Replies

1. 
   mikaol | May 02, 2019 10:41pm | #1

   I've had a Wen for years. The problem is with one, or both, of your knives. Either they're dull or one of them got twisted or loose. Or the outfeed table's a little high and the boards are hitting it and bouncing.
   Listen to your machine when it's not under load. If there's even a slight rattle it's the knives. Rest a 4' level from the infeed table through to the outfeed and make any adjustments.
   Don't forget to clean the planer bed so your wood doesn't stick and twist.

1. 
   GoGoGorilla | May 03, 2019 08:36am | #2

   Thank you for the excellent response and help, I'll check all these and see where I get.

2. 
   bixley | May 04, 2019 10:04am | #3

   Unless your definition of "twist" is different then mine I'm not exactly sure how your planer could be doing this.
   The Planers primary function (jigs notwithstanding) is to make opposing surfaces parallel to one another while reducing the thickness - which means the quality of the worked surface (top) of the board is contingent upon the flatness of the opposing surface that makes contact with the infeed and outfeed tables.

3. 
   timdemars | May 05, 2019 12:29pm | #4

   The planer is generally the second step of the process. If the bottom surface isn’t flat you won’t get the top surface flat. Begin with a jointer, or a hand plane with winding sticks. Once that surface is flat, you can the put it through the planer with the flat side down.
   If you’re still getting twist follow the comment on knife adjustment.

4. 
   david263 | May 05, 2019 06:23pm | #5

   Gogo- user-7393217 seems like he's familiar with your planer... so follow his (and the owners manual) directions to make certain your machine is tuned properly. Secondly... timdemars is also correct. If a board is twisted going in... the planer will NOT take it out... it will just make it thinner with the same twist. Now... there is a way to take the twist out on the planer... but it involves using a "known flat board" (piece of good plywood?)... set your twisted board on it... with wedges carefully placed to hold your twisted board in a flat position as it goes thru planer. The point is that your planer blades are simply parallel in reference to the bed... and that you will shave off the high spots until your "board" now is matching your Known flat plywood board. Now that your good board is flat on one side... you can flip it over with the newly flattened side down on planer bed.... and flatten the other side. A jointer is the correct machine to use... but this is what I had to do before I could afford a jointer. A final word of advice... to really have a nice shop, I think almost half of our time is spent adjusting/tuning/sharpening our shop equipment/tools. Myself... I enjoy both the fine tuning/maintenance and the wood working aspects of our craft. (and it's not by accident that FWW writes so many articles on maintenance/sharpening/fine tuning!)