My new Dewalt planer is leaving train tracks on wood...

[Michael Costa]

401313

Anyone experience this before and/or know the cause before I start taking it apart?

[Ray Newman]

Based on my shop experience that was most likely caused by a knick in the knife blade(s).

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Are the area of the tracks raised or indented?

Either way, the first thing I'd suspect is the blades.

[Doug Landphair]

My first thought was that it is a knick in one of your blades but in the photo the "tracks" look awfully wide for a knick. Is it possible that a couple of the screws holding your blades on are loose? Is there anything wrapped around your pressure wheels that might cause those tracks? Like you, I'm grasping at straws. Let us know what happens.

Doug

[Michael Costa]

They are indented. It was bought less than 2 months ago and the only wood that's been through it is pine. 2x4 and 2x6 pine. All checked for staples, etc prior. I guess it's time to open it up.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Is the planer a 735? Does it have the stock knives in it? They are prone to nicking, even by hard knots.

Are the grooves on the upper face of the board or the lower? I had some nicks in the bed of my 735 that produced small "burs" in the bed. They cut grooves in the wood until I sanded them smooth.

All that said, those grooves seem pretty wide to be nicks, though. As others have said, check for loose screws.

[Robert Hazelwood]

If they are indented then its not a knick in the blades. Has this been happening since you first got the planer or did it work fine at first? Does the indention occur on the top or bottom of the board (i.e. on the side being planed or the side sliding against the bottom?)

If it just started and is on the top side, then I would guess something is on the feed rollers. They are a soft rubber on these lunchbox planers and tend to pick up debris, especially if you run a lot of resinous wood through like pine. Unplug and raise the planer head up as high as you can, grab a flashlight and take a look. You can clean them pretty well with a shop towel and some rubbing alcohol. I have to do this periodically because they get coated with wood resin and lose their grip on the wood.

[Robert Engel]

Robert ^ nailed it.

My guess is outfeed roller we'll see if I'm right.

[William Hodge]

Run a piece of wood through the planer, and mark the planer right above the indentation. When you raise the head up, your problem will line up with the pencil mark.

[Roger Feeley]

Start a piece of wood. As soon as it shows on the outfeed side, turn the planer off. Mark the infeed and outfeed sides of the planer on the wood. You now have a ruler that will tell you how deep into the planer the mark is being made. That should narrow it down.

I had trouble with my planer where wood hung. I ran a piece, let it hang and marked the infeed. Found the problem in a flash.

[Richard Coers]

Most likely a piece of wood or chunk of a knot is stuck inside the machine. Just raise the head and inspect it.

[Tom Bender]

I think Richard's got.

My Dewalt planer has been doing a great job for several years.

Be careful when you wipe the rollers, you'll be wiping along the knife edge. Don't want to get blood on it.

[Roger Feeley]

FWIW, in the printing industry, there is some stuff called Rubber Rejuvinator that we used on the rubber rollers in our printing presses. This stuff worked wonders on the rubber rollers of my old lunchbox planer. It softens and moisturizes. If you have dents made by chips, RR will expand them back out. The big benefit is that it improves traction.

[Rich Engelhardt]

FWIW, in the printing industry, there is some stuff called Rubber Rejuvinator that we used on the rubber rollers in our printing presses. This stuff worked wonders on the rubber rollers of my old lunchbox planer. It softens and moisturizes. If you have dents made by chips, RR will expand them back out. The big benefit is that it improves traction.+1 - 100% on the dot.
Alcohol will dry out rubber and cause it to crack.
Petro solvents will put too much oil into the rubber and cause the rollers to slip.

Rubber Rejuvenator - such as Tech Spray and/or Fedron (no longer made - but still a lot around in old printer repair places, typewriter repair places & printing places that are going out of business) - will clean and restore the rubber rollers.

You can also use it on the rollers of your printers to restore them to better than new condition.

[Roger Feeley]

+1 - 100% on the dot.
Alcohol will dry out rubber and cause it to crack.
Petro solvents will put too much oil into the rubber and cause the rollers to slip.

Rubber Rejuvenator - such as Tech Spray and/or Fedron (no longer made - but still a lot around in old printer repair places, typewriter repair places & printing places that are going out of business) - will clean and restore the rubber rollers.

You can also use it on the rollers of your printers to restore them to better than new condition.

I would go out on printers forums to see which is best. Amazon has a number of products.
i recommend against sprays since you won’t use much and this stuff lasts along time. Also, it’s hard to control a spray. I had a 4oz bottle for years. I just put some on a small rag and wiped the rollers down.

interestingly, a reviewer said that this stuff is great for renewing windshield wiper blades. Makes sense.

[lowell holmes]

I have diamond hones that I use to sharpen blades. They are well worth the price.

[Michael Costa]

They are in one spot on the top. If I run a piece of wood thru on the left it doesnt show. So its somewhere in the middle right. I'll do what you guys suggest and raise it up and stick my head in there. I'll try to remember to unplug it. Lol

[Rich Engelhardt]

i recommend against sprays since you won’t use much and this stuff lasts along time. Also, it’s hard to control a spray.You don't spray it on directly, you spray it on a cloth then wipe down the rollers/platen. I only mention Tech Spray by name because it's one I've used & it worked very well & Yes - it will last a long time, just like WD40 does - - at least for people that use it for things it works on, not on everything ;).

[Art Mann]

Isopropyl alcohol didn't cause any adverse effects on my Ridgid TP1300 but that could be because I didn't use it enough. I only cleaned my rollers with it about once a month for 15 years.


+1 - 100% on the dot.
Alcohol will dry out rubber and cause it to crack.
Petro solvents will put too much oil into the rubber and cause the rollers to slip.

Rubber Rejuvenator - such as Tech Spray and/or Fedron (no longer made - but still a lot around in old printer repair places, typewriter repair places & printing places that are going out of business) - will clean and restore the rubber rollers.

You can also use it on the rollers of your printers to restore them to better than new condition.

[Michael Costa]

Okay. I have this thing raised 6" and I'm looking and can't seem to find anything that could be causing those tracks. The blades are not nicked. The rollers are a bit dusty. I turned it on and watched the rollers, etc spin and there is nothing I can see that would cause those tracks. I'm just going to clean it up a bit and see what happens. Other than that, I'm stumped.

[Richard Coers]

Check for burrs or rough spots on the metal too. Table side and head side. Lay down some pencil marks on the table, run the board against the mark, measure the distance from the edge of the board to the marks. See if those line up with the bolts that hold the blades. By measuring you may be able to locate something.

[mark mcfarlane]

Start a piece of wood. As soon as it shows on the outfeed side, turn the planer off. Mark the infeed and outfeed sides of the planer on the wood. You now have a ruler that will tell you how deep into the planer the mark is being made. That should narrow it down.

I had trouble with my planer where wood hung. I ran a piece, let it hang and marked the infeed. Found the problem in a flash.

That's brilliant Roger. OP: Do this with a piece of wood as wide as the planer, adding the reference marks in infeed and outfeed sides. This will likely tell you exactly where the problem occurs in 3D space (inc: top/bottom of board), Once you know the exact position of the problem you can probably figure it out.

[Michael Costa]

I just cleaned the thing from the bottom up. The I took the top off and clean from the top down. There was some pitch trapped up in there but it didnt solve the problem.

The track are not where blade screws are. And I can also tell that the screws haven't been rubbing up against anything. The only thing I know is that the tracks are definitely raised. I'm lost.

[Phil Mueller]

Michael, your earlier post indicated the tracks were indented...are the tracks actually raised?

[John Donhowe]

Glycerine works great to soften/revive old and hardened rubber.

[Zachary Hoyt]

If the tracks are raised you have notched knives, nothing else causes that that I have heard of.
Zach

[Matt Day]

Flip the knives to a fresh edge (easy in those lunchbox ones I think) and see what happens.

This should be pretty easy figure out. You know exactly where it occurs, and there are only a few things that touch the wood as it goes through.

[Ron Selzer]

The only thing I know is that the tracks are definitely raised
Has to be a nick in the knife to cause this
indentation can be different things

[Bill Orbine]

I just cleaned the thing from the bottom up. The I took the top off and clean from the top down. There was some pitch trapped up in there but it didnt solve the problem.

The track are not where blade screws are. And I can also tell that the screws haven't been rubbing up against anything. The only thing I know is that the tracks are definitely raised. I'm lost.

Definitely raised? Raised tracks usually points to the knives. Your picture in the initial post shows the tracks differences in elevation to the board surface is very subtle. Being very subtle, it will be very hard to see that on the knives. If you cannot see that on the knives, look for other signs such as pitch resin build up on the bevel of the knives. Magnifying glass may help you see it better. My other suggestion is to change the knives and keep the original if the new knives does not solve the problem.

[Michael Costa]

I believe I found the answer. It's probably a dull part of the blade at that spot. I ran a piece of slightly warped purple heart thru it once. I then decided it wasn't worth the effort and decided to get a new piece of wood. Because purple heart is so dense and hard it most like dulled the blades in that one section.

Yes, the tracks are raised. I was running pine through it and stopping halfway to determine the exact location. After a few passes, a straight edge and a flashlight I could tell they were raised track.

So, I can either have the blades sharpened, replace them, or just deal for now. The tracks that show up would be sanded off anyway.

[Dan Friedrichs]

You know the blades are 2-sided? You can just take them out and flip them around for a fresh edge.

[Jim Becker]

You know the blades are 2-sided? You can just take them out and flip them around for a fresh edge.

Very true...and one can just flip one knife which preserves an option if another nick happens.

[Matt Day]

So the first reply to the OP was correct. 🙄

[Richard Coers]

So the first reply to the OP was correct. 
Yup, only took 5 days and 3 pages of help to get back around to the first response. LOL

[Martin Siebert]

FWIW, here is a few tips regarding this planer...the "better" DeWalt brand blades have a little diamond engraved into the side of the blades. Supposedly these were made out of better, harder steel. I found that they outlasted the blades that didn't have the mark.
Be careful when you remove and reinstall the bolts that retain the blades, if over tightened they will break very easily because the head is so shallow and the Torx center cutout is deep, this doesn't leave a lot of metal just above the threads. Suggest you get a replacement bolt kit from DeWalt. Best suggestion is to get a Byrd Shelix if you really like the planer. If you are going to continue to run the straight blades a very small dab of blue Loc-Tite on the blade bolts is a good idea...they seem to be able to work their way loose. I had mine spit a bolt once and it destroyed the impeller that blows the chips out, what a racket that made. Lastly, I had a lot of trouble with the feed rollers in mine when the ambient temperature was below like 50 degrees...they wanted to just slip and not feed. As soon as it warmed up and/or I got it in my heated shop the problem has not returned.