Planing/Jointer Reclaimed TImbers

[Mike MacGregor]

Over the past couple of years I have been collecting reclaimed timbers from house demos. Is I have a number of 6"x 8" posts/beams in fir and cedar. 6 feet in length. Very dry, dense and heavy. Most are painted and (as it goes) very rough.

I have a 40 year old 16x8 Busy Bee B325 planer (like a Makita 2040 but with a 3HP motor and 4 blades). Its rollers are kinda shot, but the HSS blades are sharp. It planes light stuff OK. I tried running on of these reclaimed posts through this planer and the results were poor. The post stalled a number of time, and the blade burned. I ran ith through a dozen times and it was disappointing.

So I started to do a bit of research and realized I should be jointing first, then plane.

I called up a buddy who has a relatively new Griz 8" jointer. We ran the post through about a dozen times and soon discovered that the length and weight of the post was causing the post to lift and end up getting a curved surface.

So e thought we would run it through his DW735 planer with a shelix head. To passes and the post was great. Flip it, two more passes and we had it done. Very impressive.

So... I am at a loss. Why didnt my 16x9 planer have similar results to the DW735 with Shelix. Even though my HSS blades are fresh and sharp, is the Shelix that much better? Can the worn rollers be causing a lot of the problem?

Also - why did his new Griz (HSS blades) really have no effect? What could we be doing wrong?

thanks guys.

[Wayne Lomman]

The painted/contaminated surface took the edge off your HSS blades very quickly. You need carbide blades to hold up to this type of work. Worn rollers may affect the feed rate and accuracy of cut but don't make a difference to the ability to cut. To save your machinery, get a very coarse - 40 grit or so - sanding disc on an angle grinder and get rid of paint and dirt before machining. Cheers

[Mike MacGregor]

The painted/contaminated surface took the edge off your HSS blades very quickly. You need carbide blades to hold up to this type of work. Worn rollers may affect the feed rate and accuracy of cut but don't make a difference to the ability to cut. To save your machinery, get a very coarse - 40 grit or so - sanding disc on an angle grinder and get rid of paint and dirt before machining. Cheers

Thanks Wayne - that would sure explain the difference between the cutting with HSS on the planer & jointer versus carbide in the 735.

[Mel Fulks]

The sanding might help,but if that is a light machine with typical slow feed the grit from coarse paper will be be a problem
too. With a big planer you can take a heavy cut at fastest feed rate, that lessens the damage.

[Mike MacGregor]

Hi Mel,

I am not sure I understand your post. What do you mean by light machine versus big planer? As I mentioned above the DW735 with the Shelix planes quite well. The B325 (3HP 16x8) with HSS does not.