I have been very happy with my 4330, clean cuts and it has done very well on anything I have ask it to do.
Well last week something started to happen, when running the cutter head would just start lowering by itself. Now this is not to good when you are trying to plan something to a given thickness.
When I called Ridgid and talked to the tech they said it shouldn't do that, WOW I was glad to know that. They said that some part must be worn out and needed to be replace and I would have to take it to the service center.
I just couldn't take it in at this time, needed it for a project I am working on.
So I started looking to see what I could fine, looks like I found it.
Lay the planer on its side or up on its end, there are 2 covers over the chain that goes to each corner to turn the screws to raise or lower the head. There are 2 idlers that have eccentrics in them. In my case one was loose and was letting the chain be very loose. I turned the eccentric until the chain was tight and found that was to much and you could not turn the crank very well. I then loosened it a little and tried it again, bingo....... now it does not lower when I am running it.
So if you have the problem you may want to take a look at the eccentrics and see if they are set right.