Wixey Digital Planer readout

[Thomas Prondzinski]

Anyone here have or seen a Wixey Digital Planer readout? Woodcraft has them for 59.95. Was thinking of using one for the planer and one for the Performax.


Thanks Tom

[Jim Becker]

I ordered a digital readout that I'm installing on the planer bed of my Mini Max J/P from Accurate/Digi-Kit. Their kit for the small planers runs $99, so the one you've identified at Woodcraft sounds like a nice deal.

[Mark Katz]

Anyone here have or seen a Wixey Digital Planer readout? Woodcraft has them for 59.95. Was thinking of using one for the planer and one for the Performax.

Haven't seen it but I did notice that www.wixey.com offers them direct for the same price with free shipping. Also, there's a PDF of the owner's manual there, so you can get a better feel for the installation and use of it.

Mark

[Richard Wolf]

This is a pic of a Digital read out I use on my planer. I purchased it at a woodworking show. I can't find a brand name on it or the paper work.

[Jamie Buxton]

So, what's the technology inside these things? What makes them work? (And the implied question, why should we believe their claimed specs for accuracy and resolution?)

[Richard Wolf]

These are built for the machine industry and while some are going to be more accurate than other, I was only looking for a better way to return to consistant sizes. I have not found them to be a problem. But I'm not building rocket parts.

Richard

[Michael Perata]

I ordered a digital readout that I'm installing on the planer bed of my Mini Max J/P from Accurate/Digi-Kit. Their kit for the small planers runs $99, so the one you've identified at Woodcraft sounds like a nice deal.

Jim
Do you know of anyone else putting one on a 300?

How often to you have to set the height? Once I would hope, at least between battery and Tersa blades changes.

[Jim Becker]

Do you know of anyone else putting one on a 300?

No, but it's been done before. Jim Strain was interested in learning how things work out, too.

How often to you have to set the height? Once I would hope, at least between battery and Tersa blades changes.

I just unpacked it (received today) and am reading the manual "as we speak". (Will put some pics in my original thread shortly) The readout can be "locked" once you zero it to prevent accidental adjustments. Once that's done, it should be dead on. With the Tersas, it shouldn't matter with knife changes since they are no height differences...no sharpening!

[Lynn Kasdorf]

Fortunately, cheap digital readouts for machinery are now commonplace. Many folks who have Taiwanese mill-drills buy these cheap DRO's (digital read out) for indicating quill depth. I plan to put one on my mill-drill. Really, they can be hooked between any two objects that move relative to each other.

Go to ebay and search for DRO.

I think they work just like my digital micrometer- as the head moves relative to the shaft, a pinion gear rotates along the rack gear on the shaft. The pinion turns a very precise rotary shaft encoder, which feeds an embedded processor which drives the display. They have gotten these things down to an accuracy of < 1/1000" for $50 these days.

I've been thinking of adding DRO to the elevation of my SCMI slider TS that I am reconditioning. I would need the type with a remote display tho.

My only concern with these on a planer, as in the photo above, is the possibility of whacking it with a timber that you are wrestling into the planer, or generally bumping in to it and breaking/bending it.

[Michael Perata]

With the Tersas, it shouldn't matter with knife changes since they are no height differences...no sharpening!

I knew that, I really did!

[Mike Stanton]

I think it will be great I am going to get one one of these days. Mike

[Ron Huisinga]

Here's a Wixey being installed on DW-735
http://www.huisinga.org/gallery/view...lbumName=Wixey

[Boyd Gathwright]

.... Noted, thanks .

[Glen Blanchard]

I think DRO's are great. I have one on my router lift and think it's fantastic.

The thing I don't understand, however, is how to zero it out on a planer. Will a planer allow the knives to make contact with the table/bed? And if so, it would seem very easy to damage the blade.

Perhaps these don't get zeroed out on a planer, but a piece of stock of known thickness is placed in the planer and the knives are moved into contact with the stock. This would require the DRO be able to be dialed in to something other than a reading of zero though, and I have never seen that in a DRO.

How do these work?

[Mike Stanton]

I have had my 735 planer blades sharpened will that make it still work.Mike