SIP Planer thicknesser problems

[p111dom]

At least setting up the planer properly has ruled out user error. Coincidentally I just ordered another drive belt today part number 256 for about £9. Personally the next step I would take is to rule the belt out as it's a common problem. Un plug the machine and remove the cover hiding the feed roller chain and belt mechanism (only 2 bolts). If you have tipex, put some stripes on the belt, draw some spokes on the large plastic wheel and put a dot on the upper metal rod the belt sits on. CAREFULLY run the longest stock you have in so you can stand well away from the machine. Once feeding in, if it stops feeding through, all the better. Wear specs, stand well back and look at the mechanism. The dots and stripes will allow you to easily spot and slip or problems. The belt may feel tight but you'd be surprised how much tension it needs not to slip. Just be conscience of the danger. If There's slip I'd order a new belt as that's the cheapest part. If theres no slip, you're probably right that someones messed with the tensioning springs if the feed rollers. To sort that I,d get in to SIP to ank how they set these. It may be as simple as a torque wrench setting. Maybe not though. Good luck!

 

[bookman]

Thanks for your responses.

I have sorted the play/looseness of the thicknesser bed by tightening the 4 grub screws on the plates that go over the 4 corner threaded guides, and that remains nice and solid even with all the terrible vibrating it must have been getting. On close inspection there are one or two small gouges in the bed, but again I don't really think they are that significant especially as I have polished it with the Rutlands stuff and it is nice and slippery.

I will get on to SIP tomorrow to see if they can suggest anything regarding the roller adjustment (I won't hold my breath!). Meanwhile I will attempt the course of action that p111dom suggests to either rule out the drive belt or confirm that it may well be worn - given how badly out of fettle the machine is I now almost expect to have replace the belt anyway. It's hard to keep faith when one has bought such a load of trouble, but your collective help and encouragement is of great benefit. Watch this space!

 

[devonwoody]

Bookman, what length of timber was that 8" wide board?

 

[bookman]

I was trying various bits of wood that I had planed in preparation for thicknessing yesterday, all about a metre or less in length. The 8-inch stuff I was using the other day was less than a metre, and I was able to plane a bit more of that reasonably well yesterday once I had got the planing set up correctly.

I may have been a bit harsh on SIP helping, I phoned their technical help people this morning and they emailed me the manual which is the same as the one I already have, but also a quick start guide that I didn't have. In the quick start guide right at the end is says to adjust the rollers for crooked feed by turning the sprung tensioning bolts, so I suppose that it is a case of trial and error to get the feed working correctly once I have checked the belt tension. Someone must have royally messed up this adjustment to make thicknessing so hopeless.

 

[devonwoody]

Your timber length was reasonable. If they were 10ft long you would need roller support front and rear to avoid feed problems.

 

[bookman]

After a lot of very frustrating wasted time and a fair bit of expense I have now managed to get this machine working beautifully. I thought it would be worthwhile reporting back in the hopes that other inexperienced users might gain some helpful information should they encounter similar problems.

It will be apparent to most of you that I have very little experience of planer thicknessers and have virtually no engineering/mechanical knowledge, so it took me a long time to realise what was wrong.

I followed the kind advise I received from other forum members and tried numerous things to get this machine in fettle. As I reported previously I managed to get it planing quite well by making sure the infeed and outfeed tables were level with each other, fitting new blades and a new drive belt, and ploishing the planer bed. My problems really got going when trying to thickness - I could not understand why the machine was making deep wavey cuts along the length of the timber. I tried for hours tinkering with the tension on the rollers with little or no success. I also tried improving my thicknessing method by trying to slightly raise the timber on entry and exit of the machine but still with no success. I wasted lots of timber trying to achieve an acceptable result.

Eventually I had to stand back and try to reason why I was having such trouble. Given that these machines are very powerful and sharp blades are flying round at a rate of knots I was not keen to look too closely into the rollers etc.

However with much trepidation I watched the rollers as closely as I dared and thought that I saw a slightly elliptical movement on the infeed roller. I dismantled the rollers from the machine to find that one of the plastic bearings /supports for the roller was worn allowing this eliptical movement on one side of the roller that was causing the timber to be forced up into the cutter block on each revolution. Indeed this movement of the roller was bad enough to caus it to rub against the chip deflector plate and become worn at one end. I also thought that the rubber outfeed roller was actually looking a bit uneven.

I ordered four new bearing/supports with their tension springs for the two rollers, a new infeed roller and a new rubber outfeed roller which I fitted today. This was not very difficult to as the machine is actually relatively simple. The whole replacement of the rollers took little more than an hour or so. The result was an instant success and I am now happily planing and thicknessing to a beautiful silky finish on softwood and hardwoods.

I bought this machine secondhand on Ebay. I wish that the seller had been more honest and had told me that there was a bit of work to be done to make the machine work properly. This is the first time that I have ever bought a "lemon" on Ebay and feel annoyed that my inexperience let me assume that because the machine was ok because it looked fine cosmetically. I should have been more picky when I collected it from the vendor and insisted on a thorough demonstration of it working. Very much a case of buyer beware.

The new parts plus a new pair of blades have cost around £80. This is money I could ill afford on top of what I paid (£270), but at least now I feel that I have a decent planer thicknesser for my purposes as a hobbyist.

So hopefully I am now at the end of a worrying and irritating saga and that I can get on and actually make something again. Thank you all for you very helpful advise and support.

 

[p111dom]

Well done to you. Personlly I've bought 2 lemons from eBay in the past so I know the feeling. For someone who claims to have no technical knowledge I think you've done really well. It may surprise you to know that even new machines can require a large amount of fettling to get them to work properly so this experience should stand you in good stead as you buy more machinery of upgrade. (not this amount though!) :lol:

 

[devonwoody]

Pleased to hear it has now turned out ok. I think you should discount the cost of blades, you most probably would have purchased them anyway if not now at a later date.
Where did you purchased the replacement parts from, SIP would never sell direct to me.

 

[bookman]

I bought the new blades and all the replacement parts from Axmijnster Tools. Their version of this machine is exactly the same, just in different colours. The part numbers for both machines are identical in both manuals (you can download both manuals from the internet if you need to). Axminster seem to hold quite a few of the parts in stock as they were able to supply everything for me and delivered the next day, so that is encouraging. I have to say that Axminster technical people were much more on the ball and helpful than the SIP guys who seemed only to be able to quote from the manual without any further suggestions.

 

[9fingers]

Thanks for completing the story. It is good to know that the tips and encouragement provided by members here have given you confidence to get it sorted.
Whilst the ebay seller could, and perhaps should, have mentioned the problems. it is always best to assume that a used item on ebay will need some tlc.

Hopefully this won't put you off further ebay purchases but it is worth making a check to see the availability of spares before parting with big money.

Happy sawdust making!

Bob

 

[rafezetter]

As Devonwoody says you maybe trying to take to much off in one pass. Just because it states it will take upto 3mm that does not mean you should cut that deep. Try cutting 1/2mm to 1mm until you get things set up properly.

As for buying a dial gauge why don't you try one of these first. It is on page 30 and is marked as item '83' All it is is a square piece of metal with a notch out of it and I have found that it sets the blades spot on every time, and it only costs a couple of quid. You can phone Metabo who might have them in stock, but if not they will give you the number of www.powertoolspares.com who is a company that hold most of their spares. If Metabo does not have it get the spare part number before you phone powertoolspares. Don't worry about it not being SIP because these machines are almost exactly the same.

http://fc.zindel.de/scripts/CUWP_CGI.EX ... _zinfo.pdf

If you want a better device then you can also get one of these

both zindel links require a password - can you link or add the actual bit you are reffering to please?

http://fc.zindel.de/scripts/CUWP_CGI.EX ... 069_30.pdf

HTH

Cheers

Mike