Sounds like you just fried the motor. Ive used my 12 1/2 many times with a
full width board and never had any problems.
Q. Did you have an extension cord pluged into the machine, if you did and
it was to small(thin)or to long, you may have underpowered the motor.

"Mark" wrote in message
...


Keith Carlson wrote:
Should a planer be able to operate continuously on boards at its
capacity if
the recommended maximum cut is used???

Not unless you have good ear protection and like tearing the unit down
for repair a lot!
...not to mention taking smaller bites and ruinning it through more -
which of course adds significant time to the operation as you note.

I'd say you've discovered a bench planer's limitations.
Having upgraded from a Dewalt to a 15" unit earlier this summer - the
difference is like night and day. Yeah, they take up more space and
cost twice as much - but man what a difference. Two runs through and
you're done with a much better finish to boot. I might as well been use
a hand plane before!

Mark from Pasadena, MD


I may have done something stupid tonight. Well, maybe not stupid...
ignorant
at least. First time I tried running a 12 inch wide rough-sawn (red oak)
board through my Delta planer. I started, like I always do, feeding it
through with the depth set so it would feed through, but nothing being
cut.
Then crank it down a half turn with each pass. The first couple of
passes
where it actually cut, I noticed the motor was really bogged down, so I
switched to 1/4 turn down each pass. The owner's manual says 1 turn is
3/32
inch. So a quarter turn should be about 3/128, or about .023 being cut.

Of course, taking smaller cuts means it takes longer to surface both
sides.
I was at this for about 30 minutes. Near the end I started lowering the
depth by only 1/8 turn (.011 cut).

When I shut if off, there was smoke rising off the motor housing, and
the
gray plastic housing had discolored. :-( Son came out to the garage and
said "smells like burnt chicken in here!"

Now, the manual reads: "For 10" and 12" wide hardwood, a maximum depth
of
cut of 3/64 is recommended". I was cutting less than that. Do the
manufacturers (or Delta at least) exaggerate the capability of these
machines? Should I have known better and cut for 10 minutes, then
waited
for 10-15 minutes before continuing?

--

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I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the
position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he
has overcome while trying to succeed. --Booker T. Washington

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