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Planer feed roller woes

--Waaaaay back in '81 I bought a Makita Model 2030 jointer planer and it's been a trooper. But time has taken its toll and recently the feed rollers gave up the ghost: the rubber just crumbled off of the steel shafts looking like a pile of rock candy! So I called the Makita repair depot and the price for replacement parts is $201.- *each*. That and 2 hrs labor to install 'em and I'm looking at a $500.- bill to fix it. I really don't want to buy a new machine. I'm wondering if there might be an alternative; i.e. getting the rollers rebuilt somewhere. Does anyone know of an outfit that does this sort of thing, preferably somewhere in California? --Thanks,

Reply to
steamer
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Check with a local x-ray film supplier, processor repair, etc., i.e., businesses that service X-ray film processors for hospitals and/or Dr's offices. The processors have rubber coated rollers and they are replaced every so often. Might be able to modify one of those or ask where they are made.... maybe the maker-company has something applicable, you could use or modify. Those rollers range in size of

1" to 3" diameter and 15" to 17" long. Salvage a used one, probably get it for free because they won't reuse it.

Many facilities are going digital, so those processors (uses liquid fixer & developer) are being phased out. I would save those used rollers, from our office. I made outfeed rollers with some of them. There may still be some at our office. What size are your rollers?

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

Thoughts, not necessarily good ones or terribly useful, maybe, but thoughts nonetheless... :)

I've never had a planer w/ anything but steel feed rollers; they're ridged w/ a rough surface. Causes some marking of the wood going in, but the planer takes the marks out anyway. Perhaps you could machine the existing rollers to convert w/o the coating although if it was fairly thick the size might be too small...

Any chance the parts are available from distributors other than Makita direct for less and do labor yourself?

--

Reply to
dpb

Thoughts, not necessarily good ones or terribly useful, maybe, but thoughts nonetheless... :)

I've never had a planer w/ anything but steel feed rollers; they're ridged w/ a rough surface. Causes some marking of the wood going in, but the planer takes the marks out anyway. Perhaps you could machine the existing rollers to convert w/o the coating although if it was fairly thick the size might be too small...

Any chance the parts are available from distributors other than Makita direct for less and do labor yourself?

--

Reply to
dpb

Went to the shop and found a processor roller. If this might be something you can use, I'll mail it to you. And I can check at the office for more.

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Reply to
Sonny

------------------------------------- If you have access to an engine lathe, making replacement rollers is a piece of cake.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Reply to
lektric dan

--Thanks for that idea; when I get the thing apart I'll have a better idea of what's what but that sounds like a viable approach. --Yes I do have a lathe so I can reduce the o.d. to fit a 'common' rubber hose if I can find such with an o.d. close to what's needed. That might fill the bill. Thanks all!

Reply to
steamer

Be careful how far down you turn it. The feed rate to cutter head speed ratio are closely calculated on those things. I don't know how much smaller it could get without adversely effecting the cutting quality.

If I were attempting this repair without OEM parts, I would attempt to spiral wrap some similar rubber(ish) material around the rollers with contact cement. Spiral wrapping (like some drum sanders) means you don't need the right size rubber tube. A plumbers supply store might have the right rubber material in long enough lengths to wrap the rollers. Just wrap in the opposite direction of the rollers' rotation.

Reply to
-MIKE-

How about wrapping it with tool grip type wrapping? Maybe the wrapping a tennis shop might use, for wrapping racket handles and the like, or similar wrap applications. Does a bike shop have handle bar wrap applications sufficient enough for rollers?

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

On 12/22/2011 12:19 PM, -MIKE- wrote: ...

Well, there are variable feed speed drives and the cutter head speed doesn't change for a material feed rate of roughly double. Faster is somewhat rougher, of course, but there's no real precision involved.

Reducing diameter will slow the feed rate down (smaller diameter will mean slow tangential velocity by the ratio of diameters) so if anything it's in the direction of better cutting if there's enough change in diameter to even be noticeable.

I'd think the biggest issue if there's any large reduction in diameter will be running out of adjustment on downfeed pressure if that is limited, but even that would be unlikely to be so big a change as to happen.

The idea of a slide-over hose appeals although could be tough to get accomplished tight enough that any adhesive won't release to keep it from slipping under load and anything one could manage to get on given the length probably is too big w/o some sort of help.

I'd think the wrapping has only marginal chance of success given the loading demands of the infeed roller for anything but the lightest of duty but guess one hasn't lost anything by trying...

--

Reply to
dpb

IMO, too soft.

Reply to
-MIKE-

Load demands? I don't think the pressure involved in anywhere near high enough to worry about with wrapping/gluing some rubber sheeting around the rollers.

What I would be worried about in turning down the rollers is changing the clearance for feeding material. The cutters and rollers have a pretty specific clearance. Think of changing the diameter of a jointer cutter head, without the ability to adjust the height of the outfeed table.

Reply to
-MIKE-

On 12/22/2011 1:12 PM, -MIKE- wrote: ...

Of course...the feed rollers are the drive mechanism in pulling the material into the planer, not just hold down. On a sizable piece of rough material that can be a pretty good load.

They're adjustable to adjust pressure on any planer I've ever had. As long as there's sufficient adjustment, no problemo...

--

Reply to
dpb

--Neat idea! I've got a selection of plastics of different durometer on a keychain somewhere; if I could match the squishiness of the original stuff it'd be an easy matter to get new material and wrap it as you suggest. Have no idea what the original Shore number was but I suspect I can make a good guess.

Reply to
steamer

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