Issue with a Makita 2012NB Planer

I have had this planer for 10 years. It has always been decent until a few days ago. Normal width boards run well through the planer. There has aways been a hint of snipe, but normally not a big issue.

I ran 4 glue ups through the planer at almost width capacity (12"). I have a Wixey planer thickness gage on the unit. Taking 0.005" at a time, the last 4 inches on one side had chatter. It was like the head lock came loose or something. If I put pressure up on the board, it got worse. I adjusted the outfeed and infeed so they did not put as much pressure up on the board and made matters worse. It always happens on one side an normally is about 3" across the board. The deep ones were about half way across.

Any ideas of what might be the problem? Bad out feed roller or infeed roller? Head lock not working correctly? Bad bearings? Bad chain?

I have that planer, but I have not had the chatter issue that you describe. Does the grain of the wood change in that area? Brian

I have an old Makita 2030 12" planer joiner combo (1984 vintage). I inherited it from my dad who had run thousand's of bd ft of lumber through the planer (he used it at his small sawmill). I noticed the same problem and took the unit apart and found it had some solid bronze bearings (cutter head?) that had worn oblong. Makita service center near Atlanta had replacement bearings and it resumed "perfect" surfacing. FYI - I made this repair about 10 years ago but parts were available then...

Don

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Originally Posted by Rich Aldrich

I have had this planer for 10 years. It has always been decent until a few days ago. Normal width boards run well through the planer. There has aways been a hint of snipe, but normally not a big issue.

I ran 4 glue ups through the planer at almost width capacity (12"). I have a Wixey planer thickness gage on the unit. Taking 0.005" at a time, the last 4 inches on one side had chatter. It was like the head lock came loose or something. If I put pressure up on the board, it got worse. I adjusted the outfeed and infeed so they did not put as much pressure up on the board and made matters worse. It always happens on one side an normally is about 3" across the board. The deep ones were about half way across.

Any ideas of what might be the problem? Bad out feed roller or infeed roller? Head lock not working correctly? Bad bearings? Bad chain?

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Rich,
normally the makita planer is pretty bullet proof,I cannot say for certain without really looking at it, the first place i would start would be the infeed and out feed roller bearings there may be enough play in them to cause a little chatter,the head bearings could also cause this, due to the age of the machine it is possible and there are factors such as where is it kept, heated, cold, humid. and so on it all has effects. someday as you drive to green bay stop at our power tool store in peshtigo and we can talk about it more, we are a factory service center for makita and many others as well as woodworking tools and equipment.

larry
west shore tool service llc

Larry,

Thanks for the help. I plan to go down your way next week, so I'll probably just put the planer in my vehicle and you can look at it.

The strange thing is that it only does this on wide panels. I am going to try some Johnsons paste wax on the bed and see if that helps. Narrow boards (4" and narrower) it planes fine no matter where the board is fed along the width. I stagger it so the blades dull more evenly.

Brian,

It only matters where the panel comes out. It is the last 5 inches or so. Grain doesnt seem to effect it.

Don

Thanks for the insight. This might be the problem.