So I’ve picked up a (used) benchtop thickness planer. It’s an older Craftsman Contractor series, 12.5" wide.
I am in Pensacola area of the Gulf Coast, so no easy way to get blanks. Been using decent EPS from a local architectual/construction foam supplier
but always struggle with getting a proper stringer. Good selection of wood at a lumber yard here, but always about 3/4" thick. So…
The planer is “frozen up” on the adjustable base portion , so I’m taking it apart to clean /polish the 4 rusted shafts the base slides on.
Question for you guys… It has chain driven rollers for “auto feed”. Do I want the auto feed functioning ? There is no way to switch it off but I can remove the chain
drive for that side when I reassemble. I’m thinking for the super thin wood I want to end up with that I may need to go slower than the auto feed??
Any advise on this or any other tips or suggestions please…
Yes. 100% you want the auto feed. The auto feed produces a constant movement of the wood. Without it your piece will come out with divots the size of your blade where it paused. The blade spends extra time here and removes more wood.
The nice stringer on expensive wood just gets thinner and thinner until you remove the divots.
Also, it is a safety thing. Prevents the piece of wood shooting back out of the planer.
Dave
Dave is correct. DO NOT disable the autofeed. I used to use a 30" wide thickness planer for cabinet and millwork. Autofeed is a must.
B-Dog,
Any possibilities of getting the wood resawn to thickness with a bandsaw in you location?
Allright, I hear you guys loud and clear.
I suppose I should pick up a piece of inexpensive wood to practice with before trying my (only) piece of basswood.
Jrandy, good suggestion. just haven’t found someone capable to do that. And trying to be able to do evrything in my own garage.
I have a Delta 12.5 thickness planer, when I visiting on the east coast the owner of my building thought he’d use it, he was running full 12" boards and had it cranked down to max cut, it stripped the teeth on the sprockets and I could not understand why it was not auto feeding when I used it later. I was lucky enough that Delta fixed it on warranty.
While at the repair center I saw another Delta that had been in the back of a truck and was rained on, the owner tried to raise or lower the depth of cut and snapped off the ears that the vetical posts run through, lube up yours thoroughly before trying to get it to move as a precaution
Yes, I scrubbed the posts with wd-40 and scotchbrite and then put a car wax/polish on them. moves freely now.
I’m going through the adjustment /set-up for the auto-feed now. Very excited! Anyone around here wanna make some stringers?