Always Secure Your Knots!

[Jason Hanko]

Just learned that the hard way, to the tune of $60 in parts and shipping. Could be worse I suppose - Im glad this happened in the confines of my planer and not over on my jointer!

I was planing down a board of red oak which contained a medium sized knot, when suddenly it sounded like all hell broke loose inside my DW735. I shut her down as fast as I could, but of course the damage was already done. The knot came loose in the planer and decided to have some fun before breaking up. Part of it wedged between the blade and the body of the cutterhead - putting a nice bend in both the blade and blade holder. It popped the head off the screw directly above my newly-mangled blade holder; luckily I was able to get the headless screw out since there was a bit of a nub left once I removed the blade. Last but not least, it decided to take some chunks out of the dust shroud on its way out. No damage to the dust impeller, as best I can tell.

Well, lesson learned - just because I cant tap a knot out with a few hammer blows doesn't mean a blade at 10,000 RPM cant. In fact I probably just loosened it up to get it started... :(:mad:
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[Ryan Mooney]

I thought you were talking about tying something down with rope....

Looks like you had a pretty wild ride anyway, I've never seen that much damage from a knot before!! Scary.

[Matt Day]

THat's a good reminder! I've had a few blow up before but never did they do anything like that. I'll keep a better eye out now.

[Ben Hatcher]

I was expecting to see an empty boat in the middle of a lake, or a crashed tool laying on the side of the road. Thanks for sharing.

[Tom Ewell]

I'm always amazed at the power of these tools when something goes amiss.

I'm still trying to figure out how I bent a tooth on a 12" SCMS sawblade when cutting a piece of 1x4 cedar, heard the 'ol "kerchunk", shutdown, no knots, clean cuts, could still count ten fingers, just had a crooked sawtooth that wasn't there before.

[Peter Quinn]

Glad you are ok. I've been there lots of times, I have to work with common grades at work occasion for rustic items. I tend to step out of the way of the out feed as soon as possible and cross both fingers a lot . Not much breaks in an industrial planer but often the broken shards of knot come back to the user like a spray of bird shot. Just when you start thinking a planer is a safe machine it reminds you it isn't foolproof .

[Kevin Bourque]

This is why I wear a full face shield when I work, and not just a pair of safety glasses.

[Jim Finn]

I have this same planer and have had cedar knots come loose and destroy the discharge impeller. It cost about $50 to repair the plastic parts that were destroyed. I am more careful about what I run through this otherwise fine planer.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Wow - I had no idea this could happen. I often hear knots "explode" inside, but didn't realize it could do damage!

Is there some technique to reduce this risk? Do you tap them out, glue them in, something like that?

[Jim Summers]

I had one come loose in my 735 once and luckily it wedged between in-feed roller and table. I was able to quickly hit the power switch and all it did was score up the infeed roller a bit. Talk about stinking the place up!

Had one come loose over the weekend and I think it shattered enough to get through the impellor and into the dusct collector with out any problems. Better go knock on wood now.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I was expecting to see an empty boat in the middle of a lake,
LOL!
I never had a knot in the planer & my boat never ended up empty in the middle of a lake either!......


30 feet out from the launch ramp yes - but - not in the middle of the lake.... ;)

I'm not sure which was worse - that or the time I only removed one of the hold downs on the back, back it in,,,,and watched as the boat floated & flippped the trailer over....

Both were fairly,,,humbling? nah,,,humiliating is more like it...;)