Planer problems

[gobbypunk]

Hi does anybody know much about big old Wadkin planers my 24 inch wide one just isnt right and sadly the mobile engineer who helped me with it before killed himself , I have just changed the blades ,renewed the funny clutch plate thing but its just not planing I tried to put a short Apple wood board through it and it woudlnt take hardly anything off it I had to drop the table as it got stuck and its the same with other timbers when I first had it ,no worries and nothings changed so a bit baffled any ideas ?

    Thanks. Mark

[Macpherson]

2 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi does anybody know much about big old Wadkin planers my 24 inch wide one just isnt right and sadly the mobile engineer who helped me with it before killed himself , I have just changed the blades ,renewed the funny clutch plate thing but its just not planing I tried to put a short Apple wood board through it and it woudlnt take hardly anything off it I had to drop the table as it got stuck and its the same with other timbers when I first had it ,no worries and nothings changed so a bit baffled any ideas ?

    Thanks. Mark

 

Feed roller set up maybe, that's what it is in my very small Metabo when the wood jams.

 

I don't know what model you have but there are some manuals available in pdf form, just google Wadkin planer manual for a choice.

 

You may already have this..

 

https://www.daltonswadkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Wadkin-RK-24-inch-Planer-Thicknesser-Manual.pdf

 

[gobbypunk]

Cool thanks 

[Squaredy]

10 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi does anybody know much about big old Wadkin planers my 24 inch wide one just isnt right and sadly the mobile engineer who helped me with it before killed himself , I have just changed the blades ,renewed the funny clutch plate thing but its just not planing I tried to put a short Apple wood board through it and it woudlnt take hardly anything off it I had to drop the table as it got stuck and its the same with other timbers when I first had it ,no worries and nothings changed so a bit baffled any ideas ?

    Thanks. Mark

Did it used to work well?  And is the timber feeding through well just not being planed?  Or is it getting stuck?

[gobbypunk]

Hi yeah it used to work fine but now the timber gets kinda stuck and I have to lower the depth of cut to hardly anything before it will carry on feeding through .

[GarethM]

Where is the clutch you mentioned, it's not in the manual linked above?.

 

As that just mentions belt tightness and blade alignment.

[Macpherson]

32 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Where is the clutch you mentioned, it's not in the manual linked above?.

 

As that just mentions belt tightness and blade alignment.

 

I thought it might be the brake that is mentioned ..the lever's in the right place on page 8 ...  the manual may not be for the op's machine.

 

From the limited experience that I have the setting up of 4 main components is critical and covered in pages 10,11 and 16 with the brake mentioned in 17, the cutter block which seems to have a setting tool, the in and out feed rollers, the chip breaker and the rear pressure bar, cheers.

 

Why am I studying these old drawings at 1 in the morning🤪

[Squaredy]

8 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi yeah it used to work fine but now the timber gets kinda stuck and I have to lower the depth of cut to hardly anything before it will carry on feeding through .

Do you lubricate the beds?  Also is there a sawdust build-up somewhere which is stopping the feed rollers from pressing down on the boards?

 

 With it switched off try and use a lever like a piece of three by two and maybe a fulcrum to see if the springs on the feed rollers are working properly.  If one or both of the feed rollers are sticking this will cause exactly the symptoms you describe.

[Squaredy]

8 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi yeah it used to work fine but now the timber gets kinda stuck and I have to lower the depth of cut to hardly anything before it will carry on feeding through .

Also does your machine have rollers in the planer bed?  If so you need to check if these are disengaged, or stuck.

[gobbypunk]

Hi not at my yard till Saturday but it has one big feed roller on the infeed side and an anti kickback rail then the big drum with the blades in and as far as I can tell its all working as it should the feed rollers have a fast/slow and that works the bed can be moved up and down by hand or power rise and fall all that works ,I measured all the gaps to make sure the bed was flat and it was ,could it be the knifes not being set right ? But cant see how that would happen as I have the setting tool ,it will take a very shallow skim and thats it but a big machine like that should chew through the timber day after day ,its totally doing my head in but over the weekend I will hopefully get a chance to download that manual and have a good read ,I rang the people who bought Wadkin and they were less than helpfull actually expected me to believe they didnt get any workshop manuals .