anyone own or use a Rotacator?

[Kevin Blunt]

I am interested to hear from anyone who uses or has tried using the Rotacator for planer set up and adjustments. I own th eShop Fox w1742 15" planer and th emanual suggests purchasing th eRotacator. How well do they work and are they worth th 89.00 or so. Can i do th esame thing with a Dial indicator and a mobile base such as the one in th elink I provided below.

Dial indicatr and base:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32525&cat=1,43513,51657

Rotacator:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/g1738

Thanks for any help.

Kevin

[Gary Keedwell]

I am interested to hear from anyone who uses or has tried using the Rotacator for planer set up and adjustments. I own th eShop Fox w1742 15" planer and th emanual suggests purchasing th eRotacator. How well do they work and are they worth th 89.00 or so. Can i do th esame thing with a Dial indicator and a mobile base such as the one in th elink I provided below.

Dial indicatr and base:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32525&cat=1,43513,51657

Rotacator:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/g1738

Thanks for any help.

KevinI have never heard of a rotacator but maybe it is a brand name for an indicator. It sure looks like an indicator to me.
Gary K.

[Jim Becker]

Well...I looked at the picture. You can make your own quite inexpensively...you just need a dial indicator (even an HFT version will do nicely), a block of wood and optionally, a couple smaller rare-earth magnets to make it "sticky". The whole idea of this "rotacator" is to reference the height of your knives to a flat surface on your tool. If the dial moves as you advance across the knife, it needs adjustment to be coplaner with the reference surface.

[Kevin Blunt]

That is a great idea Jim. I never thought that I could just build my own jig for something like this. Seems very simple though. I think I will try it. Any ideas on how to mount a dial indicator to the wood frame. I will also use Rare earth magnets by the way to magnetize it to the table surface. tahnks for any help.

[Per Swenson]

Hey Kevin,

Take a lookee here
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20579&highlight=jointer

About 5 posts down.

Might help.

Per

[Eugene A. Manzo III]

I thought you were talkin bout that Roto Rooter guy that Caters on Weekends :)

[Paul Simmel]

Kevin,

For planer set up with a home made dial indicator base, check this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-986589700074242027

[Kevin Blunt]

Thanks alot Paul! I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but it surely will help me out.

[Bill Rogers]

That is a great idea Jim. I never thought that I could just build my own jig for something like this. Seems very simple though. I think I will try it. Any ideas on how to mount a dial indicator to the wood frame. I will also use Rare earth magnets by the way to magnetize it to the table surface. tahnks for any help.


I too was considering buying a store bought Rotacator until I ran across this thread. I would like to revive the question as to how do you go about mounting a dial indicator to a wood frame?

Bill

[Philip Rodriquez]

Check out onway.ca. They have a multi guage that has a bunch of uses.

[Erik Christensen]

i started with a dial indicator with mag base & lockable arm - worked OK - but machining is not one of my skills so it took a lot of fussing to make sure the reading was really different vs the arm moving as the indicator was moved to the other side of the roller/cutter/chip breaker- i am sure many here would have got it right first time

then i got a rotacator and it made planer setup brain dead easy - right the first time - for my skills it was a good tool investment