Scallops from planer NOT caused by knife alignment?

[Steve Griffin]

I get a very similar pattern sometimes when my board doesn't have a nice flat bottom face from the jointer.

[scott vroom]

Have you called the manufacturer to discuss possible causes?

[Rod Sheridan]

The bed rollers are below the table surface... I've tried adjusting the chipbreaker and pressure bar in all sorts of positions. If I have them apply a lot of pressure, it reduces the scalloping but the wood can't feed without denting

Well, that's part of the problem.

The chip breaker and pressure bar must be set with a measuring device such as a dial indicator to be exactly at a certain dimension relative to the knife circle.

Adjust the planer as per the manufacturers specifications and report back please................Regards, Rod.

[johnny means]

I can see what looks like regular scalloping, in between the larger ridges. These larger ridges look to me to be a series of snipes rather than scallops caused by the path of your knife edge. I would check to see if my table were locking properly. Are you locking the table? Is there any movement when the bed is locked in place. If not, I would then check to see that there was no loose connections in the cutter head or journal areas. Also inspect for any hidden cracks or brocken attachment points that would allow the cutter head and be to move relative to each other.

[johnny means]

Are you not getting this marking on either the leading or trailing end of the board?

[Rick Fisher]

Get a flashlight and a camera that takes video .. Ideally some 8/4 lumber ..

Shine the light in .. turn the video on and set the camera on the planer bed ..

I bet you will be able to figure it out watching the video ..


When my planer gets dull, or the beds get sticky, the wood will stop while planing .. drives me nuts.. I get those marks each time the board stops.. Typically waxing the planer bed fixes it for me, once I had to turn the carbide cutters.. If the wood is not stopping and starting, you need to see what's going on in there.

If you want, I can make a video with my Chiwanese General and you could watch both.. see what's happening an compare ..

[Matthew Hills]

Hi all,

I picked up a G1033 and spent the better part of 5-6 hours tuning it. I'm having a real heck of a time trying to get it not to scallop (especially when planing long boards). The scallops are approx 1/4" wide and about 0.005 deep. They appear to be caused by the infeed roller ridges (the spacing per scallop seems to be consistent with the spacing of the infeed roller serrations) but I can't fathom why it would want to lift off the table or what options I have for remedying it. I can deal with small scalloping from the knives, but this is pretty bad...

Thoughts?

Is the wood face-jointed?

Matt

[Roger Myers]

You mention that it is especially when feeding a long board...are you using any extension tables or roller supports? If the board is unsupported, i could see this issue occuring....

[Matthew Hills]

Well, that's part of the problem.

The chip breaker and pressure bar must be set with a measuring device such as a dial indicator to be exactly at a certain dimension relative to the knife circle.

Adjust the planer as per the manufacturers specifications and report back please................Regards, Rod.

I'd recommend reading Bob Vaughan's article on "Getting Peak Planer Performance" (getting the manufacturer's specs is also a good idea):

- http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/Get...rformance.ashx

and the corresponding on video:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7peFNT2vS0å



Matt

[keith micinski]

Honestly that is so bad and pronounced I would be surprised if it was an adjustment and not a bearing going out or something else broke or loose. in essence the head is either bouncing across the board or the board is bouncing across the head. Out of adjustment might let this happen a little but that looks like a lot more then a little.

[John Coloccia]

I looked at the Grizzly manual, and there's a pretty detailed explanation of the setup procedure for the various settings. I wouldn't do anything at all until going through the manual, step by step, and setting everything up to factory specs, including the knives.

[Matt Armstrong]

Well, that's part of the problem.

The chip breaker and pressure bar must be set with a measuring device such as a dial indicator to be exactly at a certain dimension relative to the knife circle.

Adjust the planer as per the manufacturers specifications and report back please................Regards, Rod.

One of the (many) positions I set it to was the exact manufacturer specs. No change.

[Matt Armstrong]

I can see what looks like regular scalloping, in between the larger ridges. These larger ridges look to me to be a series of snipes rather than scallops caused by the path of your knife edge. I would check to see if my table were locking properly. Are you locking the table? Is there any movement when the bed is locked in place. If not, I would then check to see that there was no loose connections in the cutter head or journal areas. Also inspect for any hidden cracks or brocken attachment points that would allow the cutter head and be to move relative to each other.

I'm thinking this may be an issue of dull blades "lifting" the wood. But they are new (old stock) blades, so I find that hard to imagine.

[Matt Armstrong]

I looked at the Grizzly manual, and there's a pretty detailed explanation of the setup procedure for the various settings. I wouldn't do anything at all until going through the manual, step by step, and setting everything up to factory specs, including the knives.

setting everything to factory was the first thing i did. took 6 hours and a lot of patience.

[Matt Armstrong]

Honestly that is so bad and pronounced I would be surprised if it was an adjustment and not a bearing going out or something else broke or loose. in essence the head is either bouncing across the board or the board is bouncing across the head. Out of adjustment might let this happen a little but that looks like a lot more then a little.

This is what I'm thinking now. Or dull blades. But definitely some sort of periodic oscillation.