Grizzly G0453 15" Planer Setup: Popping sound as it passes the chipbreaker

[Dan Jansen]

I picked up a three year old Grizzly G0453 15" planer today. The planer was upgraded to a Byrd Shelix head about a year after the guy bought it. My experience with wood planers is mixed at best but I brought it home today and went through the manual doing maintenance and resetting all the rollers back to factory settings. Now, as a board passes the chipbreaker it makes a pop or thump sound. I've set it .0040 above the cutterhead as indicated in the manual. My bottom rollers are set at just 0.002 above the deck. Infeed is also 0.040 and outfeed is 0.020 per the manual. I watched from the side as the board passed through and as it passed the chipbreaker it makes a sound. I'm guessing it's the board going up past the breaker and smacking something. There is some snipe but no signs of damage on the board.

I was going to increase the chipbreaker to 0.060 or more to see if I could eliminate the sound but before I did; I thought I'd ask the crowd if there's something obvious I'm missing. Like maybe this always happens but other planers are so loud you don't hear it.

EDIT:It just occurred to me that I probably have the chipbreaker 0.040 below the cutterhead instead of 0.040 above the cutterhead. I'll have to confirm that in the morning but I'll bet it's down way more than it's supposed to be.

[Cary Falk]

I own a G0453Z and just set up a G0453 for a friend. My opinion is the factory settings for the planer do not work well for skip planed or better(s2s) wood. I moved both bed rollers just below the bed. I also relieved a lot of the pressure off the infeed and outfeed rollers. Without doing those 2 things the planer would push the front of the board down and lift the back of the board up as it hit the infeed roller. The back of the board would then slap down on the bed as it hit the bed rollers. The other reason to reduce the infeed and outfeed roller pressure is to reduce the roller marks from the serrated feed rollers. I can't tell you what the measurements are. I ran a board through and then move all of the feed roller set screws by a have a turn. Rinse and repeat until everything runs smooth. Make sure the bed is waxed. This may be completely wrong but it works for me on both planers. Runs smooth and no snipe. I hope that helps.

I did not adjust the chip breaker.

[Darcy Warner]

Chip breaker slightly below cutting circle, pressure bar right at cutting circle or a hair lower depending on machine.

[Dan Jansen]

Chipbreaker was in the right place. I tried a different setup I saw on the site for another Grizzly planer which I would link to but can't find back. It was
Infeed: 0.030
Chipbreaker 0.25
Outfeed 0.020

This set up is giving great results. I can see the serrations from the outfeed roller and will try reducing spring pressure to see if it makes a difference but if not; it's ok because it's giving great results. BUT it's still making a little pop as the wood exits the chip breaker. The chipbreaker went from being 0.040 below the cutterhead to .025 below and it's slightly above the infeed. Anyone else ever hear a little pop?