Planer not holding thickness

[stevo wis]

Hi Folks,
I have a powermatic taiwanese 15 inch planer which I have had for over 10 years and it's been fine. Today I was planing some 8 to 10 inch wide hard maple boards and it seems like the crank goes up making the cut less and so not much progress is being made. I had just put in sharp blades and ran about 30 bf of maple through it before today. Is maple that hard that it fights the blades and pushes the platform down? I have never had this problem with other woods and can obviously try some different species. I did notice that the rods that go through by the four posts and the nut on the crank had worked themselves loose, so I tightened them, but it still acts up.
Any advice?
thanks,
Stevo

[Mel Fulks]

Doesn’t it have knob that locks the table?

[stevo wis]

Mel,
Your answer should have been obvious to me. I have never had to tighten the knob before, but it does keep the table from dropping.
Thanks,
Stevo

[Mel Fulks]

Mel,
Your answer should have been obvious to me. I have never had to tighten the knob before, but it does keep the table from dropping.
Thanks,

Glad to hear that helped. When lowering the table , go lower than what’s needed …then raise to required
height. And tighten knob , to make sure table won’t drop below your needed dimension.

[Warren Lake]

What Mel said,

And some machines go up and down so smooth that if you have the handle near the top but to either side it might even drop on its own just from the weight of the handle. Have one shaper that does that. PLaner I have has a locking knob on it and see I wrote a note in magic marker to remind me.

[stevo wis]

What Mel said,

And some machines go up and down so smooth that if you have the handle near the top but to either side it might even drop on its own just from the weight of the handle. Have one shaper that does that. PLaner I have has a locking knob on it and see I wrote a note in magic marker to remind me.

I used the two knobs to tighten the bed from dropping. Cinched them as tight as I could, but the wheel still spun app 1/4 turn and the bed dropped again. So there must be something else going on. The only way I could consistently keep the table up was to hold the handle.
Every thing else seems tight. I am stumped.
Anyone have any ideas?
thanks,
Stevo

[Micah Puscheck]

I used the two knobs to tighten the bed from dropping. Cinched them as tight as I could, but the wheel still spun app 1/4 turn and the bed dropped again. So there must be something else going on. The only way I could consistently keep the table up was to hold the handle.
Every thing else seems tight. I am stumped.
Anyone have any ideas?
thanks,
Stevo

Also curious on this. I have a G0453z and noticed the same issue and similar amount of play. Thought that some part was just worn out.

[Rod Sheridan]

I used the two knobs to tighten the bed from dropping. Cinched them as tight as I could, but the wheel still spun app 1/4 turn and the bed dropped again. So there must be something else going on. The only way I could consistently keep the table up was to hold the handle.
Every thing else seems tight. I am stumped.
Anyone have any ideas?
thanks,
Stevo

Really dull knives?….Regards, Rod.

[Jeff Roltgen]

I too have a similar machine of similar vintage. Just tested it, and sure enough- even with bed locks fairly snug, 1/4 turn of play is possible, but only if I encourage it a bit. Looks like it does move approximately 1/64" that a 1/4 turn should expect to produce as I study the scale by eyeball (no DRO). Pulled handcrank cap to eliminate play caused by backlash in gears and tried turning elevation rod with a pair of pliers. Sure enough, I can move that rod at least an 1/8 turn, though again, it's not super-loose.

Is that 1/64" the same amount of variation you are experiencing?

Guess I've never paid too much attention, as most things get down to finicky thousandths digits later, on wide belt sander.

I would say, now that there are three of us with same issue in varying degrees of severity;
- At this many years in service, things will certainly loosen some
- perhaps knife-changing triggered a closer look, and it's not a sudden issue, just lack of previous observation(?)

Solution - call tech support. Maybe a few key parts replaced will bring tolerances back to what you enjoyed when the machine was newer. Otherwise, seems it is just a common characteristic of this planer series, regardless of mfg. I certainly have pumped many thousands of BdFt through that machine. Great bang for buck, but just another little item causing me to look towards an upgrade.

Again, would like to know- is your change in thickness in that .0156" range? If more, perhaps knives are settling and compounding it, causing you to catch this issue.

Let us know how it pans out.

Jeff