Questions on setting up planer

[Steven J Corpstein]

I finally got a chance to go over the settings on my new Steel City 15" planer and have several questions. I found that the settings from the factory were off from those stated in the manual and I needed to adjust several enough to spook me.

This is the first time I've done any work with a planer so I'm second guessing myself now that I had to move things. Everything I checked and adjusted were done with the aid of a dial indicator and test indicator so I trust my measurements but;

* Is it common to have the chip breaker .040 deeper than the blade depth?

* Same question about the infeed and outfeed rollers?

Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

[J.R. Rutter]

* Is it common to have the chip breaker .040 deeper than the blade depth?

* Same question about the infeed and outfeed rollers?


Yes and yes. You should be good to go. Was the pressure bar OK? Usually it is at 0.0 or even slightly above blade depth.

[Steven J Corpstein]

If I'm with you on this, there are 4 large spring loaded plugs threaded down through the top csting. Manual said to adjust 3 of the 4 down to flush with the casting, the fourth was supposed to stick up 1/4". They called it the loose pressure bolt and stated that the chain applied pressure on that one?

Those are the adjustments that spooked me the most. Three were close to flush, the fourth one was flush like the rest from the factory, and had to be loosened or backed off a 1/4". How do I measure the pressure bar?

[Dick Rowe]

Steven,

I also recently purchased a Steel City 15" planer.

The 4 cap screws adjust the feed pressure rollers. These only need to be adjusted if your material is slipping (too little pressure) or jambing as you feed it into the machine.

Unless you are planing some really rough lumber, the stock setting should be fine as a starting point .. at least they were on my machine.

I'm certain you will really enjoy your new planer, I sure do.

[Richard Butler]

* Is it common to have the chip breaker .040 deeper than the blade depth?

Yes
* Same question about the infeed and outfeed rollers?

Yes..they have to be else the board will not feed.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

Are you certain you are measuring the cutter height, chip breaker, etc. correctly? Seems very odd that all of the settings were wrong.

[robert cohen]

How is the quality of this planer?

[Steven J Corpstein]

The quality is what sold it to me. I thought the fit and finish were a step above all the rest in this class.

Richard - That's why I was spooked. I'm positive I measure correctly. I read, reread then downloaded the manual for the Grizzly planer just to make sure I was not overlooking something. Both manuals explained it the same way and that's how I did it.