RC 33 - Tightening Knobs

[andrew whicker]

Hi,

I have a RC 33 planer (Delta) and I'm wondering how the tightening knobs work.. because mine don't seem to remove snipe as much as I'd like. I'm wondering what the mechanism behind the knobs is.

Does anyone know? I'm having a hard time understanding even with schematics.

Link to Schematics, etc (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_Qm84_ZeMmsxgP-hHsI-Ppf39kiUOEU3)

[andrew whicker]

Ah, 14:30 ish in the linked video... I'll do some cleaning

[William Chain]

The knobs just discourage the entire head assembly from moving up or down the columns once you've found your desired measurement. Have you thoroughly adjusted your rollers? There's a great video on everything - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFdcSKi47ZU and the maker of this video is a user on this board. I was never able to get the snipe out of my RC-33, and I didn't need any dial indicator to know it was there, it was palpable with just a wipe of the hand. I just planned on losing 4 inches off each end of whatever I planed. Your results may vary. Start with that video.

[andrew whicker]

Snipe should be coming from the head moving up when the board runs under the first roller and then subsequently lowering when the lumber passes beyond the roller. If that's true, the lock rollers should theoretically stop snipe...

I did adjust the roller height to the blades. My lower rollers are even with the bed

[William Chain]

snipe both ends or just one? if there's spring in the piece, you'll see deviation when it is not under both rollers.

[David Kumm]

your snipe isn't related to the knobs. I have a later DC 33 and it has no snipe. I forget to lock the knobs about half the time. The table is short so an infeed and outfeed help a lot in stabilizing the stock as the design lacks a good chipbreaker of pressure bar. Dave

[andrew whicker]

After spending another few hours with it adjusting pressure and cleaning the front locking bar... I'm just about to throw it in the river and buy a buy a better planer.

I did a lot to this planer... New blades, top parallel to bed, blades within 0.002 of bed, rear roller very close to 0.001 within bed..

I'm over it.

Lifting the wood at the start and finish should help, but it doesn't. Start is pretty close to acceptable, finish is abysmal.

[Tim Janssen]

It might help to lift the end of the board a bit as it enters the planer and lift the front of the board as it is about to exit the planer.
This compensates for the fact that the board is not pushed down by both rollers at the beginning and end of planing.
Cheers,

Tim

[William Chain]

I did the same as you. I just resigned myself to chopping off 4 inches on either end of the pieces after I got the thickness I was after. It’s a good machine, don’t give up on it until you’re ready to upgrade. Is the material between the snipe good? If so, just chop away the snipe. It’ll add up eventually yes, but you’ll get good material.


After spending another few hours with it adjusting pressure and cleaning the front locking bar... I'm just about to throw it in the river and buy a buy a better planer.

I did a lot to this planer... New blades, top parallel to bed, blades within 0.002 of bed, rear roller very close to 0.001 within bed..

I'm over it.

Lifting the wood at the start and finish should help, but it doesn't. Start is pretty close to acceptable, finish is abysmal.

[David Kumm]

While all 15" and less planers are a compromise in design, the RC 33 was a decent machine. The finish should be good and the snipe very minimal. Wish I could help but long distance troubleshooting is no help. The machine should capable though. Dave

[andrew whicker]

The last thing I will try is to keep lowering the pressure of the rollers until the wood doesn't feed thru, then slightly tighten them.. maybe this will reduce the possibility of the head moving up and down?

That is what's causing the snipe, right? I can't think of anything else..

Or... just thinking about it while I'm not at my shop... I wonder: if I'm lifting the end of the board as it comes out of the machine and the snipe is worse then spring pressure on the rear roller needs to be higher? I guess that would mean I'm overcoming the pressure?

I dismissed the idea of a longer table at first, thinking that the roller pressure is so high that I can just lift the board end and it would have to reduce snipe. Now I'm re-thinking that idea, depending on the thickness and width of the lumber.

When I was learning from a pro, he had an old Rockwell 24" planer. I felt like I could never lift hard enough to make him happy. "Lift! Lift!" Haha, maybe this is actually a bad habit for this machine, but a good one for his more burly equipment. I was messing with too many variables to notice, but I was messing with only sensitively lifting and lifting hard. I think I noticed better snipe with less lift.

[Charles B Wilson]

The last thing I will try is to keep lowering the pressure of the rollers until the wood doesn't feed thru, then slightly tighten them.. maybe this will reduce the possibility of the head moving up and down?

That is what's causing the snipe, right? I can't think of anything else..

Or... just thinking about it while I'm not at my shop... I wonder: if I'm lifting the end of the board as it comes out of the machine and the snipe is worse then spring pressure on the rear roller needs to be higher? I guess that would mean I'm overcoming the pressure?

I dismissed the idea of a longer table at first, thinking that the roller pressure is so high that I can just lift the board end and it would have to reduce snipe. Now I'm re-thinking that idea, depending on the thickness and width of the lumber.

When I was learning from a pro, he had an old Rockwell 24" planer. I felt like I could never lift hard enough to make him happy. "Lift! Lift!" Haha, maybe this is actually a bad habit for this machine, but a good one for his more burly equipment. I was messing with too many variables to notice, but I was messing with only sensitively lifting and lifting hard. I think I noticed better snipe with less lift.


It is unlikely the head is moving and causing snipe, most of the time on this machine the bed rolls are set too high. With properly supported stock,sharp knives properly set and a well set up machine you should get good results. Unlike the "lunchbox" planers this machine has solid feed rolls and a chip breaker, both help to control the work-piece eliminating snipe. While bed rolls help feeding rough stock they will allow a smother board to move up and down resulting in snipe. For finish work I set the bed rolls no more than 2 thousandths above the bed surface,and no more than 15 thou for rough stock. If I remember the manual only says to set them high or low....

CW

[William Chain]

I think this is correct. The rollers are not quite dialed. Follow that video I linked. It’s far better than any manual. PM that user, he’s here on this board. He’ll talk with you about your adjustments.

[David Kumm]

Lower the bed rollers and take that variable out of play, Pressure from the top rollers should be only enough to feed the stock. needing to loft stock should be minimal on that machine.
dave

[andrew whicker]

I've already taken the bed rollers to either exactly level or slightly below the bed.

Sometimes the snipe (depending on the board width and how I handle the board leaving the machine) can be up to around an 1/8".