Planer cutter rotation direction

[Dan Bundy]

Does the planer head rotate into the feed of the board or with it. Its a dewalt 733, if that matters. Cant really see it to check visually.

[Ola Carmonius]

It's cutting against the feed direction. Cutter rotates clockwise if you stand on the side of the planer with your infeed table to the left.

[William Hodge]

I agree with Ola. If the planer cut with the feed direction, it would be climb cutting. I haven't seen a planer that does that.

Chip clearance would be difficult, but there might be a lot less tear out. Even in the molders I have run all the cutters cut against the feed direction. I did work in a bent laminated beam shop that had a Helmga shaper with a pneumatic pressure power feed built into the table. The 3" beams came by the cutter, and cutters cut two 1 x 1 rabbets in the outer edge of the beam. Climb cutting, it would loosen long splinters and shoot them down range. The guys put up 8' foam panels in a target area, 25' from the shaper.

[mike calabrese]

rotates into / against the feed of the board. If you raise the cutter head up high enough you can look up at the blades and see the angle of the edge and the angle they set in the cutter head. Also you can bump the motor and watch the spin down rotation.
calabrese55

[Bill Dufour]

The tall side of the blade is the leading edge. Watch the chips fly to determine rotation. Normally the blade is moving forward on the bottom and flinging chips to the back at the top of the cutting circle.
Bill D

[Michael Burnside]

Opposite of feed. That said sometimes people comment that the board slides in the direction of feed when they are using a planer sled. That is due to the feed rollers, not the cutter.

[Dan Bundy]

Thanks gents. I suspected as much but wanted to be sure. My dust (and chip) collection on the planer isn't great, so chips tend to fly out both sides.

[glenn bradley]

If you are not collecting your chips well they can fall onto the board and get pressed into the surface by the feed rollers. This can give you a poor result. I would up your DC game.

[Richard Coers]

If you are not collecting your chips well they can fall onto the board and get pressed into the surface by the feed rollers. This can give you a poor result. I would up your DC game.

Bench top planers do not have enough spring pressure to press the chips in, but if the chips rattle around the cutter head, that is where the dents are created.

[Dan Bundy]

If you are not collecting your chips well they can fall onto the board and get pressed into the surface by the feed rollers. This can give you a poor result. I would up your DC game.

I do need to up my DC game, more for the health reasons. I do get some dents on occasion but they've usually not been too difficult to get rid of. Thanks again to all.