I borrowed my son's 13" planer to plane down some walnut that has been
stacked up in the garage for what seems like forever. I had to clean it up
(including cleaning the rollers with denautred alcohol), and lube it when I
got it. It all seems to work smoothly and properly now. BTW - it's a
Ridgid TP13000 with two cutting knives.

I tried to run a piece of walnut through it that is about 9" wide and about
7/16" thick, and about 3 feet long. I want to take the absolute minimum off
of this board, to get it smooth but not get it any thinner than necessary,
since it's not starting out all that thick.

I cannot get this board to feed through the planer. If I gradually lower
the cutter head to just slightly remove some wood, the rollers will not pick
up the wood and advance it. Sometimes it will even try to kick back out of
the planer. If I add 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn on the adjustment (down), it
still does not engage the rollers, but just cuts a bit deeper.

I stuck a piece of Colonial door moulding in it and slowly lowered the
cutter head until it began to pick up the stock and advance it. That went
through quite well. Tried the walnut again and no such luck.

I'm out of guesses. I've never used a power planer before and I'm about
ready to break out my hand plane, but this just does not seem that it should
be that difficult of a thing to remedy.

Any of you guys that have or that use power planers have any suggestions or
input?

Thanks,

--

-Mike-

On 1/29/2013 5:32 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
I borrowed my son's 13" planer to plane down some walnut that has been
stacked up in the garage for what seems like forever. I had to clean it up
(including cleaning the rollers with denautred alcohol), and lube it when I
got it. It all seems to work smoothly and properly now. BTW - it's a
Ridgid TP13000 with two cutting knives.

I tried to run a piece of walnut through it that is about 9" wide and about
7/16" thick, and about 3 feet long. I want to take the absolute minimum off
of this board, to get it smooth but not get it any thinner than necessary,
since it's not starting out all that thick.

I cannot get this board to feed through the planer. If I gradually lower
the cutter head to just slightly remove some wood, the rollers will not pick
up the wood and advance it. Sometimes it will even try to kick back out of
the planer. If I add 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn on the adjustment (down), it
still does not engage the rollers, but just cuts a bit deeper.

I stuck a piece of Colonial door moulding in it and slowly lowered the
cutter head until it began to pick up the stock and advance it. That went
through quite well. Tried the walnut again and no such luck.

I'm out of guesses. I've never used a power planer before and I'm about
ready to break out my hand plane, but this just does not seem that it should
be that difficult of a thing to remedy.

Any of you guys that have or that use power planers have any suggestions or
input?

Thanks,



Narrow stock has more pressure applied to it than wider stock. If your
board is not flat that can cause problems also. Some times you have to
help push it through and pull it out, but be careful doing that.

Leon wrote:


Narrow stock has more pressure applied to it than wider stock. If
your board is not flat that can cause problems also. Some times you
have to help push it through and pull it out, but be careful doing
that.

Thanks Leon - I did try gently "helping" it through, but one of two things
happened - I did all of the work, or it began chattering and sometimes tried
to kick back out of the planer.

--

-Mike-

On 1/29/2013 5:43 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
Leon wrote:


Narrow stock has more pressure applied to it than wider stock. If
your board is not flat that can cause problems also. Some times you
have to help push it through and pull it out, but be careful doing
that.

Thanks Leon - I did try gently "helping" it through, but one of two things
happened - I did all of the work, or it began chattering and sometimes tried
to kick back out of the planer.



How old is the planer/infeed roller. Do yo have the cutter head locked
down?

The in feed roller should be lower than the cutter head. If the board
is warped the in feed may not be making enough contact to resist the cutter.

On 01/29/2013 04:32 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
I borrowed my son's 13" planer to plane down some walnut that has been
stacked up in the garage for what seems like forever. I had to clean it up
(including cleaning the rollers with denautred alcohol), and lube it when I
got it. It all seems to work smoothly and properly now. BTW - it's a
Ridgid TP13000 with two cutting knives.

I tried to run a piece of walnut through it that is about 9" wide and about
7/16" thick, and about 3 feet long. I want to take the absolute minimum off
of this board, to get it smooth but not get it any thinner than necessary,
since it's not starting out all that thick.

I cannot get this board to feed through the planer. If I gradually lower
the cutter head to just slightly remove some wood, the rollers will not pick
up the wood and advance it. Sometimes it will even try to kick back out of
the planer. If I add 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn on the adjustment (down), it
still does not engage the rollers, but just cuts a bit deeper.

I stuck a piece of Colonial door moulding in it and slowly lowered the
cutter head until it began to pick up the stock and advance it. That went
through quite well. Tried the walnut again and no such luck.

I'm out of guesses. I've never used a power planer before and I'm about
ready to break out my hand plane, but this just does not seem that it should
be that difficult of a thing to remedy.

Any of you guys that have or that use power planers have any suggestions or
input?

Thanks,


Did you work on the knives? Maybe set to far out of the head?



--
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure,the creed of ignorance, and the
gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery"
-Winston Churchill

On 1/29/2013 6:32 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
I borrowed my son's 13" planer to plane down some walnut that has been
stacked up in the garage for what seems like forever. I had to clean it up
(including cleaning the rollers with denautred alcohol), and lube it when I
got it. It all seems to work smoothly and properly now. BTW - it's a
Ridgid TP13000 with two cutting knives.

I tried to run a piece of walnut through it that is about 9" wide and about
7/16" thick, and about 3 feet long. I want to take the absolute minimum off
of this board, to get it smooth but not get it any thinner than necessary,
since it's not starting out all that thick.

I cannot get this board to feed through the planer. If I gradually lower
the cutter head to just slightly remove some wood, the rollers will not pick
up the wood and advance it. Sometimes it will even try to kick back out of
the planer. If I add 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn on the adjustment (down), it
still does not engage the rollers, but just cuts a bit deeper.

I stuck a piece of Colonial door moulding in it and slowly lowered the
cutter head until it began to pick up the stock and advance it. That went
through quite well. Tried the walnut again and no such luck.

I'm out of guesses. I've never used a power planer before and I'm about
ready to break out my hand plane, but this just does not seem that it should
be that difficult of a thing to remedy.

Any of you guys that have or that use power planers have any suggestions or
input?

Thanks,

You don't have the knives in correctly. They are sticking out too far.


--
Jeff

Leon wrote:


How old is the planer/infeed roller. Do yo have the cutter head
locked down?

I'm not really sure on the age. I don't even know how much wood has ever
been put through this - my son bought it used. It came with 3 sets of used
blades that we're going to get sharpened, so given that each blade is 2
sided, it seems that it's seen a fair amount of wood put through it. I did
clean the rollers, but having never used one of these before, I really
didn't have much to go on as I tried to assess the amount of wear on them.
I did have the cutter head locked down.


The in feed roller should be lower than the cutter head. If the board
is warped the in feed may not be making enough contact to resist the
cutter.

I will have to double check that in the morning, but it would seem to me
that the infeed roller would want to be even with the cutter head, wouldn't
it? The board is not dead flat but the amount of cup in it is very small -
I would guess 1/64 or less. The infeed does not even pick up the board to
start it in, so I'm thinking that part of the problem lies with that.

--

-Mike-

Doug Winterburn wrote:


Did you work on the knives? Maybe set to far out of the head?

I thought about that Doug. I was able to switch one of the knives before I
had to leave tonight, and I made sure it was well seated when I put it back
in. The other one I will do in the morning. I don't know if all planer
knives are this way but this one uses reversable knives - both edges are
sharpened.

--

-Mike-

woodchucker wrote:

You don't have the knives in correctly. They are sticking out too far.

Between your comment, Doug's question and my own early thoughts, I'm going
to double check the knife I reversed tonight, and make double sure it is
fully seated, and then tackle the other knife in the morning.

As I had said to Leon, when I looked in there last night, I sure did think
that the cutters looked like they were lower than the rollers. Didn't seem
to me that it should be that way.

Thanks Jeff - Stay tuned - more to come in the morning...

--

-Mike-

Leon wrote:

How old is the planer/infeed roller. Do yo have the cutter head
locked down?

The in feed roller should be lower than the cutter head. If the board
is warped the in feed may not be making enough contact to resist the
cutter.

BTW - from the for-what-it's-worth-department... this whole exercise is all
about a Kreg jig. I finally decided to just buy the drill guide for the
K3/K4, and to build my own stationary base. The guide was $38 with free
shipping, and a push pull toggle was $14 with shipping (could not find one
anywhere around here, and I hit every major supplier around...). So - I'll
have just over $50 in it when I'm done.

It's not about the money though, since a complete K4 is only $99, and I was
already decided that it was worth every penny of that. It's all about that
walnut that kept tugging at me as I kept thinking about this. It just kept
whispering in my ear that it wanted to be a bench mount for a Kreg guide.
Damned thing would just not leave me alone. Then it started projecting
images into my brain about what it would look like after a coat of BLO or
three. Of course that blue is going to clash, but that's just how it's
going to have to be. So - walnut it's going to be. Complete with the Kreg
style stock thickness adjustments of course.

This is what happens when you let wood talk to you...

--

-Mike-

"Mike Marlow" wrote:
Leon wrote:

How old is the planer/infeed roller. Do yo have the cutter head
locked down?

The in feed roller should be lower than the cutter head. If the board
is warped the in feed may not be making enough contact to resist the
cutter.

BTW - from the for-what-it's-worth-department... this whole exercise is all
about a Kreg jig. I finally decided to just buy the drill guide for the
K3/K4, and to build my own stationary base. The guide was $38 with free
shipping, and a push pull toggle was $14 with shipping (could not find one
anywhere around here, and I hit every major supplier around...). So - I'll
have just over $50 in it when I'm done.

It's not about the money though, since a complete K4 is only $99, and I was
already decided that it was worth every penny of that. It's all about that
walnut that kept tugging at me as I kept thinking about this. It just kept
whispering in my ear that it wanted to be a bench mount for a Kreg guide.
Damned thing would just not leave me alone. Then it started projecting
images into my brain about what it would look like after a coat of BLO or
three. Of course that blue is going to clash, but that's just how it's
going to have to be. So - walnut it's going to be. Complete with the Kreg
style stock thickness adjustments of course.

This is what happens when you let wood talk to you...


This should be interesting. You know that the base holds the guide at
different elevations for different thicknesses of wood.

Leon wrote:
"Mike Marlow" wrote:


Complete with the
Kreg style stock thickness adjustments of course.

This is what happens when you let wood talk to you...


This should be interesting. You know that the base holds the guide at
different elevations for different thicknesses of wood.

Yup - that's what I was referring to above. Simple thing to accomplish -
Same way Kreg does it.

--

-Mike-

Mike Marlow wrote:
woodchucker wrote:

You don't have the knives in correctly. They are sticking out too
far.

Between your comment, Doug's question and my own early thoughts, I'm
going to double check the knife I reversed tonight, and make double
sure it is fully seated, and then tackle the other knife in the
morning.
As I had said to Leon, when I looked in there last night, I sure did
think that the cutters looked like they were lower than the rollers.
Didn't seem to me that it should be that way.


It might be seated correctly, but the depth may be off. When knives are
sharpened, they lose some width.

Check the documentation relative to the machine with a view towards finding
the adjustment screws and how to set them.

HeyBub wrote:
Mike Marlow wrote:
woodchucker wrote:

You don't have the knives in correctly. They are sticking out too
far.

Between your comment, Doug's question and my own early thoughts, I'm
going to double check the knife I reversed tonight, and make double
sure it is fully seated, and then tackle the other knife in the
morning.
As I had said to Leon, when I looked in there last night, I sure did
think that the cutters looked like they were lower than the rollers.
Didn't seem to me that it should be that way.


It might be seated correctly, but the depth may be off. When knives
are sharpened, they lose some width.

Check the documentation relative to the machine with a view towards
finding the adjustment screws and how to set them.

Well, I made some progress on the monster and did manage to get it planing
better. The thing still will not feed, and the local Ridgid warranty shop
says that's common. It's a total rebuild of the feed train and if the
warranty registration had not been sent in, then the cost is $300. That
ain't gonna happen! I've priced parts and I can get them for about $130
with shipping if I want to do the work myself. My son is checking to see if
the previous owner submitted the warranty, and if not he'll have to decide
if he wants to put $130 into this. Dad's time of course, is just Dad's
time.

--

-Mike-

"Mike Marlow" wrote in message ...

Well, I made some progress on the monster and did manage to get it planing
better. The thing still will not feed, and the local Ridgid warranty shop
says that's common. It's a total rebuild of the feed train and if the
warranty registration had not been sent in, then the cost is $300. That
ain't gonna happen! I've priced parts and I can get them for about $130
with shipping if I want to do the work myself. My son is checking to see
if the previous owner submitted the warranty, and if not he'll have to
decide if he wants to put $130 into this. Dad's time of course, is just
Dad's time.


My radar goes off when I hear things like this... "total rebuild of the feed
train." I'd try cleaning, lubing and adjusting, and maybe looking at the
process, before going down that path. Just today I had one of those "need to
replace it" things with the dishwasher... Instead I "fixed" it with a little
cleaning and liquid silicone to lube and restore the rubber washer and rod
on the float switch...

A couple questions.

Firstly, are the feed rollers turning when it's running? If not, you may
have a broken/jumped drive chain or there may be a sheared key in the
sprocket on the roller.

If the rollers are in fact turning, as others have suggested it could be the
roller height relative to the cutters that is the problem... I'd also check
to see that the rollers move up and down under spring tension. If they seem
to be fixed in place it could indicate that the spring loaded bearing blocks
are stuck in place from crud or rust. Stuck rollers would impact how it
feeds the wood.

You mentioned that the board is not flat... Was one side face jointed first
and then placed jointed side down in the thickness planer? If not, a sled
with wedges to hold the board securely while it's feeding might be needed as
the board could be flexing and not maintaining good contact with the feed
rollers. If it's rough cut wood you are feeding that sometimes that causes
problems if the surface is very rough as there is not a lot of contact
surface. Also, sometimes the wood's thickness varies from edge to edge to
the point where little wood is in contact with the rollers. I've had rough
cut that was so rough that the ridges from the saw marks would catch on the
frame and or edge of the bed of the planer and prevent the wood from
feeding. If you don't have a jointer a hand plane could be used to
flatten/smooth the wood enough to get it to feed.

I may be mistaken, but aren't the knives on that machine classified as
double sided disposable knives? If so, 3 sets may not be a good measure of
prior use... hell, I know a guy who destroyed the edges on his first set of
knives on the first board by running painted wood through that also happened
to have an embedded nail. The silica in the paint ground the edge off and
the nail took a chunk out of it!

Anyhow... I'm a little sensitive to hearing "need to replace it" after this
morning's dishwasher incident. ;~)

John

John Grossbohlin wrote:



My radar goes off when I hear things like this... "total rebuild of
the feed train." I'd try cleaning, lubing and adjusting, and maybe
looking at the process, before going down that path. Just today I had
one of those "need to replace it" things with the dishwasher...
Instead I "fixed" it with a little cleaning and liquid silicone to
lube and restore the rubber washer and rod on the float switch...

Mine does as well. I'm still researching this but at least I know what the
worst case cost is.


A couple questions.

Firstly, are the feed rollers turning when it's running? If not, you
may have a broken/jumped drive chain or there may be a sheared key in
the sprocket on the roller.

Yes - they do turn.


If the rollers are in fact turning, as others have suggested it could
be the roller height relative to the cutters that is the problem...
I'd also check to see that the rollers move up and down under spring
tension. If they seem to be fixed in place it could indicate that the
spring loaded bearing blocks are stuck in place from crud or rust.
Stuck rollers would impact how it feeds the wood.

Something I am trying to see, even now. Having looked at the IPB to put
together a parts list, I noticed that the rollers appear to be spring loaded
by small coil springs. Still working on how to get at them in the least
invasive manner.


You mentioned that the board is not flat... Was one side face jointed
first and then placed jointed side down in the thickness planer? If
not, a sled with wedges to hold the board securely while it's feeding
might be needed as the board could be flexing and not maintaining
good contact with the feed rollers.

It has the very slightest of a cup to it.

If it's rough cut wood you are
feeding that sometimes that causes problems if the surface is very
rough as there is not a lot of contact surface. Also, sometimes the
wood's thickness varies from edge to edge to the point where little
wood is in contact with the rollers. I've had rough cut that was so
rough that the ridges from the saw marks would catch on the frame and
or edge of the bed of the planer and prevent the wood from feeding. If you
don't have a jointer a hand plane could be used to
flatten/smooth the wood enough to get it to feed.

Thanks.


--

-Mike-

On 1/30/2013 10:52 AM, Mike Marlow wrote:
....

As I had said to Leon, when I looked in there last night, I sure did
think that the cutters looked like they were lower than the rollers.
Didn't seem to me that it should be that way.

Make a gauge block and check...cut a piece of hardwood roughly 3" or so
length and square the ends...cut out the middle on the bottom to make
some smaller "legs" and so it will clear a lower bed roller (if there
are any) and set flat on table. Whack 45's on the top edges to leave a
relatively small test surface.

To use, lower the table to insert, then raise and manually rotate cutter
head until just touch knife tips...you can also check are parallel to
table w/ this setup.

At that point w/o moving the table, move the block to under the
infeed/outfeed rollers and check their elevation relative to the
cutterhead cut height.

Don't have spec's on the one at hand, but should probably be roughly
1/8-3/16" below, depending on just how strong a spring set this puppy uses.


It might be seated correctly, but the depth may be off. When knives
are sharpened, they lose some width.

Which will raise them relative to the feed roller, not lower...

Check the documentation relative to the machine with a view towards
finding the adjustment screws and how to set them.

Roger...w/ the above measurement of knowing where they're set currently...

Well, I made some progress on the monster and did manage to get it planing
better. The thing still will not feed, and the local Ridgid warranty shop
says that's common. It's a total rebuild of the feed train...

What was their reason for that? Is it a product defect w/ a new design
replacing those for whom they get complaints, maybe????

I looked at the owner's manual at the Ridgid site but it's not detailed
enough to tell--is there a rear pressure bar/chip breaker behind the
cutter head (not the rear roller but a fixed piece) by any chance?

I've never had one of the lunchbox planers to mess with having only the
full-size industrial-grade/strength Rockwell/Delta/PM at hand. W/ them
there is a chipbreaker and it has to also be adjusted to be just above
the cutter circle when knives are sharpened/adjusted. If it is too low,
the workpiece will rub after being planed making feeding very hard where
power feed likely won't be enough.

If there's a fixed but non-adjustable one and the knives have been
sharpened it's possible they've been ground down to the point where the
same thing has happened. You can find this out from the parts manual
I'd hope and, of course, the test gauge above will also find any
constraint in the outfeed path.

Oh, I guess one other possibility could be the outfeed table high
compared to the in--how are they fixed on this little thing???

Gauge block idea--
__ _______
/ \ / \
| | | |
| | | |
| | | __ |
---- --/ \--

Side Edge
View View

--

"Mike Marlow" wrote in message
...

[snip]

If the rollers are in fact turning, as others have suggested it could
be the roller height relative to the cutters that is the problem...
I'd also check to see that the rollers move up and down under spring
tension. If they seem to be fixed in place it could indicate that the
spring loaded bearing blocks are stuck in place from crud or rust.
Stuck rollers would impact how it feeds the wood.

Something I am trying to see, even now. Having looked at the IPB to put together a
parts list, I noticed that the rollers appear to be spring loaded by small coil
springs. Still working on how to get at them in the least invasive manner.

Check and see if any wood chips got into the mechanism and are
preventing the springs from bottoming out the feed rollers.
Art