Digital read out for jointer-planer

[Howard Pollack]

Hi- I have a Robland jointer-planer and would like to add a digital read out for adjusting the planer thickness. The one I've found is the Wixey WR-550. I wonder if anyone has experience with this item and are there other appropriate gauges on the market? Thanks.
-Howard

[Jim Becker]

If you play with the Advanced Search, you can likely find several threads about adding a DRO to a J/P. It's come up multiple times.

I have one on my MiniMax J/P (Digi-something or another) and when I actually remember to put fresh batteries in it, it works great. :o

[glenn bradley]

I have run this one (https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003JUII2A/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all&qid=1507755889&sr=8-8) on my planer for years. Long enough that it was about $30 when I got it. No problems ever, I trust it implicitly.

[Ben Abate]

Today I just installed the same one (Wixey 550) on my 20 inch J/P and it seem to work very well. After running the height adjustment thru a few cycles it was within .005 give or take. Sometimes dead on sometimes .005. That’s pretty good in my book. My procedure is to run the table up from the bottom to within an inch of the 0.00 then I use the slow advance button to bring it to the full up position. I have an older Felder 751 that I bought new in 04. The analog dial I never cared for. I did some research and you can spend a mortgage payment on a DRO if you care to. I’m sure they are worth it but for me it’s planning wood. I normally finish most items on the wide belt anyways

I've put off buying the Wixey for yrs because I thought I needed something expensive and sophisticated. Not true, I’ve had one on my molder for yrs and it works pretty darn good. There was a fellow selling the 550 in the classifieds the other day. I hesitated and I now see it is sold. It was new in the box for $35.00.

I was actually surprised by the quality of the scale beam of this unit.

Hope me this helps

[Mark Bolton]

Do yourself a favor and dont waste your time with the wixey. They are attractively priced but for a planer/jointer you will want something that reads in the .001 accuracy and the wixey does not. Also the wixweys have notorious issues with loose batteries and vibrations which will cause them to completely reset (and therefore need to be re-setup) constantly especially when they get older.

If you want a DRO spend the money on a Proscale or something equivalent that actually reads .001 and is robust. The wixeys display three decimal places but do not read with that accuracy. If you are rough surfacing it may be ok (other than the constant resets).

We tried a couple of wixeys and never again. You may find a .001 read import on ebay or something to save a few pennies over the proscale but most of them will be targeted to the metal working world.

[Bill Dufour]

Look on the bay for a quill DRO for a generic unit to attach yourself.
Bill

[Randy Heinemann]

The negative experience with Wixey doesn't reflect everyone's experience. The Wixey DRO which I have installed on my planer does read to the .001 and is extremely accurate. I generally check the thickness on the final pass with my calipers before running all the wood through and it is always within .001 or .002 of that reading. The only time I must recalibrate is when I change batteries which is not very often. I love mine and have never had a problem with it. It's been installed on my planer for 5+ years. The support I have gotten from the company when I have called with a question has been fantastic.

[Curt Harms]

The original Wixey had issues that Mark talked about. I had a similar experience and replaced it with an iGaging unit that works very well. The tricky part was to figure out how to calibrate it. There is a new model of Wixey planer gauge that I have no experience with.

[Mark Bolton]

Last time I looked the wixey site still called out .005 resolution not .001. And sure hope there is a newer version that doesnt suffer from vibration. I'm sure on a machine that sees infrequent use it may take longer or not happen at all but we had issues with these shortly after install. Calling their support they were helpful and said to put a piece of foam under the battery cover to apply pressure to the batteries. Which we did.

These were most definitely the first version if there is a new version but eventually the foam didn't even work and they would reset, lock up, freeze, continually. I can't say I was surprised at the price point and being on a machine that may run 6-8 hours a day at times.

[Dan Friedrichs]

The current version of the Wixey (for sale on Amazon) only reads with 0.005" resolution (although, very annoyingly, they have pictures showing 0.001" resolution, and have not updated this despite emailing me and admitting that these are the wrong pictures!)

You CAN buy the 0.001" resolution version on Wixey's website (I think it's called the "hi res" display, or something like that - the beam is the same for both, it's just the display head that's different).

All that said, I have the 0.005" resolution version on my Hammer J/P combo, and I think it's the better choice. The planer bed is supported by a large center post, and the scale is (necessarily) mounted at the "end" of the bed. So there is a little bit of flexation, and I think seeing the display vary at the thousandths place might be irritating.

[Cary Falk]

Are we really complaining about .005" accuracy on wood? I have the Wixey 550 and am very happy with it. It is quick and more accurate than the Grizzly scale. I had an Iguaging one but it was a pain to calibrate. I have never had the any of the issues with the Wixey.

[Bob Falk]

I put a Wixey on my Robland XSD and it works well. I mounted mine on the inside of the base to keep it out of the way, using the existing scale as a mounting point, but wouldn't do it again as it is hard to access for recalibration which I find I occasionally have to do. I find I can consistently plane boards to 5-10 thousandths....after all, this is wood, not CNC'ed NASA parts. Who needs wood planed to 0.001?

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I like the ones Grizzly sells. I have them on about 4 machines. Cheaper.

[Randy Heinemann]

.005", .001 . . . Really it's not that significant given that wood expands and contracts more than that between seasons and even from one week to the next. I still use the DRO on my planer though so, if it gets me to .005" that's, for sure, close enough. I used to try to reach the highest level of precision possible until I realized that it's difficult to be more precise than 1/64" (.015") when cutting or routing. When fitting parts they just need to fit and then measurement isn't important; only the final fit and how the project goes together. So, anything that gets a planed board to within .005" is more than precise enough.

[Bob Falk]

.005", .001 . . . Really it's not that significant given that wood expands and contracts more than that between seasons and even from one week to the next. I still use the DRO on my planer though so, if it gets me to .005" that's, for sure, close enough. I used to try to reach the highest level of precision possible until I realized that it's difficult to be more precise than 1/64" (.015") when cutting or routing. When fitting parts they just need to fit and then measurement isn't important; only the final fit and how the project goes together. So, anything that gets a planed board to within .005" is more than precise enough.

Amen. I just did the math on wood expansion and a Red Oak board 10" wide will swell 0.017" with a MC change from 8% to 9% (or shrink from 9% to 8%). So, that's about 0.002" for a 1/10 of a percent moisture change. We THINK all our lumber is at a consistent MC, but there is variability both within a board and between boards. So, as Randy implied, its all academic trying to plane to less than 0.005" (or even 0.010" IMO) as even slight MC changes can overshadow any precision we think we are achieving.

[Mark Bolton]

Are we really complaining about .005" accuracy on wood? I have the Wixey 550 and am very happy with it. It is quick and more accurate than the Grizzly scale. I had an Iguaging one but it was a pain to calibrate. I have never had the any of the issues with the Wixey.

Try matching up face frames or panel glue ups, or running a .005 res scale on a shaper running cope and stick. You'd be amazed at how much grief it is. Again, if your workflow allows you to assemble oversize and calibrate through a sander or planer after, .005 is fine. A lot of our work is like that. A bit of thickness variation is taken out when it goes through the sander. But calibrating mortise and tenons on 1 3/8" or 1 3/4" doors.... the .001 is very very handy. The issue with the wixey for me was less the .005 res (knew that going in) but the vibration issues are a major major nuisance. Like I say, hopefully for anyones sake who buys one, those issues have been rectified.

[David Kumm]

I think we sometimes confuse accuracy with repeatability. I prefer the Proscale but it is more about being able to duplicate a piece from a week ago that I screwed up. If I can feel the difference in thickness with my fingers, it is not acceptable. How it might move later might be different but if I spend for a DRO, it will be accurate enough to consistently repeat its settings. Dave

[Randy Heinemann]

I think we sometimes confuse accuracy with repeatability. I prefer the Proscale but it is more about being able to duplicate a piece from a week ago that I screwed up. If I can feel the difference in thickness with my fingers, it is not acceptable. How it might move later might be different but if I spend for a DRO, it will be accurate enough to consistently repeat its settings. Dave

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I know for a fact I couldn't feel .005" difference in thickness between 2 boards on my best day. Also, as long as I plane to the same thickness on the DRO it won't matter whether it's .005" thicker or thinner than I originally wanted it to be. It's the same as the wood I planed a couple of days ago if it reads the same on the gauge. It certainly is more accurate than merely using the thickness gauge on the planer from the factory. The difference of .005" is less than 1/128". I can't set any of my power tools nor make cuts to that kind of tolerance. That's why we have hand tools like chisels, hand planes, spokeshaves, and, in the end sand paper. These make those infinitesimal adjustments to make drawers fit, face frames perfectly flush, and all the parts finally fit as perfectly together as possible. My eyes and hands, as well as most of my machines, just can't get things to that tolerance.

[Mark Bolton]

.005 is completely noticable on cope and stick, and very noticable on m&t. We virtually never final fit with hand tools. But if it works for you that's great. Run with it.

Just as an example a sheet of paper is normally reference that .003 so are you saying that you can lay a sheet of paper down on a hard surface and run your finger over the edge and not tell where the edge of the sheet of paper is?

[glenn bradley]

Forgot the picture. I found seeing how folks have mounted them to be helpful when I was searching.

369573

I just used a shaped scrap of ash to make a 'connector' that allowed me to gt the DRO a little farther from the are where the material travels. I can sometimes be a klutz and had visions of spearing the poor thing with a heavy piece of something.

[David Kumm]

Fingers are pretty sensitive. I know that when squaring my crosscut fences using Brian Lamb's precision square, my fingers can feel a difference I can't see. I've got a Wixey on my small planer and it has been great. I've had a couple others that have not been consistent. It may be that newer units are more consistent. I know the Proscale are and use those on the more expensive wide belt and large planer. Dave

[Steve Demuth]

A 3/4" board will change dimension more than .001" overnight in my shop. I shoot for .01 (actually 1/128, as I have traditional fractional caliper) inch repeatability on my machines. Anything more than that with wood for most purposes is chasing gnomes in fog.

[John Gornall]

With current posts about ancient tools I thought I'd throw in a little on numbers of measuring. I'm from the age of slide rules when we used "3 significant figures" for our calculations. this gives 99.9% accuracy. We built tall buildings, long bridges, large ships, and airplanes using slide rules. So I'm used to reading my fractions in 3 digits. I want to crank my A3 31 to 5/8". Not trying to work wood to one thou. Just want to crank my Hammer planer to .625 or maybe .375. The wixey moving in .005 intervals just distracts me. I guess we all have our own measuring habits. I'm not likely to change.

[Curt Harms]

The current version of the Wixey (for sale on Amazon) only reads with 0.005" resolution (although, very annoyingly, they have pictures showing 0.001" resolution, and have not updated this despite emailing me and admitting that these are the wrong pictures!)

You CAN buy the 0.001" resolution version on Wixey's website (I think it's called the "hi res" display, or something like that - the beam is the same for both, it's just the display head that's different).

All that said, I have the 0.005" resolution version on my Hammer J/P combo, and I think it's the better choice. The planer bed is supported by a large center post, and the scale is (necessarily) mounted at the "end" of the bed. So there is a little bit of flexation, and I think seeing the display vary at the thousandths place might be irritating.

Only if you let it be irritating. :)

[Ted Reischl]

Someone else posted a bit about confusing accuracy with repeatability. Amen.

When we are working in our shops we are not at Ford Motor Co where our parts will have to mate with parts machined in another state.

I used to suffer from having "grown up" in a tool and die environment. There I was, trying to hold these incredible "tolerances" on my woodworking machines. Very, very frustrating. Finally it dawned on me, as long as what I was making was consistent it did not matter if the boards were .750 thick or they were .735 thick. An example is a door frame or face frame. The parts need to be the same thickness, the mortise and tenons need to be in the center. That is it, nothing else is needed. That said, one cannot work with boards that have been machined down to something like .700 and expect to have an easy time mounting most hinges. But that is a far cry from needing to hold +/- .005.

That is why I like the Wixey on my TS. If I need an extra board as long as I set it the same as I cut the originals I will have a board that is "within tolerance" of the others.

I have been trying to figure out a way to attach a Wixey style gage to the RAS. Right now I have three stop devices on it so it has some "memory" as to where I have made cuts in the past on a project. I would like to get away from that.

Same with the drum sander, need to hook up a Wixey to it one of these days.

I do not expect any of them to be "accurate" within (chose a tolerance here), what I want is repeatibility.

[Mark Bolton]

I agree with the repeatability but the accuracy comes into play as well. Take making cope and stick doors for instance. Say you machine all your rail and stile stock, run your sticking, and near the end of the run you blow out a few copes or have some unforseen issue that use up your bit of overage that you ran initially and you need to run a few more feet of sticking. The .005 will most definitely bite you in the behind on the shaper or router table (DAMHIKT). If your replacement sticking is off by twice the thickness of a sheet of paper your are going to have a problem.

As you say, its all in the way you work and the type of work you do. I too have long railed against the people setting up their table saws with a $400 Starrett machinist level and had volumes of sympathy for the hobby tool manufacturers who have so many customers holding a lot of wood working equipment to machine shop tolerances. It is just wood after all.

But it is true that .001 repeatablity most definitely in a production environment, is extremely beneficial. We run all our material to standards, face frames to .750 x 1.500 edged and finish sanded. We plane to .810, then through the sander to .750. If the stock is .815 or a bit more off the planer, it will not come out of the sander at .750 so face frame stock run one day, will not match up to face frame stock on the racks left over from the last job. Same with door sticking and any other parts.

Sure if your working on a single project, you can have your material at whatever you want but standardizing and keeping things consistent can really help even in a hobby environment with readily usable inventory.

Now you really start pulling out the .001 tolerances when you move a CNC into the shop lol. I have oodles of respect for machinists after moving to CNC. Working with tolerances in the tenths or higher has got to be daunting.

[jonathan eagle]

Look on the bay for a quill DRO for a generic unit to attach yourself.
Bill

So which model would you recommend for a dewalt 735?
Jonathan

[Keith Hankins]

If you play with the Advanced Search, you can likely find several threads about adding a DRO to a J/P. It's come up multiple times.

I have one on my MiniMax J/P (Digi-something or another) and when I actually remember to put fresh batteries in it, it works great. :o

I bought the DRO, and love it and its capabilities. Also when you compare the body of all metal and I've got other wixley's there is not a comparison. Worth the extra dough.

[stan shields]

I have used the Wixey on a router table and I loved it. It's easy to mount and it takes a beating. I just bought the tablesaw version but have not installed it yet. It is great stuff. The zeroing-out feature is priceless.

[Randy Heinemann]

I understand in a production environment that it makes sense to control the thickness accurately, but I would assume that there are planers out there or add-ons that are made for that kind of work. For a small home woodworker shop, none of that makes sense. Plus, even with the Wixey DRO I have been able to duplicate a planed thickness to an unnoticeable point when I've had to go back and plane additional wood to make up for a mistake (numerous times). If people need that level of precision and accuracy, OK. However, in the end, once the final assembly takes place, the wood is going to expand an contract anyway.