DRO on a Planer - I don't get it

[Glen Blanchard]

I have this on my Christmas list BTW, so it's not that I don't want one - I just don't understand how they get calibrated. If one does not kiss the table with one of the blades (and I am not sure how this could be done with a planer anyway) and then zero out the readout, how can the DRO represent the thickness of the stock being planed?



To put it another way. If a piece of stock is placed in the planer and is planed to exactly 1.000", and then the DRO is zeroed out, the DRO now reads "0.000" while the actual height of the blades are 1.000". I know I have to be missing something here.

[Reg Mitchell]

Glen,
I use mine like this. Once I get the board "flat" I take a mesurment. I then zero my DRO. If the board is, at the last pass, say 15/16 and i want to go to 3/4 I will need to remove another 3/16. Once I lower the planer and reach the 3/16 mark on the DRO it should be 3/4
Reg

[Glen Blanchard]

Glen,
I use mine like this. Once I get the board "flat" I take a mesurment. I then zero my DRO. If the board is, at the last pass, say 15/16 and i want to go to 3/4 I will need to remove another 3/16. Once I lower the planer and reach the 3/16 mark on the DRO it should be 3/4
Reg

That is about the only way I was able to figure out it could be done. All measurements are relative then and there are no absolute measurements.

[Mark Hubler]

It depends on the manufacturer. With the products from Digi-kit, you get the thickness of the wood. http://www.digi-kit.com/digiplaner.htm This one comes with zero, increase dimension and decrease dimension buttons - very easy to use. I have one of their scales on my table saw.

To set up the scale, run a piece of wood through the planer, measure the thickness, and use the increase/decrease button to set the exact dimension - done!

By the way, I do not work for them, just a very happy customer.

[Ed Kowaski]

Very simple to calibrate the Wixey for absolute measurements.

Plane a board, without moving the planer head, put the board in the wixey and hit the calibrate button. Done, your planer is measuring absolute.

[Glen Blanchard]

Plane a board, without moving the planer head, put the board in the wixey and hit the calibrate button. Done, your planer is measuring absolute.

Ed - What do you mean by "put the board in the wixey"? Does it have an "outboard" caliper of some sort?

[Kent Fitzgerald]

http://www.wixey.com/planer/how/calibration.html

[Ed Kowaski]

Yes it has a frame of sorts to bottom out on. If you go to the wixey gallary and look at the last photo of the General install the frame shows.

[David Eisan]

Ed - What do you mean by "put the board in the wixey"? Does it have an "outboard" caliper of some sort?

In short, Yes.

David.

[Jerry Olexa]

I usually ignore the guage on my planer but use 99% of time a caliper which is very accurate. Enables me to have all boards in a run uniform thickness

[Jerry Olexa]

I usually ignore the guage on my planer but use 99% of time a caliper which is very accurate. Enables me to have all boards in a run uniform thickness

[Bruce Wrenn]

Since most of us mike a board, why not figure how much the head on your planer moves down in one turn. Send a board through,at any setting. Measure thickness of board. Make a couple of passes through till you have rotated crank handle one full turn. Measure board again. Now you know how much elevation change occurs in one turn. Wouldn't be to hard to make some kind of disk that fits over handle that shows 0.001 increments. Kinda like an index wheel.