The gauge block would be used between the table and cutterhead. If I am right about the bottom flanges then shims would not be needed under them.
The gauge block would be used between the table and cutterhead. If I am right about the bottom flanges then shims would not be needed under them.
The nuts at the bottom of the threaded rods are retained by a ring. Apparently you loosen the ring and rotate the nut or nuts to adjust for parallelism. If you know how much of a taper you are currently getting this might be straightforward with a dial indicator.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
So it turns out, leveling out the table was only slightly annoying, but really not difficult.
Here's a picture of the bottom of the threaded rods/posts:
Felder D951 Threaded Rod.jpg
I spoke with Felder tech support, and what you have to do is remove the 3 bolts on the bottom of the large washers, then rotate the plastic threaded washers either clockwise or counterclockwise to raise/lower the platen on the post. You actually need a very large wrench to do that once it gets in a tight range.
It turns out, the three holes on the washer have to line up with the 3 holes on the cabinet, so it's not infinite adjustability, but it does work. Ultimately, after a few failed guesses, I put an electronic level on the front and back of the platen, and zeroed them out to perfectly level.
After doing that, a planed board was parallel to a couple of thousandths of an inch. I'd consider that good enough for woodworking.
So Greg you were spot on with your suggestion. I'm still not sure how I would get a dial indicator on it, but this way worked.
Last edited by Alan Lightstone; 08-24-2022 at 6:34 PM.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
Glad to hear you got it adjusted, I use a Oneway multi gauge for planer bed adjustments…. Rod
I sometimes assume too much about other people's machinist tool collections. I have a nifty Etalon magnetic triple articulated indicator holder that can be mounted almost anywhere and reach into unlikely places. Precision levels are equally good if not better, but the most sensitive ones can be frustrating.
I have seen Oneways used inverted to indicate up to the cutter block, but happily haven’t yet had the need to invent new contortions and broader vistas in profanity to perform that caper.
Alan, I am surprised thatFelder hasn’t provided you with a parts manual with exploded diagrams. My tip to you came from inferring the mechanism from the AD951 manual. I assumed that Felder wouldn’t have invented a new elevation mechanism for your machine.
Anyway…happy ending!
Last edited by Greg Quenneville; 08-25-2022 at 6:11 AM.
Quick question, as I think I still need to make adjustments to the height of the sprockets on the screws.
What's acceptable difference in 1/100" or mm of one side of a board vs another after going through a planer. This is assuming a perfectly flat bottom after being run through a jointer. There are digital settings on the planer, but the boards are now coming out not perfectly flat. One side's vertical thickness is slightly higher than the other. Essentially a sideways trapezoid/trapezium instead of a perfect cuboid/right prism/box.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
I suppose it depends on what you're going to use the material for. If you're going t run it through a lock miter bit on the router table it could make a difference. If you're just making a box with mitered joints it probably won't make much difference.
How much is the board off at the widest the planer will handle?
Confidence: The feeling you experience before you fully understand the situation
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
I would think that 0.1mm or .004” would be too much. That’s about the thickness of a piece of paper and would vex me slightly if edge joining boards.
Well, I was wrong according to Prof Schlessinger of “Testing Machine Tools” fame. Here is a photo of the page on planers:
Fascinating, Greg. I'll feed a board through later today and measure. I remember that it was bang-on perfect when I received the machine. It's only when I had to replace the motor (which I really didn't, thanks Felder tech support) that my machine went off calibration.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
So things got interesting. When I turned on the machine, I got an encoder error again. Same as last time when they initially had me change out the motor, only to find out it was 2 fuses that blew. So I opened up the side panel (a pain where it is located), and sure enough, the same 2 fuses were blown again. Not sure what that's about. Definitely not happy about that. But this time, I had the fuses, and saved $500 and got it running again.
I jointed a board flat, then ran it through the planer. The difference in thickness left to right of the board was 0.4mm over a 213mm wide board. Interestingly, it was 0.1mm front to back. So 1.87mm error per 1000mm. A lot more than the chart's permissible error. So I guess I'll have to open up the machine and tweak one or two of those screw/sprocket assemblies. Not quite sure if I have to just adjust one vs two of them. Any thoughts as to that? Really don't have way to measure distance from table to knives that I have.
The board came out with thicknesses like this (Imagine those are corners of a rectangle):
44.00 44.40
44.10 44.30
Last edited by Alan Lightstone; 10-02-2022 at 4:11 PM.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
I would mock up an indicator on something I could slide. Run it under the cutter head at a location where there aren’t knives (rotate the head). Do the same thing on both sides of the machine.
I’d start by adjusting only the one you took apart, unless you had to rotate more than one of them. If it was just one than I think it is reasonably safe to assume that jack screw is the one which should be adjusted.
Not sure what to suggest on the fuse, could be something grounding out, perhaps a switch is going bad
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
What’s the pitch on those screwjacks? For some reason I thought they were 4mm which would make chasing 0.1 a 9° adjustment.
Greg