As some of you know I posted a message a while back about my Powermatic 208 20 inch planer. I was getting what the rep. called "dishing" with ridges 3/8 inch apart. After doing all we could Powermatic sent in Bob Vaughan (who used to write for Fine WW mag.).

All he could find was one of the four blades was 0.006 inch LOW. The problem had been mostly on the left side and more to the left side of the board. He said what I was getting was chatter and worse on the left side because of the mass of the drive mechanism on the right side even with the table locked. As a newbie to the 208 and wood working I have to take him at his word that it's "Operator Error". I know, joint one side and then plane. I ran one board about 8 inches wide and 7 feet long rough cut 4/4 red oak after the knife adjustment. Got the chatter on one side for most of the length even after several passes. He showed me the problem, 1/2 inch or slightly more bow in the board, no twist just the bow. Also, I don't notice any noise change from the smooth to "chatter" cuts.

MY QUESTION. Am I asking my planer to do something it can't and shouldn't be able to do? My understanding is that if you plane a board like this you should get a smooth board with parallel faces and still be bowed. I did have a Makita 2030N planer/jointer (neighbor bought it after he wore it out) and could have run a board like this and never gotten the chatter. With the 2030N I got into the habit (maybe a wrong one) of planeing the rough lumber to a mostly smooth surface and then going from there. Never had this problem. Once again, am I asking too much? (He asked if I had adjusted the pressure on the feed rollers and we had not. That was not brought up again, could this be too low pressure on the rollers?)

Just wanted a little more feedback before I call Powermatic again.

Thanks again for all of you help. MARK