URGENT - How to adjust planer infeed rollers?

[J.M.]

I have a powermatic PM15 5HP (Planer / Molder) and I'm trying to set the height of the infeed and outfeed rollers in relation to the cutting blades. I've been having so much trouble that I finalled bought a bed feed roll gauge / deflection gauge to measure the distance and set the rollers. According to the manual the in-feed roller needs to be 1/16 lower then the blade and the out-feed roller 1/32. When I checked the current setup they were way to low and so I assume the lumber was butting up against the roller instead of feeding under it. Anyway after reseting the rollers to the "proper" heights the unit will not plane 1/8 of a pine board while pulling the lumber through, I cranked the rollers down a little more and it's still not grabbing. Am I doing something wrong or is the manuals guidlines way off?

[dpb]

Owning and having used only older "heavy metal" planers, can only describe basics of their operation and adjustment. Hopefully that will help for your situation as well.

Sounds like reasonable settings for infeed and outfeed rollers, so problem would seem to be elsewhere. There are the basic adjustments of in/outfeed rollers, bed rollers (if extant) and chipbreaker.

If have bed rollers, make sure they're just proud of the bed and free. Also be sure the bed itself is in good shape.

I'm suspecting if you have sharpened or readjusted the knives the real problem is that the chipbreaker or pressure bar is too low and the workpiece is binding there. It should be just a fraction above the knives.

HTH...

[Jim Behning]

I waxed my feed tables which made a world of difference. Wood that would not get pulled in before the wax worked as expected. No other ideas as I have a Makita combo which is a toy compared to yours. I did see a post recently for rebuilding my Makita's rollers. You send off your dried out worn polyurathane rollers, they strip them and pour new poly on them. They then turn the rollers to the proper shape.

Is there any chance you machine may have dirty feed rollers? We used to slather up some kerosene to clean up dirty tables and rollers at one wood shop I worked at. Oops, maybe that was for a table saw with an electric feed that we ripped yellow pine on. Lots of pitch gummed things up.

Your service manual does menti>>> I have a powermatic PM15 5HP (Planer / Molder) and I'm trying to set the

[HerHusband]

I have a cheapie Delta planer that I've been rather happy with. A few months after I started using it, I noticed it wasn't feeding boards the way it used to.

I tried waxing the tables and cleaned the rollers and all other parts as good as I could. It helped a little, but it still wasn't feeding boards properly.

Now I'll be honest, I haven't read the manual. :) I don't know if it's even possible to adjust the roller heights on my machine.

After fighting with this problem for a while, I changed the planer knives and suddenly the planer started feeding boards again. I guess the dull knives just provided too much resistance for the rollers to overcome. Not only that, I was amazed at how much quieter the planer ran with sharp knives. They actually CUT the wood instead of beating it to death... :)

Anthony

[J.M.]

I've spent more time than anyone should looking at this machine and am just stumped. I'm ready to call in a pro to have a look at it. The rollers do a have a small amount of pitch on them but nothing significant, the chip breaker is adjusted well out of the way, and the bed of the machine is actually a custom molding bed made out of melamine and waxed several times. On the feed rollers I can adjust the height as well as the spring tension but after playing with both setting for house I'm not much further ahead. I just started using the machine this week "new from box" so I can't see anything being warn out yet...

[dpb]

On Feb 12, 8:57 am, "J.M." wrote: ...

Does it work ok w/ the factory bed? That would be step one. Mentioned it wouldn't handle an 1/8" cut -- does it handle a thinner cut ok?

If it's a brand new machine, is there any possibility there's some overlooked packing or somesuch still in the feed path?

Also, as dumb as it sounds, not knowing the newer PM machines, any chance the knives are backwards or not above the head diameter? And, of course, as someone else mentioned, the knives need to be at least sharp enough to not be an obstruction. If it's new, that _shouldn't_ be a problem.

If a new machine and none of the suggestions help, if from local distributor, I'd call them, otherwise try PM. _Used_ to be their service/support was topnotch -- I've no idea how it is since the Jet takeover; my last new equipment was so long ago I drove down to McMinville and picked it up and was taken to lunch by one of the shop/ foundry foremen after the "cook's tour"... :)

[J.M.]

I yanked the "home made" bed off and tried the factory metal bed but it didn't make a difference. A thin cut works a little better but not really. I've even taken a piece that was just planed and fired it back in the machine and it still ahs problems. I've also checked the belt tension and anything else the manual suggested. I'll try running it on the factory bed again tonight and see if that helps but don't have much hope.

P.S. I have a call into Powermatics and will try them again on my lunch break.

[Jim Behning]

[HotRod]

I called Tech Support yesterday and after reading from the manual we determined that I have done everything that the manual suggests. He is suppose to call me back today with the factory settings so that I can try and set the feed roll height and spring tension to the factory settings. Unfortunately the bed of this planer does not have rollers.

[dpb]

OK, we'll be most interested to hear of whatever final resolution is...