THICKNESS PLANER TUNE-UP

These easy maintenance steps keep your portable thickness planer performing at its peak to produce the best boards.

- KEN BURTON

Thickness planers are some of the simplest, hardest-working machines in a shop. Just adjust the height, feed your stock through, and repeat. They’ll do this all day long with nary a complaint. But even the hardiest of these workhorses needs a little TLC now and then.

Keep your planer shaving smoothly with these maintenance tips. Most of these will apply to any “lunchbox”-style portable planer, whether new or, like our example, much older. All of these basics also apply to stationary planers, though those larger models may require additional maintenance that portable models don’t.

KEEP A KEEN EDGE

Worn knives are the most common reason to crack open your planer for maintenance.

Dull knives will reveal themselves in several ways, including tear-out where the wood fibers are being pulled out rather than sheared, powdery or granular dust rather than longer shavings, a slower feed rate requiring increased effort to push the board through the planer, and audible motor strain. Neglected, they can cause the motor to work harder, create excess heat, and increase pitch and resin buildup.

But even new or freshly sharpened knives can develop nicks from overlooked grit or embedded metal in the wood. These nicks show up as long ridges in a freshly planed board.

If you notice any of these signs, it’s time to change your blades, a process that intimidates many woodworkers. But changing knives is easier than you think.

To change knives with alignment tabs, simply unbolt the cap, remove and rotate each knife to expose the second cutting edge, and push the knife back onto the tabs. Then reattach the retaining cap.