I have an old Woodmaster Planer/Moulder model 910 circa: 1978 that belonged to my father. This thing is built like a tank. However I have not been able to plane to a consistant thickness. There is very little snipe at the ends, but the thickness varies quite a bit along the length of the board. It is off as much as .1 in places and one side is thicker that the other across the face at times. I have not been able to find a pattern to this variance. This is quite visable when sighting down the edge of the board.
Here is what I have done in an attempt to correct the problem. I checked that the knives were parallel to the table, they are. There are four springs that apply down pressure to the feed rollers. I have tightened the tension on these thinking that this would hold the board tighter to the table and it seems to have helped, but the problem still exists. I have run only board since I tighted the springs so maybe I just got lucky with that one board. Can you think of anything else I can do to the machine to help with this?
I was thinking that maybe it was my technique. I try to take fairly light passes. As I start the board I hold a little up pressure until I know that the rear feed roller has caught the leading edge of my board. I then let go of the board, walk around to the other side of the planer and when the board nears the end, I support it with a little up pressure until the board exits the planer.
I was wondering if I took a heaver cut, that would allow the feed rollers to apply more down pressure and produce a more consistant cut. What do you guys think?