Delta 15" planer is home

[Kent A Bathurst]

Jeff,

I replaced the oil seals and some bearings in my Delta 15" planer recently. I can type a "how to" if anybody is interested. Sorry I can't take pictures since I have it all back together now. It's not very hard to do. i can even tell you the bearing numbers, oil seal numbers, etc. The two oil seals will cost about $2.50 each.

Wayne - yes, please. Mine is 10 yrs old, does not leak. "If you sharpen it while it's sharp, it never gets dull." Plus, I am planning some shop downtime for general maintenance on the Big Stuff - new belts, new blades, gear oil, yada, yada, yada - and while I'm there, might as well take care of this.

Thanks
Kent

[Peter Quinn]

Nice score on the DC-380. I have an older open stand model in my shop and it has performed well for me. Night and day difference in performance between it and a lunch box, and far less noise. I too bough it used with a fair quantity of rust and crud on it. The "Delta" gear box oil will set you back about $42 per quart with shipping (they sell it by the pint, it takes a bit more than one pint to do an oile change), so I recommend not wasting your time with that stuff. Most every other 15" floor model planer manufacturer recommends 80W-90W hypoid gear oil (synthetic) for their machines. Perhaps delta is secretly in the petroleum refinery business? I personally think they are in the "Clip the customer on parts" business. Anyway, I changed the oil in mine before using as it was black muck that had sat for 10 years, I used 85W hypoid gear oil from Castrol which costs about $2.89 at most auto parts stores, works great.

Enjoy that tool.

PS: I found out the hard way that the 5" hole on the dust hood is 5" for a reason. I tried reducing at the machine and it kept clogging. When I ran a 5" hose to the machine and reduced with a 5"X4" tapered reducer at the collector, things worked great. Its even better if you don't have to reduce at all. Also, if you have the 'new' plastic dust hood, be gentle with it. They are fairly prone to breakage when bumped and aren't cheap. I've bought 3.