How to Use a Planer - Setup & Maintenance

I'm Brad Rodriguez from Fix This Build That and today I'm going to talk to you about how to use your planer and specifically, I'm going to be talking about how to align it set it up and maintain it. After I made my video on six ways to reduce players snipe, I got a ton of questions on social media about how do I set up my planer? How do I maintain it? How do I align it? And what should I look for if I'm buying a used planer? So I'm going to cover all those items and more today. And I'm also gonna have some follow on series on how to use your planer. So let's check it out and see what you can do to get more value out of your planer. The planer that I have and I've been using for about ten years now is this TP13002 13" portable planer from Ridgid, the sponsor today's video. So the first thing that we're gonna do is check the infeed in the outfeed tables. Make sure that they are level with the bed and make any adjustments as necessary. So before I start working underneath the planer the most important thing is make sure your planer is unplugged before you do any work near the cutter head. To adjust the infeed and outfeed tables I'm going to lower them both down below where I know that they're not level. I'm going to put this four-foot level through there, clamp it down with the cutter head, making sure that the knife is not there in the way. So that's it right there, it is just enough to be locked in place. But I'm not trying to put too much pressure on it. Just enough so that cutter head is clamping it in between the bed and the cutter head. Now I'm going to raise up these tables and I'll be level. I've got the left side of my tables level. Now I'm going to take the cutter head off and clamp it down on the other side and adjust the nuts and the bolts on the other side as well, Now what I found is that if I pull these in feed and out feed tables up to the level While it is clamped down by the cutter head, then when I let it loose the tables will spring up a bit. So this in feed table is good. This is right where I want it is about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch higher on the front edge. Which gives me this gap here to the bed. This is going to help you reduce planer snipe by having the front and the back a little bit higher. And you can hear all about that in my reducing planer snipe video as well. The infeed and outfeed tables are all aligned just where I want them so now I'm gonna move on and go to the thickness adjustment and make sure that that is tuned in right where we need it. So to check the thickness gauge I've got a few things here to help me out. I've just got a little piece of of poplar and I'm actually gonna plane that. I got some calipers to measure how thick the board is and of course I've got my safety equipment. Make sure that you wear hearing protection and safety glasses whenever you're using the planer. So right now this board is a little over 3/4. It's actually right around 25/32 which would put that 1/32 over 3/4, so we're gonna plane it down and then adjust it accordingly. I'm gonna set it just over 3/4 then start going. 1/4 turn equals a 64th on my planer, so I'm gonna go ahead and take that off. After that cut we were at 49/64 so it's a 64th less than 25/32 and One more quarter turn, and we should be down to 3/4. Let's see what we got here and also we're gonna be able to check to see if we're the same thickness from side to side as well to see if the cutter head is truly aligned with the bed. So I've got 0.755 right here on the flip side I've got 0.756. In the middle I have 0.751 and 0.753 and on the back I have 0.755 and 0.754. Those measurements are good enough for me being within four thousandths of an inch all along the outside of that board in six different areas. I think is great and it's great to see that also that that board is the same thickness from left to right again within just a few thousandths. So I'm gonna make sure that the thickness scale is where it should be, adjust that and we will be tuned in across this entire board. That was a very minor adjustment for me. If anything I think I locked it back exactly where I had honestly because it was already set up. But that's how you do it. So that is the alignment and setup portions, now let's talk about some maintenance of the machine. From the maintenance side it's pretty easy as far it's concerned. I'm gonna get into blades in just a minute. There's two other things that you want to keep an eye on and that is your tables & bed as well as your rollers. To start off with I've got some Johnson's paste wax, any paste wax will work. I'm gonna use that to wax the beds as well as the infeed and outfeed. That's just gonna help that wood slide through. You want as little resistance as possible. You just want to get a nice film on there. Just like you're waxing a table saw or anything else let it set up, and then you can come back and buff it dry. Alright, this looks good and setup. I'm gonna go ahead and buff this out. Alright, I think that's gonna do it you can take a little scrap block again and slide It across there. It slides nice and easy, that's going to reduce friction and make the planing easier. And not as much stress on the machine. The next thing I'm going to do is use the mineral spirits and a paper towel to clean the infeed and outfeed rollers. Sometimes they'll get some stuff caked on them whether it's just chips, or it's actually resin and pitch that get on them. So you want to make sure that those are free of debris and you can do that pretty easily. Just gonna take a little bit of mineral spirits on a shop towel and wipe It across that rubber roller. My rubber rollers are actually really pretty clean, not much buildup on these at all. This is what you're gonna want to look at right here. Just look for debris and build up. Again watch your fingers for these blades, but as you're rubbing down the roller you do not want to get cut. So what I'm mainly getting is just blackness just from that rubber roller. But mineral spirits is approved for cleaning the rollers on this machine and some other machines. But just check your manufacturers description if they say don't use mineral spirits. So obviously you can only clean what you can see at the moment. So you will need to turn that roller. Sometimes you might actually have to turn the machine on and let it go and then get it in two or three different passes. Turn the Machine off and unplugging it each time. Alright now the last thing I want to talk about is the blades so let's dig into that now. I've turned the planer around so we can see the backside now. Let's take a look at where the blades are and how to change them. Now my planer has this dust shroud, so I'm just going to take this off. And one more thumb screw that holds down this shroud that covers the blades. This is a two knife machine so some of them are three knives. This is two knives and this is held in by seven bolts across there. I'm gonna loosen those, and you can see it's just a little platen that is holding in these these knives into the cutterhead. I got the bolts that are holding the knives tight loosened up. There's this little tool that comes with my planer, it's a knife tool. And it's got a magnet on one side and a little hook on the other and that's gonna. help me remove the knives. So here's the planer knife a few things to note it is double-sided. So all you have to do is flip it to get a clean edge. And they also have indentations. I'm gonna pull this bar out. Just so you can see it. What's holding in the actual knives. So here it is. This is just a bar that has some screws in it and when you loosen the screws It presses against the cutter head and holds the knife. So when you're changing blades just make sure that this is all cleaned off and smooth. Especially here on the back and this groove in your cutter head where the knife blades go. Just make sure that that is also cleaned out. Now because these knives do have that indent there you can't adjust the height necessarily that means it's really hard to resharpen these. Because when you get them resharpened you have to have each blade resharpened to exactly the same height or exactly the same amount taken off. It might work, but it might be a little bit off. And then you're not gonna get a good cut. So that's how you take out the blades and how you would change them for a new set or to switch them around for the dual sided. But when do you need to change your blades? So that's something that it's gonna come with experience. But as you plan your boards you're gonna see a few things. One if it starts slowing down. As you start hearing a slowdown it's also gonna get louder. When the blades get dull It's gonna take a louder cut. You'll just be able to hear the whole machine just have a lot more effort than it did in the beginning. And it's gonna be a gradual thing so you need to keep an eye on it. But the other thing you can look for is nicks in the blades. And it's easier to see that on the wood. It will come up as little ridges in the wood as it comes out. So I'm gonna use a carpenter's pencil with the lead on there just to rub it over here. And you'll start to see the ridges shine up as the lead hits the high points. Okay, so right here, this is what we're looking for these are the ridges and we can actually feel those. Those are slightly raised and there's quite a few of them. Just little tiny nicks throughout there. If you're getting too many ridges and your finished surface from those nicks and the blades or if your machines just really starting to struggle, it's probably time to change out those blades. Now I want to give a big thank you to RIDGID Power Tools for being an amazing sponsor of my channel. There's a link down below in the description where you can find out all about the lineup as well as current promotions that they have going on. There you go guys some ways to set up align and maintain your planer. I'm gonna have a couple more videos coming on basic planing and advanced planning. Tell me down below in the comments What do you want to see in those videos? What are some things that you'd like to understand about the planer? If you're not subscribed to the channel already I'd love to have you as part of the team. And until next time guys get out there and build something awesome.

Channel: Fix This Build That

Views: 212,167

Keywords: How to use a planer, planer, how to use a thickness planer, thickness planer, how to use a surface planer, surface planer, wood planer, planer setup, how to setup a planer, planer maintenance, changing planer blades, how to change planer blades, planer snipe, ridgid planer, planer tips, thickness planer tips, woodworking tips and tricks, tips and tricks, woodworking, woodworking projects, woodwork, diy, do it yourself, diy project, fixthisbuildthat, fix this build that

Id: OCcRRvPsk-Q

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/parabol-a]

Simply run a level through your planer, and you’re good to go!

[u/jillanco]

Thanks! Look forward to doing this

[u/ovolkov]

Great video! Thank you... Going to make sure my planer is dialed in this weekend. And this will surely make it easier.