Two Problems...One on Jointer, One on Planer (long)

[Matt Guyrd]

Hey all...I have a couple of things I am hoping to get educated on by you good folks. I have two separate issues, one with my jointer, the other with my planer.

This weekend I was milling cherry for my first "real" woodworking project, a small Shaker-style table. The first problem I encountered was with my Delta 6" X5 jointer. I started hearing what sounded to me like noisy bearings. I shutdown the jointer and checked the belt and pulley alignment and ensured proper tension...everything seemed to be in order. I took the belt off and started the motor. Again, all was good...smooth and quiet. I rotated both pulleys by hand to try and detect any unusual noise. Nothing. Put the belt back on and the noise appears. I am having a hard time detecting the exact location, motor or cutterhead. But I am guessing it is motor related and the noise is present when slight pressure is placed on the motor's shaft by the belt. Any of this sound feasible or familiar? I will contact Delta tech support but thought I would poll the more experienced creekers.

My second question is in regards to my Ridgid 13" planer. I was planing about 20 Bf of aforementioned cherry. Keep in mind that both my jointer and planer are new and have seen little action. I started to plane the lumber with good results, ie, no chip-out. As I neared my desired thickness of 3/4", I started to get significant chip-out. I tried rotating the board thinking it was grain direction that was causing the chip-out, but I still received, in most cases, light to moderate chip-out. I do have a new set of knives I can try, but thought it was unusual for the knives to dull so quickly. So, my question is this...is it possible that the knives have dulled in such a short period of time? I read on another post about cleaning the knives. I cleaned both edges of each knife, but still had chip-out. Cutting depth is 1/16" or less (usually 1/32").

Also, could someone clarify for me which way the grain should actually run on the jointer and planner? I look at both the face and the edge of the board. On the face, if the grain comes to a point (something like >), then I feed it into the jointer with the point pointing away from the cutter head. On the planer, I feed the board with the point towards the cutter head. When looking at the edge, I look for the sloped in the grain. Although, admittedly, I get confused here, I feed the top of the slope into the jointer's cutterhead and the bottom of the slope into the planer's cutterhead. My apologies if I am not clear on this point.

Thanks for any feedback.
Matt

[Mark Pruitt]

Can't answer you questions about problems for either tool, but as to feed direction: think about it in the same way that you pet a dog or cat. You rub in the same direction that their fur is running. The same principle applies. The blade (jointer or planer) is your hand and the board is the pet's fur. Look at the edge of the board and most of the time you will see which direction goes against the grain ("fur") and which is in keeping with the grain. Maybe that's a little too "hairy" of an explanation but it worked for me.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

#1 The pulley is loose, tighten the set screw. If it's an alumium pully it's likely destroyed replace wiht balanced cast iron.


#2 cherry can be a tough wood for a lunchbox planer reason is likely the factory bearings. They aren't terribly high quality. You can try to work around by making sure the knives are fhrshly sharp.

[Andy Fox]

Matt, I have these two tools (my jointer is a few years prior to their X5, but same design).

Jointer
My jointer had excessive vibration with some noise, and aligning the pulleys better stopped that. My motor was tilted slightly, and it's a pain to get the motor aligned perfectly because of the bracket design. Somehow I did it using a pry bar, clamps, and pieces of wood to hold it in position while I tightened the bolts. Also, make sure your belt isn't too tight. I think about 1/2" deflection in the center is about right. I still hear a funny rattling noise once in a while, but I think I've got that narrowed down to the metal cover beneath the fence post (thing with teeth) vibrating into the fence base behind the rack and pinion body. The sliding arms on the adjustment bolts can also cause vibration noise if they're resting on something. I used a rubber band to hold them about 1/2 way up.

Planer
I just recently planed up about 40 board feet of cherry for a cradle. It sounds like you're taking too deep of a cut on your planer for cherry. I usually didn't need to plane too much off, and my max depth of cut on a single pass was 1/32". The grain in cherry often goes in many directions in a single board, so it needs a little more care.

Grain
It sounds like you might be feeding your jointer the wrong way. The grain should be fed into the cutterhead in the same orientation relative to the cutterhead on both machines.

If you're face jointing or planing the wood, go by the grain direction on the narrow edges. Remember that the blades don't go straight. They go in an arc which goes into the wood and comes back out. The grain should guide the cutter to a smooth exit. For boards where this isn't clear, take off 1/64" at a time if you need a smooth surface.

Like this:

\\\\\\\\\\ Edge grain of board face-down on jointer
....../..... Jointer knife

[Gary McKown]

Matt - on your planer, are you seeing chipout (as in tearing out small chunks of material), or is it little dimples in the surface? On soft woods particularly, inadequate chip removal allows the rollers to mash the chips into the surface. It is not uncommon for chips to stick on or become embedded in the soft rollers and create a continuing pattern of dimples. Any wood with pitch (maybe cherry, from the sugar content?) is prone to this problem.

But if the problem is chipout and occurred as you described (in later passes), then dull knives are a possibility. Did you start with rough lumber, maybe with hidden dirt? My Ridgid knives last for quite some time with clean wood, but any grit at all would quickly dull or nick them.

[Andy Fox]

Gary makes a good point about chip removal. I barely slide by with using my shopvac, and these dimples let me know that it needs emptied.

[Matt Guyrd]

Thanks for the informative posts!

Cliff...I already checked the pulleys...they were tight. Can you elaborate on how the quality of the planer bearings would cause chip-out?

Mark...thanks for the analogy...makes good sense!

Gary...the chip-out is just that...small thin chips (divots, if you will) approximately 1/8" to 3/16" in diameter...kind of a shell shape. It is not an impression, but I will lookout for that too! I am starting with rough-cut lumber. I quickly run a wire brush over the surfaces in an attempt to remove foreign matter. It is quite possible that the blades are dulling quicker from this.

Andy...thanks for the detailed info. It is good to know you have experienced very similar issues on the same machines. I'll check/tweak the motor in an attempt achieve better alignment. The pulleys are quite close and the belt tension is about 3/4" (1" recommended by Delta). The belt rotates with nearly no wobble. I'll be sure to investigate other areas you have mentioned for vibration and noise.

I'll start with smaller bites on the planer. My lumber is rough-cut and in some case twisted/cupped. After face planing with the jointer to achieve a flat surface, I take it to the thickness planer and, well, you know how it goes, the bottom is flat but the top is way out. Between a smaller bite and proper grain orientation, lets hope I can get a nice surface. Probably will need to change the knives too. Thanks for confirming the multi-directional grain of cherry...I thought it was my inexperienced eye deceiving me!

Again...thanks for the info...I knew I could count on the Creekers.

Matt