Planer

[Mike Steinhilper]

After about a year, I'm finally ready to get back to woodworking. I have a few questions that I'm sure someone can answer! I got a Rand planer for Christmas. My wife bought it off ebay thinking it was Ingersol Rand, but it's some kind of crazy chinese built brand. I noticed that it looks exactly like one of the Grizzly planers only painted a different color. The instructions are vague. Anybody know anything about this machine? It seems to work well, but I don't really know how to measure depth of cut, etc. I have some beautiful walnut and some not-so-pretty cherry that I'd like to get working with.

[Kent Fitzgerald]

Yup, "Rand" is an import label that I've only seen on ebay. It may well come off the same assembly line as Grizzly. Sounds like you're happy with ther performance of the machine - my only concerns would be where to find parts, e.g., blades and a dust hood. Grizzly parts might fit.

There's not a whole lot you need to know about operation. Most small planers raise/lower the cutterhead with a metric screw that gives 2 mm (5/64") movement per turn of the crank. On my old Delta portable planer, I'll go about 1/4 to 1/2 turn per pass, depednding on the hardness of the wood and the width of the board.

[Mike Steinhilper]

the parts was the main question I had too. I really thing the Grizzly is the same machine. I was up in Muncy over the holidays and looked at it. Identical. I guess my real question is how do you know the actual blade height above the table before you feed a board?

[Kent Fitzgerald]

Look here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=48804