Question about planer knives and settings

[rudy de haas]

When I bought my planer (the craftex version of the G1037Z) I got a big discount because it was a floor model and someone had managed to nick the knives rather badly. The nick was near the right edge so I simply used the right side for rougher work and put anything needing a better finish in hear the left edge. The unit has not done, by commercial standards, much work and the original blades (HSS) are still fairly sharp but I now want to plane a few hundred board feet of 7-8" wide material and want to get rid of that nick (because it produces a ridge visible on the planed board if I let it shift over where the nick is). As part of the original deal busybee paid for a set of new carbide blades (Titans, made in Michigan) so I put those in today. I did not adjust the jack screws - according to (my eyeballs in not great light on) the gauge the new knives are well within 1/32 of the original height.

However a test board felt "choppier" - as if I were cutting against the grain instead of with it - but came out nice and smooth. Is this more likely because the blades are carbide edged instead of steel or because the blades are out a tiny bit more than they should be? i.e. should I open it up again and tighten the jack screws down half a turn or so each?

[Peter Christensen]

Your machine should have come with a knife setting jig and the manual will tell you how to install and set the blades. The downloadable Grizzly manual explains this on page 33. Busy Bee should have provided one with the machine.

[Bill Dufour]

Planer needs to be set with 1/1000-3/1000 of an inch so you really need a dial indicator or at least a knife setting gauge designed for that cutterhead.
Bill D

[rudy de haas]

As I mentioned in the question the gauge I used showed that the knives are set correctly (or, at least, as close to that as I can read the gauge). The jig that came with the planer also shows the setting is "exactly" the same as the original. However.. the original knives were HSS; these are carbide - hence the question.

[roger wiegand]

Most setting gauges are difficult to use and get the setting exactly right. Most likely your knives aren't at exactly the same height and you need to try setting them again. If your planer allows you to use a dial indicator that is probably the way to go (or two, one at each end), I haven't figured out how to get one into the available space on mine without completely dismantling the machine, so I do a bit of trial and error to get mine set. You need to be much closer than 1/32 to avoid the "chop".