Frankenplaner?

[Eric Fuller]

Well, I'm really fed up with my DW735. About the only thing it has going for it is the finish. Everything else is horrible - the noise and most of all the BAD BAD BAD blades. I've spent nearly $1000 on blades in the past three years. Seriously.

I'd like to get a nice stationary planer but since I still rent my shop space, wiring 220 is not in the cards. The only stationary planer that will run 110 that I have found is the Jet JPM-13. I already had one and it was a piece of junk.

So, now I'm thinking that perhaps I can buy a 15" planer and fit it with a 110V 1.5 HP motor. I do production work but very small items and don't need to make big hogging passes - .02 is about as much as I tend to take off in one swipe...seems like 1.5 HP would be plenty for that. Added benefit would be the ability to just swap it back to stock once I buy a shop, which I am planning to do this fall.

I recently put a Shelix cutterhead in my jointer and I'm sold on them. New planer would have to be able to run one as well.

Any thoughts on if this would even be posssible? Assuming the arbor is the same dimeter, seems like all I would need to do is perhaps fab up a mounting plate and maybe rewire the switches.

I like the Powermatic 15's - I run a PM64 and it's been a workhorse.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Eric, I did just that for a friend.

We purchased a used 15 inch planer and I removed the 2 HP motor and installed a 1 HP motor on it for him. The only item I had to purchase was a pulley, I went with one sheave instead of two due to the low HP requirements.

He planes pine, mostly small pieces less than 6 inches wide with no problem. (Not surprising since many 6 inch jointers are 1 HP or less.

Regards, Rod.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Eric, just out of curiosity, how much and what typee of lumber were you putting through the 735?

[Peter Quinn]

I wonder why 220 can't be had as a renter? Is the panel full? 220V is not that hard nor expensive to aquire, though might not be worth the trouble if a move is in your immediate future.

I'm having a hard time believing much less than 13A/220 or 26A/110 is going to push a 15" planer effectively. The cutter head on mine is @ 3 1/2", plus the gear driven serrated steel feeders, I'm guessing that's going to tax a 1 1/2HP motor considerably just turning it on.

[Rod Sheridan]

Peter, if you measure the current on your planer while running pieces of wood 6 inches wide, with shallow cuts, you'll be surprised to find that it would require less than 1 HP.

Regards, Rod.

[Johnny Kleso]

I'd buy a Grizzly and add a 2hp motor..
They even have insert cutter heads

[Eric Fuller]

Eric, just out of curiosity, how much and what typee of lumber were you putting through the 735?

I work with about half exotics and half domestics, all hardwoods though. I don't know what kind of steel they use to make the blades for the 735 but I suspect it's deliberately inferior to get you to buy refills since they are not sharpenable. How much, no idea. I make puzzles though and have to budget a new set of blades for each project (one side for roughing, one side for finish planing to dimension). I've had a set of brand new knives go dull to the point that sharp 90 degree edges on maple were fuzzed and bent instead of crisp by the time I planed 60 3/4" square sticks, taking .015 passes.

[Eric Fuller]

Hi Eric, I did just that for a friend.

We purchased a used 15 inch planer and I removed the 2 HP motor and installed a 1 HP motor on it for him. The only item I had to purchase was a pulley, I went with one sheave instead of two due to the low HP requirements.

He planes pine, mostly small pieces less than 6 inches wide with no problem. (Not surprising since many 6 inch jointers are 1 HP or less.

Regards, Rod.

Thanks for chiming in Rod. What kind of planer did you convert? My local woodworking stores hardly carry anything in inventory, so if I had a specific model number and make it would help a lot since I'll probably be ordering the new one online sight unseen.

Did you have to do any rewiring on the switch?

[Eric Fuller]

I'd buy a Grizzly and add a 2hp motor..
They even have insert cutter heads

Didn't know there were any 2HP 110V motors. Grizzly sell them? I know they sell models with insert cutterheads, but I'm sold on the byrd setup specificly.

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks for chiming in Rod. What kind of planer did you convert? My local woodworking stores hardly carry anything in inventory, so if I had a specific model number and make it would help a lot since I'll probably be ordering the new one online sight unseen.

Did you have to do any rewiring on the switch?

Hi, it was a King Industrial CT380C It's a 15 inch cast iron planer, looks identical to the Delta/GI etc.

It was 2 HP to start with, now it's 1 HP.

The mag starter had to be replaced because it had a 240V coil in it, and I couldn't find a replacement 120V coil for it. Too bad since the overloads were the correct current rating.

John is using blades with an 18%? Tungsten content in the planer, and is very happy with it.

[Eric Fuller]

Thanks Rod...I'll look around. When you say it looks identical to the Delta, do you mean the current production 4 post 15" Deltas?

I'm hoping the spiral cutterhead will help with the lower power issue as well. The difference in my jointer is amazing after the swap. This is by no means emperical, but it feels like the machines is not working nearly as hard as it did before with straight knives.

EDIT: Nevermind...found it. Looks like a Canadian machine, eh?
http://www.kingcanada.com/Products.htm?CD=111&ID=86

[CPeter James]

You could go as high as 1 1/2 hp with a 120V circuit. I prefer the planers with the motor in the base because it is much easier to service the knives. Any of the 15" planers would be OK. They are all pretty much the same with small differences here and there. I have a 15" Jet. The ones with the motor on the top are also more prone to snipe unless you always use the table locks. The ones with the motor in the base do not have the problem because the motor is rigid and the tables move.

How about this one? Add a new motor or maybe they would credit you and just give you the smaller one. It not, I bet you could sell the larger motor for about what a 1 or 1 1/2 hp would cost. Many people are lookng to upgrade shop equipment.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Extr...erhead/G1021X2



CPeter

[Eric Fuller]

Thanks CPeter. I'll probably hang on to the motor because eventually I'll have a shop wired with 220.

I had noticed that most of the 4 post planers seemed pretty much the same aside from badges and perhaps the addition of a DRO or helical cutterhead.

One thing I noticed is that they seem to use steel rollers instead of the hard rubber ones my lunchbox uses. Infeed is agressively machined to grab the wood, and outfeed is either smooth steel or ridged. Don't the steel rollers mark up the wood, leaving a less than desirable final finish? I take passes as thin as .005 on a pretty frequent basis; sometimes I'll take off a thousandth. If the infeed roller grabs deeper than that it will give me problems.

[Matt Meiser]

The outfeed rollers don't seem to leave marks, but the infeed can if you take too light a cut.

[CPeter James]

My experience is that about .010" is the minimum that you can take and not leave marks. Maybe in you case a drum sander would be better. I have one of those and you can really split hairs with it.

CPeter