done something similar to yours (except melamine, if I remember correctly) and they installed jack screws at the end of the board so they could lift the ends of the in and outfeed table up a few 32nds of an inch, tuning it to remove the last of the snipe from their 22-540. I've remembered it because I have one too.. except I've always been successful with the "lift it" approach and don't have the real estate for a long dedicated in/outfeed area.

Jim