Hi all,
I finally decided to buy a proper planer and found one of the last 2003 Hitachis on the marker.
My question is when you adjust the depth on the knob, there is a slight twist of the front base plate.
In all planers I've used (cheap ones) that part is very stable and the only movement is up and down.
Is it normal?I tried to fix it by tighten the doughnut part but no results…
Cheers
Most planers that adjust depth by moving straight up/down have some sort of feature on the shoe that guides it in the body as the shoe goes up and down. On the 2003 Hitachi, this feature is that raised lip at the back of the shoe and it's not a very positive guide. If the depth mechanism isn't really smooth, it will try and rotate the shoe rather than move it up and down. The best you can do is bond the foam dust seal to the shoe (spray adhesive) and see if that helps guide it. First try adjusting the depth mechanism per the Clark-Hitachi manual; there's an assortment of shims and such which may be incorrectly installed.
Thanks petec! I’ll try that.