Q for those with Wixey planer height gauge

[Randall J Cox]

Looking at buying Wixey WR550 to mount on my Delta 15" planer. Before I buy, want to understand how it works. If I want to take some boards down to a certain thickness, how would I go about doing this? Per their web site, I understand it measures the board thickness coming out of the planer but, how do you know the thickness going into the planer so you know how much to take off or how many passes to make? Randy

[Bill Space]

I have a different brand but sure the procedure is the same. You measure the board to see how thick it is and decide how many passes you want to take to reduce it to the desired thickness.

If you have multiple boards face jointed flat they may all have different thicknesses. Measure them and run them in sequence. The thickest first and progressively more as the thick ones become thinner. They all will finish at the same final pass.

A cheap digital caliper from Harbor Frieght works well for me.

[Dan Friedrichs]

I'm confused about what step is your workflow is leaving you wanting to use the gauge like that, because this seems like an odd question?

With the Wixey, you don't need to know how much to take off or how many passes to make. You just adjust the planer height so the Wixey displays what you want the finished thickness to be, and then go. If your board is thicker than what your planer will handle in one pass, you may need to start higher, but you never need to know what the original thickness was, really.

(There is a way to use the Wixey to measure the thickness of a board decoupled from using it on the planer, but it's not very convenient. I'd buy a $10 caliper from HF, as Bill recommended, if you want that)

[Bill Space]

Just as a follow up.

Your planer has a maximum amount of material it can remove in one pass. If you try to put something through it that would require taking off more that the maximum, that piece will likely not go into the planer.

So you need to know the thickness you are starting with in order start the thicknessing process in many cases.

IF it would turn out that your workpiece requires less material to be removed that the maximum capacity of your planer, you are home free without measuring anything. Generally you have two choices. Measure and adjust as necessary to get the workpiece through the planer, or try first, and if it doesn’t go, change the setting and try again.

I prefer the measure first approach but I am pretty sure either will work. But if dealing with multiple pieces the hit and miss approach could get tiring...

[Randall J Cox]

Actually, between the three posts, you all have answered my question. guess I just didn't know how to ask the question as I have never used a wixey before. Randy

[Jim Becker]

The thicknessing process doesn't change when you add a DRO to your planer. It just (hopefully) makes the final result more accurate. :) I'm honestly considering adding one back onto my J/P planer function because with the CNC, thickness is more critical to me for many things I'm doing. The old-one I had years ago died and it's been off the machine for a few years now.

[Carl Beckett]

One consideration though, is how easy is it to set/zero your particular DRO.

Ideally you can just take a pass, measure it with digital calipers, then set the DRO to equal that amount.

I have heard some others needing to adjust the physical mounting to get it dialed in (less convenient).

A little bit related to your question, learn what method is used to set/zero the DRO you are interested in.

[lowell holmes]

I have the Wixey on my planer and it is really simple to install and use.
Just make some test runs before real one. You will know when to do it for real.

[Randall J Cox]

Thanks all...

[Randall J Cox]

Just bought and installed WR550. Aside from having to fabricate some brackets (I don't like to drill holes in my equipment if I can help it) install went fairly smoothly. Calibration a different matter. After reading the very poorly written instructions many times and getting very frustrated, I finally gave up for the day and went in the house and sat down with a glass of wine. That's what I do when things aren't going right, time to step away, especially using power tools - that's when accidents happen. Anyway, going to hit it again today after church. I think the instructions were also written in China where the Wixley was made..... I've read a number of posts on this Wixley unit and see that hardly anybody has problems calibrating. Maybe overthinking this part. Anyway, I'll see if I can figure it out today. Randy

[Jim Morgan]

Shouldn't be too difficult if the little "shelf" at the bottom is even with your infeed table - just lay a board that you have run through the planer across the infeed & the shelf, lift up the spring-loaded finger and let it rest on top of the board, and zero out the display. When you remove the board and let the finger go down to the shelf, the display should read the thickness of the board. Alternatively, you can run a board through the planer, measure its thickness with calipers, and manually set the readout to that thickness.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Randall, you're not the only one who has struggled to understand the calibration of this device.

The method described in the manual is basically:
1) Plane a piece of wood to any arbitrary thickness
2) Unlock the knob to allow you to slide the "scale" up and stick the piece of wood between the scale and the "foot" (where the scale bottom usually rests).
3) Press and hold the "Hold to Cal" button to zero the display.
4) Now, when you remove the wood and the scale returns to the normal position, it will have moved by an amount equal to the thickness of the wood, and thus, the display will read the correct thickness.

For some reason, this seems un-intuitive, but it's really quite clever.

I think it's also a method intended to avoid the need for a separate caliper. If you have a separate caliper, I believe there is a simpler way (I'm not sure this applied to all WR550's, but it works on mine):
1) Plane a piece of wood to any arbitrary thickness
2) Measure it with a caliper
3) Press and hold the "Hold to cal" button until the display flashes "0.000"
4) Use the "MM/IN" button to increment the display (or the ABS/INC button to decrement the display) until it reads the thickness you measured with the caliper.
5) Short press the "Hold to cal" button to exit calibration mode

[Randall J Cox]

Ok, after reading last couple of posts and manual and web site "technology" about definitions, it is now calibrated. I actually had it calibrated yesterday but didn't realize it. Think it will be great little addition to my planer as I have a lot of planing to do now.....
Thanks to all. Randy