Help please - planer woes

[lildrummerboy52]

hey fellas,

got a problem

I have a small Gilbro planer/jointer 4" with fairly short in/outfeed tables. Only got it recently so haven't done much with it yet.

Issue is, I cant get a straight cut from it. If I run a board, on edge, over it, there's maybe a 0.5mm curve over a metre. very slight hollow/concave along the length, which of course doubles with two boards side by side.

I have checked that the tables are level with each other. I do wonder if its just because of the short tables.

Thoughts?

[Mr Brush]

Are the blades accurately aligned to the outfeed table??

With correctly aligned blades, and assuming the tables are flat, it should be possible to get straight boards off the machine.

Have a look on YouTube for items showing how to set up jointer blades.

[nrb]

I think Mr Brush is right on,if the blades are above the outfeed table anything can happen.

[pmcgee]

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/jointer-help-171037/

[malb]

Have the same unit with a 10in saw and double ended motor. On my unit the infeed table is about 1mm low at the infeed/ fence mount end. Unit can be shimmed to get the tables coplanar. The problem became apparent with mine after a complete strip and clean. I did not find any loose shim material etc on stripdown, but it could have been lost with the load of muck (45+ years worth) that was in the machine. I fitted a shim either side (drive and rebate sides of table) made from a soft drink can. Will wear eventually, but I tend to leave the table in a fixed position so it will last a long time, and i know to check the tables after adjustment.

Hope this helps

[lildrummerboy52]

Thanks for the advice guys,

Malb, the tables are flat, parallel and don't need shims. When I got the machine, I did a full cleanup so no muck, etc.

I've taken the blades out last night for a sharpen, so when I reset I'll try again.

cheers
Lyndon

[Mr Brush]

What method/tooling are you using to set the blades to the outfeed table? There are lots of ways of doing this, and some work better than others.

If everything is flat/parallel, and the blades are correctly set, that just leaves technique. You need to know where (and where not) to apply pressure to the board as you are feeding it across the cutterhead. If the tables are really short, some support rollers may be required for longer boards.

[lildrummerboy52]

I've just sharpened and reset the blades. Seems that you guys were right in that the outfeed was slightly lower than the blade, really only a "bees lil fella", but over the length of a board made...
So I am so getting straight cuts. Success.


To set each blade - I set by eye to get them close and too high. Then place a straight edge with two marks over and rotate blades past lifting and moving from one mark to the other adjusting front and back of blade down til marks a moving the same. (does that even explain it?)

Once each blade is set, adjust both tables to be inline with the highest point of the blade path.


thanks guys, all sorted

ps, have you tried the Deulen Jig for sharpening blades? I think its great

What method/tooling are you using to set the blades to the outfeed table? There are lots of ways of doing this, and some work better than others.

If everything is flat/parallel, and the blades are correctly set, that just leaves technique. You need to know where (and where not) to apply pressure to the board as you are feeding it across the cutterhead. If the tables are really short, some support rollers may be required for longer boards.

[Mr Brush]

That's pretty much the method I use to set blades - glad to hear you got everything sorted.


I can replace and set the three blades on my 300mm jointer/thicknesser in about 20 mins (I've had plenty of practice...), but that still doesn't stop me dreaming of fitting a helical cutterhead one day.

I've seen the video on the Deulen Jig, but prefer to get my blades sharpened at Leuco in Sydney. Very cheap, they do a good job, and they even offer local pickup/dropoff service in our area with a 1 week turnaround. The Deulen gadget would be good for 4" or 6" jointers, but for bigger machines it involves stuffing around with very long strips of sandpaper on flat surfaces !