20" york craft planer problems.

[keith ouellette]

Ok. the biggest problem is that its a york craft. Its an even cheaper version of a grizzly 20" planer.

Any way. The wood stops feeding after a foot or two. the first feeder is metal with teeth and the second one is a no mar rubber. The rubber one seems to keep moving because if I don't push or pull the board right away a rubber burn mark is left on the board but not always. The metal feeder is moving and gets the wood started but then stops. will sometimes get moving again with a little help but very rarely puts a board all the way.

This thing has very few hours on it. the belts are not loose and do not look all worn down. there is a little bit of black dust in the pulley housing but not as much as I would have figured if the belts were slipping constantly.

The belts do feel hot to the touch after I just ran about 160 linear feet through. Almost hot enough that you wouldn't be able to hold them but not quite.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Wax is your friend! Wax the table well. Make sure your boards if wedge shaped go thick end first.

[glenn bradley]

+1 on wax and clean the rubber roller. I use alcohol and a soft old toothbrush but, check your manual as to what the rubber will tolerate.

[Larry Norton]

Most planers will do the same thing when the knives are dull. You might try sharpening yours.

[keith ouellette]

So far the knives seem pretty sharp. They haven't been used all that much. I was wrong about the out feed roller being rubber. It is metal but has very small ridges. The rubber I thought I saw on the wood was just burn marks. but both rollers are clean.

So far wax may be the key. I guess what ever was on there may have worn off. I'll wax it and give it a go.

Sure wish I could find my manual.

[glenn bradley]

I thought a rubber roller on a machine that size was unusual. If you have the steel infeed and outfeed similr to my Griz (which it sounds like you do) you should get no slip with the feed rollers adjusted properly. My rollers (and probably yours) are designed to be adjusted based on the material type you will be running. I buy mostly stock that has been at least skip planed so I do not present really rough stuff to the planer.

This means I was able to adjust my feed rollers very light but, they've still got a grip like an alligator. Factory settings were vey heavy and left ridges on the material no matter what. This is fine for roungh sizing rough-cut stock but I do that rarely. I would check your alignment per the manual. This is easiest with a dial indicator attached to something reliable (or some decent cash for a Rotocator).

[keith ouellette]

thank You Glenn.

I still haven't found my manual but something you said helped me figure it out. When I first started using this planer I remember it left tiny ridges like you mentioned in some of the wood. I don't remember seeing that for some time. I also didn't think about the rollers being adjustable so I looked the machine over and noticed a couple of torx heads sticking up kinda high. I don't think they were that high before so I turned them down a little and

Bingo. Problem solved. Those torx must be the adjusters.

[glenn bradley]

Those may actually be the spring tension adjusters they do not set the final height of the rollers on my machine. the actual height adjustment used when you setup the machine are eccentric studs at the ends of the rollers themselves. At any rate, as you don't have a manual I will mention that, if your design is like mine, those tension adjusters are hollow. That is, the torx recess has a hole at the bottom. You can confirm this by probing with a bent paper clip or small wire. The reason I mention them is that they are to be oiled with a few drops of oil every 24 hours of operation. A small container of 30 weight is about a buck and can save you expensive repairs down the road. Glad things worked out.

P.s. a Grizzly G0454 manual may be pretty close for your machine and is available online.