SECTION 8: MAINTENANCE
General
Regular periodic maintenance on your Model G8794 Planer will ensure its optimum perfor- mance. Make a habit of inspecting your planer each time you use it. Check for the following con- ditions and repair or replace when necessary:
•Loose mounting bolts, extension wings, or handles, or excessive play in the
•Worn switch.
•Worn or damaged cords or plugs.
•Dull or damaged cutterhead knives.
•Any condition that could hamper the safe operation of the machine.
The cutterhead knives on the G8794 planer are extremely sharp. Merely brushing your finger along the edge can result in a severe cut. Take extreme caution when doing any of the adjust- ments involving the cutterhead knives. Wear thick gloves anytime it is necessary to manu- ally rotate the cutterhead assembly.
NOTICE
Never run the planer with only one knife installed in the cutterhead. This will cause a severe imbalance condition at the high speed at which the cutterhead rotates. Always install both knives and make certain they are tightly secured. When resharpening, always have both knives sharpened as a set.
Knife Sharpening
Knife sharpness is one of the most important fac- tors in getting good results with the planer. Knives can be made to last a long time if care is taken in checking the condition of the wood which is put into the machine. The biggest problem will come from wood with nails or other metal embedded. This will nick or chip the knives and can require a complete regrinding. Another wear factor is sand, grit, or other dirt on the surface of the wood which the knives have to cut through. Simply laying a board on a concrete floor can embed enough abrasive material to severely damage the knives. At the speed the cutterhead is rotating, these types of surface contamination can have a very abrasive effect.
This planer has knives with a grind angle of 40˚ which is a configuration which should suit most general planing needs. The optimal grind or bevel angle is a compromise between effective cutting (the smaller the angle the better the cutting action) and edge life where the larger the angle the more the edge is supported, thus the longer it will last.
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. It is a pro- cedure which requires some care and precision, otherwise a set of blades can be easily ruined. Knives should always be ground as a set so they can be properly matched. Unequal material removal can result in an unbalanced cutterhead which can affect not only planing surface quality but ultimately the life of the cutterhead bearings.
Please refer to Section 6 Adjustments - Knife Setting for complete detail on the removal and reinstallation of planer knives.
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G8794 121⁄2" Portable Planer | |||
