Re: Lunch box planer questions
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
Sounds like your knives need to be reset to be precisely aligned with the both the plattan table and each other. If even one knife is a tad high (or low) on one end you'll never get the thing to run properly. Your machine should have come with a knife-setting jig. Once you have the knives set in the cutter head, cut a block of wood that precisely fills the gap between the plattan and the knives on one end of the head at a given elevation. Then move the block laterally to check that the knives are, in fact parallel with the plattan across the full width. If you've set the knives properly but there's even a tiny gap or resistance between the top of the block and the knives, you have a cutter head issue that needs to be addressed.
Once that is done, try using roller stands a foot or more out from your machine that are set 1/8" higher than your plattan surface. Set them with a long straight edge, like a 4' level. This will put modest upward pressure on your board to help control it.
