Planer head depth gauge

[keith micinski]

So this is version 1 to make sure it worked ok and I didn't have to make brackets and re-drill holes. I just mounted it to a piece of wood and double stick taped it to the planer. It works perfect so now I am going to make a bracket that replaces the factory depth gauge that has a higher lip so I can screw this spring loaded piece on to it.

[Danny Burns]

Great idea!
Thanks!!!

[Van Huskey]

You did come up with an excellent idea!

[david brum]

Nice, elegant solution. Now I want one.

[Mike Cruz]

David, Woodcraft will pick it up from Keith, and they'll be selling them for $29.99 before you know it!

[johnny means]

I know I'm missing something obvious, but what does it do?

[Mike Goetzke]

I know I'm missing something obvious, but what does it do?

I'm wondering too, but, may be a snap gauge like my Delta benchtop had to set the depth of the first cut. I upgraded to the same machine he has and make a quick caliper measurement of the thickest part of the board and then use the Wixey digital remote gage i have mounted to the machine (sometimes the board if rough sawn isn't thickest on the ends).

Mike

[Mike Cruz]

Johnny, it doesn't matter what it does...it is cool. It is something added to your planer to give you an idea of something...and that you can guage so that you know something or whatever. Why do you have to question things?!?!

Seriously, though, I think the idea is that planers tend to have a little piece of plastic on the front edge of the cast iron that lets you know what the maximum amount that you can feed in is, but there is no way of telling what the actual cutterhead depth is relative to your wood. If I "get" this little gizmo correctly, you send your wood through the planer, then bring that piece back around, set up the little gizmo so that the little sled barely hits the top of the wood, and it lets you know (for future passes) if the wood you are feeding in is going to catch the cutterhead and make a nice cut, be lower than the cutterhead and just leave feeder marks in your wood, or if you are about to hog away so much that the wood is going to get lodged in the planer...forcing you to back the table down during mid-cut. The advantage to the gizmo is that it is a guage BEFORE the infeed rollers grab the wood and you are past the point of no return.

Did I get that right, Keith?

[Andrew Joiner]

Yes Keith, I'm with you on this one. I'd be lost without the material removal gauge on my planer. I use sleds a lot so I want to know what I'm removing.

[keith micinski]

I thought about putting graduations on it but since there really is only about a 16th of maximum cut underneath that tab it didn't make much sense to waste the time. There just isnt enough room to do some sort of cam system like the lunch box planers unless you want some big honking gauge hanging off the front of your planer which I don't. Plus to be honest with you on my Dewalt I never really used that gauge for anything other then finding zero of a given board away. I am supposed to get the steel today to make a new depth stop and then I can mount the "depth gauge" onto it. Does anyone have any ideas for something that might be a little more durable then the plastic 1.35 piece I bought? That's all I could really find locally and wouldn't be opposed to using a different style of spring loaded pin or a different material anyway. To be honest with you I really think jut a piece of flexible plastic would come close to working but my concern is that if you were feeding multiple pieces through at different widths the plastic might not spring back in time to be completely accurate.

[Mike Goetzke]

I thought about putting graduations on it but since there really is only about a 16th of maximum cut underneath that tab it didn't make much sense to waste the time. There just isnt enough room to do some sort of cam system like the lunch box planers unless you want some big honking gauge hanging off the front of your planer which I don't. Plus to be honest with you on my Dewalt I never really used that gauge for anything other then finding zero of a given board away. I am supposed to get the steel today to make a new depth stop and then I can mount the "depth gauge" onto it. Does anyone have any ideas for something that might be a little more durable then the plastic 1.35 piece I bought? That's all I could really find locally and wouldn't be opposed to using a different style of spring loaded pin or a different material anyway. To be honest with you I really think jut a piece of flexible plastic would come close to working but my concern is that if you were feeding multiple pieces through at different widths the plastic might not spring back in time to be completely accurate.

Really - get yourself some digital calipers and mount a Wixey remote DRO (see links I gave you for simple application) and you will be able to start making chips. In my opinion this is the tool that most benefits from a digital height gauge. This is what I do - after face joining one side use the calipers to take the max. thickness, dial in the planer to a little under this, and then on additional passes usually turn the crank one turn till I get close then 1/2 turn on last two passes. Also, make sure the bed roller is at or above the bed or else you could get gouging - DAMHIKT.

Mike

[Ole Anderson]

Really - get yourself some digital calipers and mount a Wixey remote DRO (see links I gave you for simple application) and you will be able to start making chips. In my opinion this is the tool that most benefits from a digital height gauge. This is what I do - after face joining one side use the calipers to take the max. thickness, dial in the planer to a little under this, and then on additional passes usually turn the crank one turn till I get close then 1/2 turn on last two passes. Also, make sure the bed roller is at or above the bed or else you could get gouging - DAMHIKT.

Mike

Yea, the Wixley is the way to go, don't know how I ever got repeatability before. Still, you have a cool idea.

[keith micinski]

Oh I am definitely going to get a Wixey, but that wouldn't do me any good for trying to zero the head to rough sawn lumber. The paint is drying on the bracket now.

[Mike Goetzke]

Oh I am definitely going to get a Wixey, but that wouldn't do me any good for trying to zero the head to rough sawn lumber. The paint is drying on the bracket now.

I'm not getting this. With the Wixey planer gauge you run a board through it and use it to calibrate the gauge. You do this once (till batteries wear out). Then when I mill rough sawn lumber I will face join one side of the lumber then take a caliper to determine max. thickness (although over time your eyball gets calibrated) and set the planer using the gauge to maybe 0.030" or so smaller. I just don't think you will need the gauge you are working on with this planer if use use the gauging described here.

Mike

[keith micinski]

If you operate under the premise that I want to caliper every single board I have face jointed before I run it through the planer (which I don't) then you are right. I can use the expensive calipers, (which I have to go get out and then hope the battery is still good in it) and I can use the expensive wixey digital read out to compare the two read outs, then adjust the table to that read out plus a little more to start taking material off. Or I can take any board I want with out all of those fancy expensive tools and set it on the table and raise it till it bumps the pin up and I no I am at zero and I am done. I can now look over and see what I need to get to for my finish height or I can just clean a face of a board up and take off as little as possible without wasting any. I found that if I had run the board threw twice because the firs time wasn't quiet enough I had even more roller marks in the board to contend with. Now I can shave off the smallest amount easier, quicker and honestly just as accurate and it only cost me about 2 dollars.