Ridgid Planer advice needed

[Dr. Deb]

I have a Ridgid R4330 thickness planer and love it. However, I need some advice.

I bought the planer back in January and finally had to reverse the knives on it. That is when I realized I had a problem. The knives are held in with domed top allen screws. These are not designed to stand up under a lot of torque, especially being as shallow as they are. I found two that were in so tight I could not break them loose, and there is no way to get a pair of vice grips on them. Add to that, one of the two "rounded out" on me. It being still under warranty, I took it back to Home Depot and let them wrestle with it.

That is the problem.

Here is the question. Is there room in where to cutter head spins to use cap screws instead of allen screws? I know my old Dewalt 733 (yes this was a trade up in finish quality) used cap screws and I was wondering if they might work here.

Thanks

Deb

Thanks

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Dr. Deb" wrote

I don't have the answer to the question about cap screws. I do, however have a solution. I had a similar problem with the screws on my Delta planer. Once I got them out, I put them back snug, not ungodly tight. They are now easily removed with the torx driver in a normal manner. I cannot imagine why the factory put them so tight.

[Max]

Is it possible that you used the wrong size allen wrench? (SAE instead of metric, or the reverse) A quality socket head cap screw (grade 8 [or 10.9 metric] ) should not be that easy to cam out) I wouldn't hesitate to replace the screws with the same type screw but in a higher quality. for *example*:

(in SAE thread)

Max

[Josepi]

Perhaps some thermal shock on them? A shot of 60 below spray?

Max

[Dave Balderstone]

I had the same problem with my Delta. Fortunately my wife's cousin has a tool repair business and was able to bust them loose for me.

[Puckdropper]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:MsednXUJcs3hH4_QnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I had the same problem with my DeWalt. Why are those things so tight? I wouldn't imagine they'd need to be more than 1/4 turn past snug. I had to take them off with my impact driver.

I still need to get in touch with DeWalt and ask them to send me some replacements for the ones that stripped.

Puckdropper

[dave]

so they don't take any chance of them coming loose and getting sued.

[Puckdropper]

dave wrote in news:iev9tr$e2t$ [e-mail]:

It's been my experience that screws that are too tight often let go and things start moving extremely quickly. If your hand is down in the machine (where the bolts are, eh?) the chance of hitting something is pretty good.

I guess it's a way to shift responsibility. If the user can't remove the tools with the chosen (included?) tool, it's his fault. If the machine suddenly lets go, it's the company's fault.

Puckdropper

[skeez]

I had the same problem with my delta portable. I drilled the heads off and the screws came right out. I replaced them with the same type from ace. If memory serves they were 6x19 or 6x20 metric. The factory screws are crap. I replaced all of them for a few bucks and have not had a problem since. They need to be tight but not gorrilla tight! ;-]

skeez

[Dr. Deb]

To one and all, thanks for the input and advice. I am glad for three things

1) I am not the only one with this problem

2) There is an easy fix

3) This group exists

Thanks again

Deb

Dr. Deb wrote:

[Nahmie]

Ed,

Therein lies the "real" solution. You say yours uses Torx head screws. HALLELUJAH!!

Norm