Mike MacGregor
06-24-2017, 12:13 AM
Over the past couple of years I have been collecting reclaimed timbers from house demos. Is I have a number of 6"x 8" posts/beams in fir and cedar. 6 feet in length. Very dry, dense and heavy. Most are painted and (as it goes) very rough.
I have a 40 year old 16x8 Busy Bee B325 planer (like a Makita 2040 but with a 3HP motor and 4 blades). Its rollers are kinda shot, but the HSS blades are sharp. It planes light stuff OK. I tried running on of these reclaimed posts through this planer and the results were poor. The post stalled a number of time, and the blade burned. I ran ith through a dozen times and it was disappointing.
So I started to do a bit of research and realized I should be jointing first, then plane.
I called up a buddy who has a relatively new Griz 8" jointer. We ran the post through about a dozen times and soon discovered that the length and weight of the post was causing the post to lift and end up getting a curved surface.
So e thought we would run it through his DW735 planer with a shelix head. To passes and the post was great. Flip it, two more passes and we had it done. Very impressive.
So... I am at a loss. Why didnt my 16x9 planer have similar results to the DW735 with Shelix. Even though my HSS blades are fresh and sharp, is the Shelix that much better? Can the worn rollers be causing a lot of the problem?
Also - why did his new Griz (HSS blades) really have no effect? What could we be doing wrong?
thanks guys.
I have a 40 year old 16x8 Busy Bee B325 planer (like a Makita 2040 but with a 3HP motor and 4 blades). Its rollers are kinda shot, but the HSS blades are sharp. It planes light stuff OK. I tried running on of these reclaimed posts through this planer and the results were poor. The post stalled a number of time, and the blade burned. I ran ith through a dozen times and it was disappointing.
So I started to do a bit of research and realized I should be jointing first, then plane.
I called up a buddy who has a relatively new Griz 8" jointer. We ran the post through about a dozen times and soon discovered that the length and weight of the post was causing the post to lift and end up getting a curved surface.
So e thought we would run it through his DW735 planer with a shelix head. To passes and the post was great. Flip it, two more passes and we had it done. Very impressive.
So... I am at a loss. Why didnt my 16x9 planer have similar results to the DW735 with Shelix. Even though my HSS blades are fresh and sharp, is the Shelix that much better? Can the worn rollers be causing a lot of the problem?
Also - why did his new Griz (HSS blades) really have no effect? What could we be doing wrong?
thanks guys.