Woodworking Shop

Just to inform you all that the thickness planer is effectively broken, the belt keeps sliding off the bottom pulley. The nut on the bottom pulley has also been loose, I may have finally tightened it sufficiently.

I have filled out a report and put a note on the planer.

It may be that the belt has expanded and is loose just due to the heat, I'm not finding any adjustments on the machine to tighten the pulley, if any of you know any better please let me know here.

The Thickness Planer is now working.

I removed a washer from the lower pulley which wasn't present on the other thickness planer in parts in the blue box, tightened the nut well, ensured the belt was positioned to the inside on the top pulley and fully on on the bottom pulley and ran it for a for several minutes and ran several pieces though, it. The lower pulley remained tight and the belt didn't move towards the outside of the pulleys.

I updated the log book and changed the planer status to "green".

Hello All,

The same issue with the belt slipping off happened to me over the weekend, I have marked the planer to Red on the board in the shop.

I can see that the blade pulley wheel has an inner groove for a spline that would prevent it from rotating on the blade axle, and only need to be held in place horizontally by the nut. There is no spline on the blade axle at the moment, and the wheel seems to be able to spin independently of the axle, even when the nut is tightened down.

The planer would throw the belt within seconds of powering on, and I did this several times, tightening the nut as much as I could, to no avail. I don't have the knowledge or experience to troubleshoot this issue further, sorry.

Well, good news. I had some time to dig in our box of diassembled planer parts and cannibalize a replacement spline. After a little advice from Grant, the planer seems to be working again, ran a test board through a few times.

I will be paying attention to the planer, the belt may still be a little volatile.

A big Thank You to Nicholas for the troubleshooting today, we ended up installing the motor from the disassembled planer, which corrected both the pulley belt alignment issue and gave us a safer power cord to use for the planer. The knives are still a little rough, I swapped both around to get rid of the worst of the gouging for now, but I have a new set of Dimars on order (hopefully 2-3 weeks away).

Just for documentation purposes. The solution was a stack of washers on the tension hold bolt. This pushes the head back to bring the pulleys into alignment.

This is also related to the thread by Nicholas about caring for our tools.

The knives on the thickeness planer and jointer have been replaced and are cutting very cleanly. The planer knives are double-sided and can be reversed when they dull or get chipped, but the jointer knives only have a single blade. I am looking to see if the gouges in the old jointer knives can be repaired.

Should the knives on either tool become damaged or dull, notify this forum and I can plan on replacing them. Torsten has supplied us with a hand-held metal detector in the woodshop, please use it if you ever aren't sure of the condition or source of your lumber. 30 seconds of caution can save $60 for another set of knives.

Unfortunately, the planer is broken again. The blade pulley has cracked off part of the groove that holds onto the alignment key, and prevents the pulley from slipping or throwing the belt. The final time I fired it up, the pulley immediately slipped on the shaft, and shot a spark as the alignment key became dislodged and sheared apart. The spare pulley in the disassembled planer has cracks in the same place, so just replacing it might mean the same issue materializing very soon, but both alignment keys are now gone. (See attached photo for cracked spare pulley, existing pulley has the cracked part missing entirely)

A replacement pulley and key can be ordered on eBay, arriving in 10 day- 2 weeks. I might also look to order a new blade shaft, in case the groove for the alignment key is worn and will start the cycle of damage to the pulley again. Either way, the tool needs to be partially disassembled to swap the pulley, so hopefully I can get it working again before the Grand opening.

Maybe it's worth discussing at the member's meeting? I'm not sure what the space has in a contingency fund - we could consider fundraising and keeping our eyes open for a replacement rather than continually repairing. Marketplace or Able auctions often have decent options.

I absolutely agree, any repairs aren't going to keep this 30+ year old tool alive forever.

I know Bailey had talked about a fundraiser (and I was hoping I keep the planer working long enough to make some charcuterie boards to contribute to that)

Nicholas also mentioned that another funding source could be looking to make a donation to the New Space, a planer would be a great tool to renew/upgrade.

Lets talk about this tomorrow for sure.

It is my understanding that we don't currently have a contingency fund and need to develop one before spending money on tools. If some members want to raise funds that would be great, however, we have a capacity shortage in fundraising right now.

The planer has a new pulley wheel, spline key, and set of cutterhead bearings, which were in rough shape. It runs more smoothly than before, and threadlocker has been applied to keep the pulley nut in place.

Only time will tell, but it should be good to be used for now. I also rigged up the 1st draft a hood to attach to a vacuum and collect the shavings while cutting.

Please let this thread know if any issues are encountered with the planer, going forward.

The planer was working this afternoon, until I tried milling my boards under 5/8". The board slid under the feed roller (despite taking 10 perfectly fine passes before) and hit the cutterhead, making an ugly gouge. I raised the planer up and tried it on a thicker piece of scrap wood, and it took 4 passes in a row without issue. I returned to the original board, setting it to take the thinnest of cuts. This time, the board slid under the roller, hit the cutterhead and violently kicked back into my hands. For now, I've marked the planer with a DO NOT OPERATE sign, as I can't guarantee this won't happen to someone in the future.

Usually, if the cutterhead is too high for the planer, the board just slides under without issue. The feed rollers are spring loaded, and compress upwards as they pull the board into the planer, allowing the cutterhead to make contact. The cutterhead should Not be able to touch the board without the rollers pressing down on it. So, there could be an issue with the cutterhead tilting as you try to take a cut less than 5/8", or another issue that only crops up 50% of the time, and I got lucky when I tested the scrap. Either way, this is simply not safe enough for me to use, let alone an unsuspecting person who might come into this issue blind. Anyone else is free to take a look at it, but it is a 33 year-old tool.

I will be looking on Marketplace for a suitable options to replace it, unless we might have other opportunities for sponsorship or fundraising in the near future.

With the amazing support of KMS Tools, we now have a new thickness planer, a Dewalt DW735! The planer is stored under the workbench in the main space, I will find a home for it in the workshop some time this week. The planer is about 10lbs heaver than our old Delta, but has much better lifting ergonomics, however it can be very easily set up on the floor to use if it cannot be lifted onto a workbench. Down the road, a rolling cart could be built if this remains an issue for too many members.

The planer currently has two sets of the standard, straight knives, I would like to consider fundraising for a helical cutterhead in the coming months, if our contingency fund (and more pressing purchases) allows it.

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