I recently picked up a modified Bosch planer for what I would consider to be a very good deal. When I went to use it to skin a blank, it seemed to drift a bit. This could be due to my inexperience. My old unmodified bosch planer never drifted like that - I thought maybe it could be the rounded shoe that I wasn’t used to. I went and measured the gap between the shoe and the blades with a feeler gauge. One blade was very closely aligned on each side. The other blade had almost twice the gap on one side than the other (.23mm vs .48mm). I feel like this could be the reason for the drift. Does anyone have experience alligning blades? Should i just try replacement blades first? I found a blade leveling fixture that looks like it may help:
I appreciate anyone who can help out. I know Pete C originally modified these things - hopefully he can chime in.
Keep in mind this can totally be operator error due to lack of experience with a rounded shoe - but I feel fairly confident the blade is not aligned properly.
I used this on one board to do rail bands - worked great because a flat cut wasn’t critical. Thanks for any help you guys/gals can provide!
10 thousands of an inch is far beyond any surfboard spec and I don’t think in any way would be noticeable in a cut. (That’s about 3 pieces of paper thick)
does it have a vac port set up? These can be heavy on 1 side and tilt the planer
Yup - uneven cut when trying to do straight passes. The planer wants to cut deeper on the right and shallow on the left of that makes sense. It does have a vacuum port setup that I use - maybe that’s throwing me off. I probably just have to get used to the rounded shoe. I also measured the gap off of the rear shoe of the planer. Probably should have done the front as that’s what rides on the foam…
I’ve had to fix several with this problem. The issue is with the replacement shoe that was custom made for it, doesn’t have the same guides as the factory one. To fix it requires major disassembly and the factory shoe (available as a replacement part from Bosch). Please email me at casicatech@gmail.com and we’ll get you on the road to recovery.
Mine had exactly the same problem, I have been meaning to email Pete to thank him, after my bay rennovations ran on for several weeks longer than expected I finally got the planer back in the bay following Pete’s detailed instructions and replacement pieces. It is a little stiffer to adjust but runs true and level, I questioned my sanity for a couple of years but the small difference makes all the difference across many passes over many boards. Thanks Pete, absolute gent and craftsman.
