Knife Sharpening
For the best results, it is best to have planer knives sharpened by a professional sharpening service which has the grinding and measurement equipment to assure that the knife cutting geom- etry is maintained at optimum levels. Knife sharp- ening is a procedure that requires some care and precision, otherwise, a set of blades can be easi- ly ruined. Knives should always be ground as a set so they can be properly matched. Unequal material removal can result in an unbalanced cut- terhead which can affect not only planing surface quality but ultimately the life of the cutterhead bearings.
Your planer knives can be sharpened by a blade hone. See the “Aftermarket Accessories” sub- section at the back of this manual for more infor- mation.
Knife Setting
The process of setting the knives in the cutter- head will come into play whenever you sharpen or replace, or after determining that setting is nec- essary during the initial setup.
The knives lock into the cutterhead with wedge type gibs. Springs under each knife provide an upward pressure to help ease the setting process. Jack screws under the knives allow fine tuning to help in the setting process.
To set the knives:
1.Disconnect the machine from the power source!
2.Remove the upper cover to expose the cut- terhead.
3.Choose a knife to begin with and loosen the gib bolts just enough until the springs push the knife upward.
Figure 32 illustrates the features of the cutter- head that are mentioned in this section.
Figure 32. Proper knife setting jig placement.
G0550/G0551 15" Planer |