Thicknesser tuning ? I found the problem!! UPDATED

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Hi guys.
Seems that pressure is diminishing and that I have a bit more time to ww and to log on. So I set up this moring to fine tune my jointer/thicknesser.

THe jointer part is easy and after a few adjustments I got it right. But I had detected some time ago that the thicknesser needed adjustment as well as I cannot get parallel surfaces on it.
This is my jointer/thicknesser:
IMG_5360.jpg

At the beginning I thought that these small headless bolts were to adjust the bed but they are only to lock the nuts that carry the bed up and down. Unless it has to be adjusted from below or that the chains that hook onto the pinions have got some slack I can't find both the cause of the misalignement or the way to fix it.
IMG_5356.jpg
On the owner's manual there is no mention at all about it and on youtube I have only found the way to adjust the blades on the jointer, not the thicknesser bed, so if any of you have any clue I would appeciate any help that you can get me.
I include the exploded view of the manual in case it helps.

Many thanks in advance.IMG_5359.jpg
 
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There are two parts to parallel cutting; the table and the cutting head. If the table is not adjustable, maybe the cutter head is?
 
I do not see an adjustment for the bed. Altering one of the corner's position on the threaded rod would cause binding. This makes me think that the head, or more likely knives, are adjusted to bring things into alignment. What you are after is when the knife passes BDC (bottom dead center; do you use that term over there?) the distance between anywhere on the knife edge and the platen is consistent. A Rotocator is helpful but, rather than send $100 I just cobbled this together from items I already had.

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I notice that quite awhile after this Rockler came out with a commercial version. I assume this is just a coincidence. Like any tool alignment effort, patience is your friend. Time spent making careful settings, checking and rechecking will pay big dividends going forward.
 
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Toni, you have adjusted the knives parallel to the out feed table of the jointer. So the thicknesser table must also be parallel to the outfield table of the jointer, is there an adjustment on the jointer out feed to make it parallel to the thicknesser table? The knives cannot be parallel to both tables at same time if the tables are not parallel. If there is an adjustment on the jointer the processes would be ; adjust the jointer out feed parallel to the thicknesser table, then adjust the knives parallel to the jointer. I do not have a combo machine and I tend to say what's on my mind, right or wrong, but I do learn a lot that way:)

Bill
 
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I have Grizzly 15" planer. The bed is raised and lowered by four threaded posts via chain similar to yours. The chain parted and I had a difficult time rethreading it due to clearance issues. I called Grizzly and he explained how to do it. I was also concerned about the resulting table alignment if one or more shafts had turned more than the others thus throwing the bed out of alignment. He told me if that was the case I'd need to loosen or remove the chain in order to turn the individual screw shafts to realign the bed. Hop this helps.

Alan
 
I have Grizzly 15" planer. The bed is raised and lowered by four threaded posts via chain similar to yours. The chain parted and I had a difficult time rethreading it due to clearance issues. I called Grizzly and he explained how to do it. I was also concerned about the resulting table alignment if one or more shafts had turned more than the others thus throwing the bed out of alignment. He told me if that was the case I'd need to loosen or remove the chain in order to turn the individual screw shafts to realign the bed. Hop this helps.

Alan

Hi Alan.
This is what I think may have happened. I will check that, bt one thing I've learnt is that one needs to be in the proper frame of mind and relaxed. ;)

Glenn, I'm making a similar gauge to the one you show me, as I have a comparator (we call it that way here) it is matter of finding a block of hard wood or better aluminium like yours and it will help a lot.

William; I don't think there is any way of making the outfeed table parallel to the thicknesser one, in fact the outfeed table needs to be removed if you want to use the thicknesser option. What can be tuned is the parallelism of the infeed table with the outfeed table of the jointer, and that I've checked and it is OK.

Thank you all for all your tips. I'll keep on trying and let you know the outcome.
 
Thicknesser repair started UPDATE!

Today I started to look thoroughly what was wrong with my thicknesser and what this is what I found, the main pininion that drives the chain that turns the threaded bars to move the bed up and down has some teeth worn out and some missing, and the same happens with all the other four in more or less seriousnes.

So the solution is either getting the spares and mount them and adjust myself (which I still don't know how to) or taking it to be repared. If I could find similar ones made of steel and not aluminium I would do it myself. Why on earth they use aluminium pinions! I know it is to make the machine cheaper but...
You can see the pinions here.
IMG_5364.jpgIMG_5365.jpgIMG_5366.jpg
 
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Toni with so many companies offering laser cutting services if you did a cad drawing of the part i bet u could get a steel set fabricated pretty reasonably. By comparison the replacement part from manufacturer will just do it again.
we also have a store here that sells stand alone sprockets and stand alone hubs that fit the sprockets. if u provide the shaft dimension and then tooth and sprocket diameter i can take a look and see if they have something that would work. easy to make a plan to send u.

check here Toni if something they got would do the job. shipping is easy for me to take care of.
http://www.princessauto.com/en/search?Nrpp=15&Ntt=sprockets




Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
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Most of those are imperial measure though and I suspect you'll need metric, although if you can find something close you could buy a reamer and ream to fit.

I Googled "metric sprockets" and found many hits and this just being one of them. https://mdmetric.com/prod/ptic/332_PTI_CATALOG.pdf

There is not much left of those aluminum sprockets. I have been frustrated with many products that fail because of some plastic part that failed. Often it is a key part that common sense should have dictated that it be made of metal. But then I am making the assumption that the manufacturer is wanting his product to last, when the opposite may be true. I think they are counting on replacement sales.
 
Hi guys. I,ve searched for the replacement sprockets and there are a few official dealers around, but as you mention they will be made of aluminium as well which entitles me for a repetition of the same problem in a couple of years or more.
I have to call them and find ask them how to adjust the bed, if they tell me then I will look for metal sprockets, if not I will have to figure it out myself. I"ll let you know the outcome, tomorrow I'll call them.
Regards
 
Incredible!!! Suspicion of Rip-Off

I contacted via e-mail the so called "Official repair service" asking about how should I proceed and wether they would give me an estimation of the cost of repairing and adjusting my thicknesser telling them what was the problem and the pieces to change.

The answer I got was (literally): "Bring us the machine, pay a deposit of 25€, we'll dissasemble the machine in order to make the estimation and if you don't accept it we'll give you the machine back dissasembled and you lose the 25€ .

With this answer I think I'd better do it myself, or look for a different "official repair service" I am also thinking about contacting the mother company Metabo and inform them about this behaviour which I do not think they may be aware of.
 
Incredible!!! Suspicion of Rip-Off

I contacted via e-mail the so called "Official repair service" asking about how should I proceed and wether they would give me an estimation of the cost of repairing and adjusting my thicknesser telling them what was the problem and the pieces to change.

The answer I got was (literally): "Bring us the machine, pay a deposit of 25€, we'll dissasemble the machine in order to make the estimation and if you don't accept it we'll give you the machine back dissasembled and you lose the 25€ .

With this answer I think I'd better do it myself, or look for a different "official repair service" I am also thinking about contacting the mother company Metabo and inform them about this behaviour which I do not think they may be aware of.

Don't you just love the customer service...:(;)
I had a similar incident with my lathe head stock... I wanted to change the bearings, but couldn't get one of them off the spindle, so I contacted a local "official" repair station for JET... after driving for about an hour and half to get there, the shop wanted over $400 to fix the lathe... I declined and wanted my headstock back, I got it back in a box, it was disassembled, but in the process they ruined the spindle, bent a pulley, and charged me $55 for the estimate.

I've learned how to get the bearing off the spindle, not ruin the spindle, and I can tear the head stock down and reassemble it in less than an hour.
 
In the past when still in the work place the sprockets we needed were always found at Grainger's. They had all sizes, tooth count and shaft sizing.
Might be worth while look. They were steel sprockets.
David
 
Today I started to dissasemble my thicknesser in order to remove the broken sprockets and change them. One of the things I found out is that it is more a matter of daring to do it than difficult.
First I removed both infeed and outfeed tables and the dust hood.
IMG_5372.jpg
Then I looked underneath to find out how should detach the microswitches cables
IMG_5373.jpg
I disconnected this microswitch before realising that I could remove it without disconecting the wires
IMG_5375.jpgIMG_5382.jpg
On this one I had to disconect the wires and pull the cable through a hole in the body.
IMG_5383.jpgIMG_5384.jpgIMG_5385.jpg
And this one is the last safety microswitch that I also removed easily.
IMG_5386.jpgIMG_5387.jpgIMG_5388.jpg
 
Then I had to remove the cranckIMG_5391.jpg
I removed the lateral cover and detached the power belt from the pulley
IMG_5389.jpgIMG_5390.jpg
I removed the four nuts that fix the body to the lower part that holds the motor
IMG_5394.jpg
And... voilà I could lift it and put it on my bench as the motor is the heaviest part.
IMG_5395.jpg
Now I have access to the sprockets and the whole lifting mechanism

IMG_5397.jpg

The chain tensor is rather crude IMHO.

IMG_5399.jpg
 
And now you can see the four sprockets and how they are worn out and have some teeth mising. Tomorrow I will start looking for replacements made of steel.
IMG_5401.jpgIMG_5400.jpgIMG_5402.jpgIMG_5403.jpgIMG_5404.jpgIMG_5405.jpgIMG_5408.jpg
 
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