Hello everyone,

The previous upgrade I did to my planer was to install a Byrd cutterhead in it.

The latest upgrade was to install a Wixey digital height gauge onto my Canadian made General model 130 14" planer.

Here is a shot of the guage fresh out of the box,



It didn't come with much, just a random bag of screws and things that didn't look too helpful to me.

I checked the Wixey web site to see if anyone had posted pics of an install on a 130. No one had, so it looked like I was on my own.

I held the gauge in various places on the planer until I found the place I wanted to mount it,



Once I figured out where to place the gauge, I took it apart and made cardboard templates of the brackets I would have to make,



I bought some 2" wide by 1/8" thick aluminum stock to make the brackets out of. I traced my cardboard patterns onto the aluminum and cut the parts out on a 14" bandsaw. A little work with both a round and a flat file and things looked pretty good. I also had to drill some holes in the brackets for where the screws would attach the Wixey to the bracket, and the brackets to the planer,



I then marked for those hole on my planer before drilling and tapping the cast iron to accept the pan head machine screws that would hold the brackets in place,



Next I mounted the Wixey to the main bracket,



I put the Wixey back together and installed in on my planer,



You can see the screws that are holding on the brackets I made.