What year is this planer and is it any good?

[Josh Goldsmith]

Hi everyone! My dad just brought home a Jet 15" planer. Model# JWP-15H. It needs some cosmetic love but it works great. I was really surprised that it worked as good as it did. Anyways i can't find out any info on this planer. Does that mean it is really old? The tag on the planer says it is a 3hp single phase. I will post some pics of it tomorrow. Also how hard is it to disassemble the whole set up and clean everything and paint this and that?

[Josh Goldsmith]

Here are the pics like i promised. It does have outfeed and infeed rollers but they were bent becuase it looks like someone tried to pic up the planer with the rollers. I am going to build some new ones a little longer than the short ones that it came with. I am also going to take the stand off and build a new one cause this one is bent. I might also wrap the stand with sheetmetal so it will become a closed stand. I like closed better. I little sanding, paint and this is going to look nice. I will definately post pics when i am done refinishing it.

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/7272/picture0369zd.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0369zd.jpg)

http://img497.imageshack.us/img497/1299/picture0312cj.th.jpg (http://img497.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0312cj.jpg)
If you look at the first pic you see the bed rusted. I took a sander with 220g and sanded this side for just a couple of mins and look at the difference!:D

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/4811/picture0399dw.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0399dw.jpg)

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/8566/picture0337ya.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0337ya.jpg)

This last pic. What are the rollers for on the top. Is it to slide your piece of wood back to the other side?

http://img499.imageshack.us/img499/2241/picture0343zt.th.jpg (http://img499.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0343zt.jpg)
What are these 2 rods for? They go in and out but i don't see what they do.

[Steve Clardy]

Hi Josh. Only help I have for you, the two rods that slide in and out, are to pick the machine up with, by hand.
My 20" grizzly has those. Now it would probably take a much larger man than me to pick it up.

[Jim DeLaney]

Josh,
I can't help regarding the age, etc, but the rollers on top are for passing the wood back over the planer when making multiple passes. Makes stock handling, particularly with big pieces, much easier.

[tod evans]

josh, my guess is mid 80`s? if it where me i`d clean up the rust, lube all the adjustments, check the outfeed roller to be sure it`s not dry-rotted, sharpen the knives and rock-on....02 tod

[Josh Goldsmith]

What parts of the planer do you lubricate? I have never had a planer before so this is a big step. Also todd when you said check the outfeed roller for dry-rott i am confused because it is steel not wood. Also how do you set planer knives to the right depth. I have a jointer that i just sharpened the blades and put them in but it is different since i can't use the beds for allignment. I hope i am making sence. I don't know that much about woodworking tools since i am still learning but since this is around 20yrs old is it still worth having since technology is always upgrading. It works great but this is also the first planer i have ever used. Thanks for the help everyone!

[Brian Hale]

If you look on the Griz site you'll find a Very similar planer. It's not "old" technology by any stretch.

Brian :)

[Dick Bringhurst]

Josh. Jet has their manuals on line (jettools) They may have one for your model number. As for lubrication the only thing I've ever done is change the gear oil. On the side opposit the belts you'll find a stout CI block. It's the gear box On the outfeed side you'll find a bolt towand the bottom of the block. This is the drain plug. On the infeed side of the block, you'll find a similar bolt up higher than the drain. It's the fill plug. I would would change the oil. Mine takes 85/90 gear oil. You'll need a flexible tube to do the filling. The pint of oil I bought had a tube and pump attached which made it easy. Now after saying all that my planer is a Star/Sunhill, but it looks identical to the one in your pictures. Check with Jet for the manual. Dick B.

[tod evans]

josh, if that unit has a steel outfeed roller you`re good to go on that account. dick explained about the gear oil, other than that the chain under the bed that raises and lowers the bed is all i can think of to clean-n-lube. if you didn`t get a knife setting jig with the unit call wmh parts and order one, or you could get "planer-pals" but personally i like the simple factory unit better than the magnetic ones.. using the jig is really pretty straight forward so i`m not gonna one finger an explanation..02 tod

[Josh Goldsmith]

I forgot to ask. How hard is it to take off the upper part of the planer. I am talking about the part that holds the rollers and the knives. I know it is SOLID steel so it will be heavy but what part actually holds it on to the 4 risers. Am i going to be making a big mistake taking it apart? I know that know one seems to have this planer but the grizzly G0453 is almost identically. Any info is appreciated! Thanks

[lou sansone]

disassembly will become pretty apparent when you get the parts manual. if you don't have one or can't get one then common sense will have to rule the day. take a couple of photos as you go if you think they will help with the reassembly. best wishes
Lou

[Bill Antonacchio]

It looks like Joe Scarfo had one for sale in January, 2005. You might want to contact him and see if he can give you any info (manual, parts, etc.) on your new tool.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=16025&highlight=JWP-15H


Regards,
Bill Antonacchio

[Kyle Kraft]

One more suggestion, on the top of the planer near the return rollers, you will find four "plugs" which resemble large socket set screws. Remove and clean them and you should find a small hole down through the center of the hex socket. Remove and clean the spring from the hole that the plug came from. This is the pressure spring which forces the infeed and outfeed rollers against the workpiece. The hole in the "plug" is for lubricating the oillite bronze bearings in which the feed rollers turn. Put a few drops of light oil (10 or 20w) in the hole every so often and the bronze bushings should last longer. As you have received the machine used, you might want to see how much up and down play is in the bushings first....they may need replacing.

[J.R. Rutter]

Here is an article that has good info. on setting up planers:

http://www.owwm.com/Parks/FWW/tuning.asp

Nice find on the planer!