Planer Feed Rollers

[Jerry Bruette]

I picked up a Ridgid TP13002 planer at an auction and I'm in the process of cleaning it up and noticed the feed rollers are tapered. Is this their normal condition or do I need to fix this? You can see on the pictures how much they are tapered and I find it odd that they are tapered in the opposite directions. If this needs to be fixed can I send them somewhere to be recovered and how do I know the original diameter?

359100

[Geoff Crimmins]

That's an interesting question. I've never used Rigid planer and I never measured feed rollers on the lunchbox planer I used to have. The rollers will compress a bit when you feed a board through so i'm inclined to say the slight difference in diameter isn't a big deal. The answer to you question probably lies in how the planer works. If it feeds boards straight through and cuts fine, then it's not a problem. If the board skews to the side and gets stuck then there's a problem. Someplace like this http://www.feedrollers.com/ResharpeningRecover/resharpeningrecover.html could recover the rollers, though I'm not sure it would be cost effective to do that.

[Randy Heinemann]

Maybe call Ridgid Tech Support and ask if the difference is due to wear or just a normal variation in the manufacturing process. I have never measured the diameter of my rollers (on my Dewalt); just used it without a problem. I'd agree that, if there is no problem feeding narrower wood through on either end or in the middle, I would guess that the small differences don't make any difference.

[Art Mann]

If it works, don't mess with it. I put a zillion board feet of lumber through a TP1300 over 10 years and the only problem I ever experienced with the rollers is that they will accumulate a slick build-up of pitch and sawdust, especially after planing a lot of pine. This causes the material feed to stall. My solution was to use 90% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and paper towels to remove it with the rollers in place. As long as the rollers are feeding the work piece through the machine, it doesn't matter whether they are a perfect cylinder or not. Thickness is controlled by the cutter head position with respect to the bed.

[Jerry Bruette]

Is it possible that the feed rollers could be worn to the extent that they don't put enough pressure on the stock to feed it through the cutter head?

I'm new to planers and will probably have a whole bunch of questions.