I was on a roll, milling stock for drawers, when disaster struck. No matter what I tried, I was getting awful tearout on the maple. I had never experienced anything like it; time to sit down for a bit, take one deep breath, and plot a plan of attack:
- Is there much variation from board to board that some planed well, and now they weren’t?
- How is the grain running?
- Am I getting distracted, and in the process reversing the feed direction, and causing the tearout?
- Should I try a hand plane, and see how the boards behave vs. the planer?
- Have I looked at the planer itself? Blades, speeds, spider webs, gremlins, what else?
- Should I …
The following photo shows what I was dealing with – tearout like I had never, ever, experienced <gulp!…>:
On edge, many of the maple boards showed this kind of change in grain direction – but the DW735 had handled it beautifully, until now! Photo showing change in grain direction on the edge:
Down the checklist I went. A Stanley # 4-1/2 hand plane handled the grain beautifully. Now what? Blades! Look at the blades on the planer, dummy! In almost 5 years, I had never (ever!) changed the blades. On this planer, the blades are double-edged, and can be rotated. It took exactly 15 minutes to rotate the three blades (each was secured with 8 machine screws). Indexing pins on the blade turret made the job a snap, as nothing more is required to set the blades properly.
Problem solved! The first board off the planer looked like this:
The moral of the story: If you are going along fine, and everything hits the proverbial fan, something has changed. Time to find the root cause!
.
—— Al Navas
How do you like the DW735? I’m in the market for a power planer in the near future and the 735 is at the top of my interest list. Hearing about the ease of accessing the blades certainly will keep it near the top.
The planer is truly great, although many complain about how loud it is. I always wear hearing protection anyway, so the noise is never really an issue unless Sandy or one of the granddaughters is in the shop. The quality of finish is superb, provided the blades are sharp.
I haven’t changed them yet but I did decide on a strategy for at least CHECKING the blades. They (and you know “they” are always right) say to check/replace smoke detector batteries twice a year when we change our clocks? Well, I’ve added a few other things to that list including planer and joiner blades (as well as other general shop machine maintenance, i.e. table saw, etc). So far, so good. Really kills off the whole Sunday too. Those in non-daylight savings areas (Arizona) I guess you are just screwed and will never change your batteries or maintain your blades…
Great point, Rob! Maybe the key is to keep some sort of checklist, and stick to a schedule. January is usually the month for my machines, but it arrived a little early for the planer.
Glad you solved the problem. Your post is a reminder that I need to change my planer blades!
Do it now, while still fresh in your memory, Jeff! LOL
Good result Al! It typifies the use of “the moaning chair.”
Howard Chapelle, a noted naval historian and author of many books about boats and boat building, prescribed the following:
“The boatbuilder is well advised to place a comfortable chair within easy walking distance, but out of sight of the project. When the builder has done some damn fool thing, like cut two left garboards, or put a drill bit through a newly varnished Honduras mahogany panel, they must immediately retire to the moaning chair, until the period of moaning is complete, lest they turn the whole project into firewood.”
It sounds like you have, and made good use of, a moaning chair. It’s not only boat builders who need em.
That is a great one, Bob! I will make a sign to hang on the chair at the desk in the shop – starting today, it will be known as The Moaning Chair.