Kickback on a planer?

Sean Wright

Member
Messages
902
Location
WNY, Buffalo Area
Has anyone every experienced kickback on a thickness planer before?

Its not something that I had ever heard of.....until it happened to me tonight. Thinking back now, it makes sense that it could, it just never occurred to me that it could happen. Usually its table saws and router tables that come to mind when the thought of kick back comes up.:huh:

I was running a cutting board through my Delta 13in planer. It took about an inch in to the cutter head when it happened. I was standing right in front of it. Fortunately I was wearing my shop apron and a heavy shirt. This cushioned the blow when it fired the board straight into my stomach. :eek:

Luckily no damage was done to me or the board. :thumb: I'm sure to stand off to the side when feeding the planer from now on.
 
Haven't seen it myself, but I've heard about it. Now I've heard about it again. ;) Glad to see you didn't get hurt, and thanks for the reminder to stand out of the line of fire.
 
Kickback can arise with any machine where a piece of timber is "trapped" between a rotating head and a fixed fence or platten. My thicknesser has big heavy anti kickback pawls that do a good job because I often hear them working but have not yet seen a board come back out in a hurry.

The lesson is that you should never stand in direct line with the entry or exit path of a workpiece from a machine. Try and make sure that nobody else is either.

My worst kickback accident was from a wide belt sander. I was feeding two pieces through at a time which meant that one of them had the opportunity to lose contact with the feed roller. It got projected out at great speed, cracked a bone in my thumb as it caught my hand and proceed to put a big dent in the steel wall of my Onsrud pin router which is a few feet further back.

Almost any tool is capable of trowing a piece of timber at you. The things to be careful of in a workshop are nearly all more to do with energy than they are with sharpness. Good posture and careful positioning is always gonaa be the best safety measuer.

Glad to hear that you were not seriously hurt. Count this one as a cheap lesson.
 
My planer kicked back once, but it was my fault. I was trying to plane something too thin for it. Had it double stick taped to a sled, but it didn't matter. FWIW, the pieces were completely destroyed so I had to start over.:eek:
 
That is a good way to wake you up in a hurry. Glad to see your not injurd other then maybe your pride. What was the size of the board and how much where you takeing off when it happend? Also where/are the rollers adjusted proper? They only time I seen this happen was aboard to thin and the rollers didnt make contact with it. We ghad a godd luagh after it happend and found out nobody was hurt.
 
Planing end grain were we? Good job for a sander, eh? A friend does it successfully on cutting boards but by taking 1/64th or less at a pass. He also rounds the edges as recommended by a friend of his but that's all second hand info.
 
Kickback will occur when you have the plane set at a wider setting than the thickness of the work. The blade of the cutterhead strikes the work w/o the infeed roller holding the work down because it is set too high. If this continues to occur then you need to check into if or not the infeed roller is being held too high for the cut.

Either opperator error or machine out of alignment, It don't happen w/o one of these two factors at hand.
 
What was the size of the board and how much where you takeing off when it happend? Also where/are the rollers adjusted proper?

The Board was 1 1/4 in thick initially. (its about an inch now that i removed the damage from the kick back incident.:rolleyes:) It was 12 1/2 in wide by about 16 in long. The rollers were and are still adjusted. After the shock and pain in my gut wore off, I ran a piece of 3/4 in scrap through several times, to see if it would feed OK, and it did.

Planing end grain were we? Good job for a sander, eh? A friend does it successfully on cutting boards but by taking 1/64th or less at a pass. He also rounds the edges as recommended by a friend of his but that's all second hand info.

It was on the end grain. I was taking off about 1/32 of an inch....before the kickback..... after it was closer to 1/64. It causes chip out on the ends of the board, but I allow for this by adding additional wood beyond the final dimension that i am looking for.

A drum sander would be a better option, but thats not in the budget for a while.

I could do it with a belt sander, but I'm not confident in my ability to keep it even across the board.
 
Top