I have two hitachi planers p20sb from e-bay . I was bidding on one and bid on a second one and ended up with both I only wanted one . I turned them both on , they both work fine ,blades look okay not super sharp .
I got my first blank and wanted to attemp to skin the bottom , turned it on adjusted the knob counter clock wise so as to make an attempt at cutting very very little . Nothing happened , i turned the knob slowly clockwise a little at a time . Cut to the chase cranked it all the way down , not cutting . Went to a piece of wood nothing .
Next step go to the manual adjust cutting depth , take it apart , use the gauge an make an adjustment , put it all back together , take it outside on some wood same results nothing . it barely touches the wood not even making a cut . Any ideas or suggestions .I should a walk into the store and bought a brand new makita or hitachi , i did’nt . so now i am stuck .
If ? the blades are flush to the rear shoe and the fronts shoe does ? move up and down, then there is no reason for the blades to not make contact with the work piece.
Have you used an electric planer before ? Where are you applying weight to the planer ? All weight aft could lift the blades enough to minimize contact, but no cut at all ?
Check the owner’s manual for blade replacement, maybe the blades are just worn out or not properly install. If you don’t have an owner’s manual, you can sometimes find it online at the manufacturer’s web site.
I would have a really long practice with the planer on some timber, getting a feel for it. All the planers I’ve used (about 4 or 5) act differently. The first one that I had, a good while ago, at first, seemed not to want to cut at all. But as Jim (the genius) said try altering how your distributing the weight between fore and aft. Do also check the blades are set right.
I have an owners manual and have checked the height twice with the factory supplied gauge . I have never used a planer before so i think practicing on some wood would be a great idea . It probably is my technique or lack of it . I have attempted to adjust the factory gauge but have not put the blades in it for the third try yet . Can i hand sharpen the blades on a stone with oil at about a 45 degree angle ?
Mahalo james
If the shoe of the planer is in flat contact with the workpiece, with nothing cut yet, the blade shouldn’t cut anything if it is installed correctly because it is at zero depth flush with the shoe. On a curved surface, your blade will just barely cut on passes if at all. Your first pass has to be with the toe, or part of it, touching the workpiece so the blade can make contact. The following passes, with the shoe flat on the workpiece, will now cut the foam. Hope that makes sense.
I have the same problem or had the same problem. I removed the blades and adjusted them so the cutting blade screws that hold them to the back plate is at the time of the cutting blade.
I did a few passes on the blank and it doesn't seem to be straight even though I used the leveling tool that came with the package.
I shaved off maybe 8 or 9 passes and the freaking board is now 2 1/2 from 2 3/4. 9x 1/32 = 0.28125". Which is a lil over 1/4. F**K! I wish I had made 3 to 4 passes only. Or Hitachi needs to invent some way of telling the customer that, "hey, if you move the blade this much, you're going to cut this much".
I now have to make 1 or 2 passes on the deck and then manually plane the deck.
The bad news: the final product might be too thin for me to ride.
The good news: I know what to expect now and on my next blank, I'll be sure to make few passes.
You know whats refreshing...i just read this post and I see it's from 08. I see that I made a caustic remark way back when....and I'm still making the same kind of comments.