I purchased a 13 inch Jet planer/molder. After initial setup I was able to easily thickness plane lumber. The results were excellent. I think they may be too smooth - will need to sand a bit to get some tooth for the paint to grab on to.
I am now trying to use the molder feature. The initial knives are just used to plough out a 2 inch wide by .25 inch deep groove in a
1x4x 3/4" board. This is just the relief on the back of the molding. I have determined that the instructions in the manual for setting up the molding feature are totally bogus. It calls for the feed roller to be initially set 5/16" below the level of the molding knives. Even when the rollers are all the way down, I can't get them that far below the knives. I set the rollers down as far as possible and tried it. The feed pressure to start the board through the planer was very high. Furthermore, as I raised the bed 1/8" for the first cut, the roller pressure pressure increased significantly. By the time I did the 2nd pass to get my final 1/4" it was nearly impossible to get it started. Basically, each increase of 1/8" caused the rollers to be under more pressure.Has anybody got some experience, expertise, or hints they wish to share about using this beast?