My Tersa headed SCMI is the fastest I have seen.
4 knives, just over two minutes when I was racing myself. It usually take me about five, and about 1 minute to shift. Perfect every time.
Contributor
My Tersa headed SCMI is the fastest I have seen.
4 knives, just over two minutes when I was racing myself. It usually take me about five, and about 1 minute to shift. Perfect every time.
Contributor
What it really comes down to is how much you are willing to spend.
Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night
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Byrd head in any machine why change knives when you can flip a cutter every other year or so
Member
You ask which "surface" planer has knivees easiest to change. I have a Steel City 8" jointer that has reversible knives with a pin index so you just turn them over and re-tighten the screws with no jig required.
Now if you meant "thickness" planer.... you already got oddles of replies to that question.
No attempt to be a smart-*** but... a surface planer is actually what we call a jointer here in the U.S. A thickness planer is generally just called a planer here in America. Not a big deal but it will confuse someone that is a member from across the pond if not clarified.
Sarge..
+1 on ease of DeWalt's system.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
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When I first got my 22" PM, I took dial indicator readings at various points along all four blades relative to their height above the cutterhead. A friend had surprised me with a precision machined half round cross section of a piece of pipe drilled and tapped to hold a dial indicator. The average of these readings would be my target for subsequent replacements.
The design of this cutterhead is such that springs are pushing up on the knives while you are locking them down with the gibs. PM supplies a registration tool for setting the knife height above the cutterhead. Still, I like to check the final settings with the dial indicator for some extra assurance that I did it right.
Final advice: Don't quibble about a couple of ten thousandths of an inch. This causes blindness and your wood will never know the difference in the finished product. Be sure to thoroughly clean the cutterhead of sawdust and resin before setting the blades as this can throw things off quite a bit.
Contributor
Stephen, your *old* Craftsman planer should be one of the many made by Belsaw for Sears! Unless it is REALLY old, there should be 2 jack screws per knife to adjust their height! What could be simpler? If you use a dial indicator to reference the height of each knife from the cutter head at both ends, you can adjust 3 knives *dead on* within minutes! Shifting knives could not be easier! Just loosen the jib and shift the knife. Retighten!
IF, your planer is REALLY OLD, and lacks the jack screws, you DO have my sympathy! I struggled for too many years without them on a jointer AND planer! I would be Trading UP also, but not DOWN to a lunchbox planer! Hold out for a good deal on a 15" cast iron planer! Many are out there for little more than a *lunch* will cost you!
[/SIGPIC]Necessisity is the Mother of Invention, But If it Ain't Broke don't Fix It !!
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What planer has the easiest knife changes? The one where I work is fantastically easy. When the knives are dull or seriously nicked, somebody says "Hey Tony, its time to change the planer knives", and Tony being a highly skilled woodworker and engineer in charge of a myriad of things maintenance wise and other wise changes them out on Saturdays when the shop is closed.
Maybe I can ask Tony to go to your house? He sure won't come to mine I can tell you. I have to change mine myself. Not so hard after the first few hundred times.
I have a dewalt 735 as a backuo and jobsite planer, its so easy to change knives its hard to describe. Child's play. Short of that terminus or tersa quick change are probably the easiest, but a terminus head is big bucks as are the planers that come with them stock. Perhaps a spiral index head is an easy exchange too, but again, at some significant cost.
Member
My Delta 13" 2 speed planer has indexing knives that allow for a quick (under 5 minutes when you know what your doing) change. However this is the only good point to a horrible machine. Sharp knife, dull knife, you still must push each and every board through with bruit force.
[OP]
Contributor
I'm glad to be educated by all the replies. Is my planer REALLY old? I got in the 1970's.. Hey, it's younger than I am!.
On phenomenon I notice about my "old" Craftsman tools is that if I go to the Sears website and try to find parts information by entering the model number, i never find them listed.
Stephan I have the DeWalt and I just recently changed the blades on it. Nothing could be simpler. An easy off top and an equally easy to come off blade cover reveals the blades and from there, it is just a matter of backing off about eight screws and you are gold. The blades self register and in fact, have a bit of side to side play to them so that should you get a nick in one of them, you can adjust a blade to make up for that. Very easy blade changes. You can probably do the entire job in about twenty minutes and get back up and running.
There's one in every crowd......and it's usually me!
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Originally Posted by Larry Edgerton
I really doubt that anything beats the Tersa system for speed, and accuracy.
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That's purdy much what Hammer does. Pins across the innards of the empty slot and holes in the blades. Pretty quick and easy. And there's adjustment if you want it.
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