[ChuckBarnett]

I'm working on an off-brand 15" planer, and now I've discovered that one of the bed rollers is bent. The first photo is of a softwood board that shows several crossways marks (from blades, I assume) spaced almost 4" apart. I wondered what caused those and discovered the bent roller.

Where does one go to order a replacement roller? The dimensions of the roller are 3 cm in diameter and 34 cm long. (see 2nd photo) Again, this would likely be easy if this were a supported tool, but...

Thanks you guys!

Chuck Barnett

 

[MrUnix]

Let us know the brand/model and you might find someone who knows a source for parts or are parting theirs out. Another alternative is to see if a local machine/metal shop can provide you some round stock the proper size that will work as a replacement. Until then, you can always build an auxiliary table out of MDF/melamine or similar material.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[ChuckBarnett]

Let us know the brand/model and you might find someone who knows a source for parts or are parting theirs out. Another alternative is to see if a local machine/metal shop can provide you some round stock the proper size that will work as a replacement. Until then, you can always build an auxiliary table out of MDF/melamine or similar material.

Cheers,
Brad

Thanks, Brad,

I should have said that I am talking about one of the two bed rollers on either side of where the cutter centers from above. See pic of a Griz planer's bed rollers. The bent one is on the infeed side.

The planer was built by National Industrial Tool and I can find nothing on it. Model IP-15. Product Number 190415. Serial #40640.

Looks similar to this one but with the motor hung below on the left side. http://www.kingcanada.com/Products.htm?CD=111&ID=86

I'm hoping there is a supplier that makes things like rollers who would be able to match mine up.

 

[Steve Neul]

You may not be able to eliminate that by changing the roller. Planers with steel infeed rollers will mark softwood. The only way to really eliminate that is to figure out what is the minimum amount you can surface off. If you took off more wood per pass the machine would surface off the marks. Many table top planers have rubber rollers and you can take less wood off per pass.

 

[Trav]

If you took off more wood per pass the machine would surface off the marks.

Unless the damage is caused by the outfeed roller.

 

[ChuckBarnett]

I'm not real experienced at this but it seems to me that the marks are a result of the lack of roller pressure when it rolls so that the bend is away from the bottom of the board. That would ease pressure into the knives and produce marks rather than cuts on the board surface. If I ran a full width board (15" in this case) my guess is that the marking would be more noticeable in the center where the roller bend is greatest and not as much on the outer edges.

Basically, the flatness of the pass is affected by the straightness of that roller? I would imagine that there would be a very small difference in thickness that would also result when the bend in the roller is up, pushing the board more forcibly into the knives?

Thoughts?

 

[Fred Hargis]

You may be right, hard to say. The cuts don't appear (to me) to be from the infeed roller...though like Steve said, with a stationary planer you do have to re,move a certain amount of wood. That said, is there any possibility that the roller could be strightened (by a machine shop, I guess)? If you can't finds one, remove them both and put a piece of melamine through there (or a piece of ply with plastic laminate. I've used mine like (without removing the rollers) that since the day I got it. I was able to get a 6' long bed with the melamine piece in there...I've had to replace it twice in due to wear. The melamine is extremely slick and will let the stock slide through easily. Of course, the infeed/outfeeds will have to be set for the height of the cast iron bed.

 

[ChuckBarnett]

Fred, I like your idea of using melamine! Somebody else I was talking with just now suggested swapping the bed rollers and putting the bent one on the outfeed side.

Great tips. Thank you.

 

[Fred Hargis]

If you choose to do that, you have to put cleats on the edges of the infeed side to keep it from sliding through the planer with the workpiece. It sure works well for me.

 

[ChuckBarnett]

Good tip. I was just mildly scratching my head as to how I would want to secure that.

 

[Fred Hargis]

This might help. In the pic you can almost see mine. On the left edge of the melamine piece you see the natural wood piece...that's the cleat which hits the frame at the elevation jack. Of course, you could put them in pother places...including on the bottom of the melamine. But if you put them where I did, you can flip it over if the surface gets dinged up.

 

[TimPa]

you may have a lever to lower the rollers out of play, then you could eliminate them as the problem. if not, temporarily removing them, or just the bent one, would also help diagnose. have you checked you cutter heights as to being relatively even with each other? blades tight? those are strange marks for sure, almost like a blade chatter.

7" apart implies a roll diameter of 2" - 2.25".

 

[woodnthings]

I'd call Grizzly tech support

I doubt if the bed roller on the G0454 is any different than yours, part no. 212 on the parts list. Maybe they would measure it for you ...I donno?
http://cdn0.grizzly.com/partslists/g0454_pl.pdf

 

[ChuckBarnett]

you may have a lever to lower the rollers out of play, then you could eliminate them as the problem. if not, temporarily removing them, or just the bent one, would also help diagnose. have you checked you cutter heights as to being relatively even with each other? blades tight? those are strange marks for sure, almost like a blade chatter.

7" apart implies a roll diameter of 2" - 2.25".

I readjusted the knives, and took Fred's advice and dropped the rollers down and put a bed over the table. Gave it a coat of wax and threw a board at it and no snipe!

I'm still working on the knife marks. I will do some checking and adjusting of in feed and out feed rollers once I make a dial indicator gauge for that purpose.

I'm beginning to think this old beast might get me by.

Thank you all for your help. I am learning so much.

Chuck Barnett

 

[ChuckBarnett]

Just cuz we all like pictures.

 

[MrUnix]

Hey Chuck.. that auxiliary table is exactly what I suggested :yes:

I think you will find that it not only solves your immediate problem regarding the bent roller, but it will also let you plane material thinner than you could with the stock table. My Makita can do down to 1/2" with the stock table.. but with an auxiliary table, I can and routinely plane down to 1/4". I could probably go thinner, but I'm not sure I would want to (wood tends to disintegrate in planers when it gets too thin!).

Good work!

Cheers,
Brad

 

[ChuckBarnett]

I got some soft wood down to three sixteenths with no trouble.