Dewalt Planer questions

[Lynn Sonier]

Purchased my Dewalt DW733 planer in February, 2002, and have used it a good bit. How did I ever do without this nifty tool. My first question is, when do I need to change the rubber rollers.
Occasionally, even though I'm only talking off about half a crank, the rollers slip leaving black marks on the wood. The front lower portion of the head occasionally takes out little curls of wood and I cannot take off more than 1/2 of a crank. Its been like this since I first got the machine. Was thinking of sanding off a little of the metal on the front bottom part of the head.
Or is there some kind of adjustment for this? I would appreciate any help anyone can give me.
I know, I know - a lot of questions.

[George Summers]

Don't know if I can give precise or exact answers but here are my suggestions/ideas. First the rollers, I probably won't change mine in my life time. But, you do have to keep them clean, a wipe down with
Simple Green or such. You also have to keep the infeed and outfeed tables and the platen well waxed. It sorta sounds like your wood is not slipping across the table very well and the roller is leaving the marks when the wood stops or drags. As far as the wood hitting the front apron, I don't see how it can unless something is DRASTICALLY out of adjustment, I have about a ¼" clearance if I remember correctly (I'm not in the shop at the moment). I am assuming that you are talking about the front apron and not really the head, as you can't really see the head while the machine is running. I have found that if I try to feed too short of a piece through, it will nose dive when the leading edge hits the roller, thus kicking up the tail which can hit the apron. How long are the pieces that have the curly peeled off?

Anyone else with a guess?

George

[Lynn Sonier]

Thanks for the response. My apron, as you called it, has absolutely no clearance at all and I don't know how to adjust it. If I try to take off more than 1/2 of a crank in one pass, it will not go by the piece of metal which holds the depth of cut guage.
Apparently, something IS wrong.

[George Summers]

Your description has me completely baffled. The entire block (motor, cutter head/rollers, aprons, etc) should go up (or down) together. One part should not stay behind. Are you sure that the wood is hitting the apron and not some part inside the planer? I have heard of one of the screws holding a knife being loose and skimming the wood. The working part (the sensor thingie) of the cut gauge could be misaligned. Watch really close as you feed wood through. But, first make sure that the entire block is moving up or down with the crank.

George

[Larry Marker]

If you haven't already discovered this, the Dewalt website has a bunch of files describing how to do several maintenace repairs and adjustments. The have some as videos that you can download.

Larry