I recently purchased a Powermatic 209HH planer and every other time I feed material through it jams up on the infeed roller and never makes it to the chip breaker or cutter blades. It’s also leaving a pretty nasty snipe on the end of the board where it jams. (See attachment)
Powermatic tech support has been consisting of one response every 3 or 4 days which have yet to resolve my issues. So I’m hoping someone might have some advice to offer.
I’m planing 3/4″+- stock. setting the planing depth to 1/16″. When it does go through, the back end of the piece jumps way up when it hits the infeed roller and it feeds on through. I have tried feeding it back through a second time without adjusting the depth and even then it jams up.
The store manager where I purchased it told me all planers will snipe the first board through a little bit and that is normal. I’m still laughing at that one. Like, why even buy a planer? This made me veer away from any support from them.
I have checked the infeed roller height and it is very slightly higher than it is supposed to be. So My thoughts were that if I lower it at all it will only make matters worse. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Hoping someone can help.
Thanks
Replies
I can’t be much help with the mechanics of fixing a planer, but if this was happening to me I’d already be going down the product return/replacement route.
Elmaduro,
Yes this was supposed to be a factory adjusted feature but it's painful to think of returning an 800lb item that I no longer have original packaging for. And it was a real pain getting it back to my shop to begin with.
If the infeed roller is set correctly as you say, I would check the spring tension on it. You can get a feel for the pressure by levering the roller up with a stout piece of hardwood. Perhaps the springs are cranked down too far. I took a look at the manual and it does a good job explaining how to adjust the pressure elements using a hardwood gauge block. I would probably adjust the pressure bar a bit closer to the cutting circle than they recommend.
Looking again at the photo, that is not snipe. I see roller marks on the flat section before the groove which looks to be cut in by the serrated feed roller. Are you sure it is not jamming up on the chip breaker just behind the roller allowing the roller to cut in the groove?
27B_6
Terminology error on my part. It isn't actually a snipe but a pressure pinch from the infeed roller. And when this happens it definitely is not making it to the chip breaker.
I may have found the issue, (or solution), thanks to a call from the dealer. Operator error if he is correct.
When I fed the stock in, I was just pushing it along the infeed table from the back of the piece. So the rear end of the stock was popping up in the air when it got to the infeed roller causing it to bind. I still need to run some more stock through but I was told that I need to put pressure down on the material when feeding until it reaches the outfeed roller. I've tried this a couple times and I think he is right.
So, being a 40 year General Contractor does not make me a know it all. Especially when it comes to shop machinery. Which is a new dimension for me. Hopefully someone else can benefit from this post.
Try it. But it still doesn't sound right.
Can I assume that this planer has bed rollers as well as upper feed rollers. It is possible that the bed roller under the infeed roller is too low, so the board is pushed down below table height by the infeed roller, and the bottom of the front end of the board catches on the edge of the table behind the bed roller. For fine work (where the surface of the board riding on the table has been jointed, or is otherwise not still rough sawn), the bed rollers should be set 0.004" above the level of the table. This is the thickness of a standard piece of copier paper. Best way to set the rollers is to put a metal straight edge between the front and back bed rollers, then adjust them so that the paper just barely drags as you move it front to back. Of course, a 0.004" feeler gauge is optimum. Set that close, you should have no perceptible snipe. My owner's manual (for a Buss 26" industrial planer) says to set the pressure bar at exactly the same height as the bottom of the arc of the cutting circle. It helps a lot to keep the feeding smooth to wax the table surface, the chip breaker tips, and the pressure bar with Johnson's paste wax or equivalent. Keep the wax off the feed rollers.
Some Powermatic planers have a lever on the side that adjusts all the bed rollers up and down simultaneously, to allow you to change from fine work to rough work easily. If that is the case, you need to get the adjustment lever and its mechanism working right before adjusting the bed rollers. Cleaning and lubing may be required/helpful. (Some friends with one had the whole mechanism locked up after years of disuse. We got it working and adjusted everything; feed problems cured.) Let me know here if you have any questions...
Harvey
Okay, my curiosity was engaged. I googled "Powermatic 209HH Manual" and found the manual that Powermatic put up as a pdf. It gives instructions on how to adjust the bed rollers. I also noticed that original assembly requires installation of the infeed and outfeed tables. It is possible that the infeed table is not set in place properly. Is it the same height as the center section between the bed rollers. If it ended up higher than the bed roller/center section, that could cause your problem. Check all the parts that the board is sliding on to make sure they are in the proper orientation. And enjoy the owner's manual.
Harvey
This is the same planer I have with a different color and brand name, it works on the same principles as these generic planers do for the past 35 years. Factory settings are nonexistent on these lately, so you need to go through pressure, height, bed roller adjustment following the manual suggested measurements. My guess is that the infeed roller in the bed is way to high and either jams the piece entering or causes the back end to raise. Do not trust the scale, you cannot tell within a 16th of an inch what depth of cut you are taking, raise the head and with a piece engaged, lower it until the piece starts to feed, on the next pass turn the handle a full turn to get a light cut and adjust the scale. I just brought back to life a 15 inch planer today (and a old jointer) for a friend, setting freshly sharpened knives height and bed rollers /table height and we made chips.
I also think its the bed rollers. Set them below the surface.
Thanks for the feedback all. I wish I could post the video here of what is happening. But when I check the manual specs for the infeed roller height, it is currently too high. But, as I think I mentioned earlier, I thought lowering it would increase the problem. Maybe I'm wrong.
It says to use a gauge block and slide it under the cutter head with a .032" feeler gauge on top. Then, remove the feeler gauge and slide the block back to the infeed roller and it should be barely touching the gauge block. So the infeed roller should be .032" lower than the cutter head. But it is currently the same height.
Harvey, the in and outfeed tables are definitely set correctly.
What is the height of the bed roller compared to the tables? If it is low, the infeed roller will push the end of the board down into the main table edge, which looks like what is happening.
Normally the board makes contact with the bed roller and infeed roller at the same time, so there is no unbalanced force to push the back end of the board up. Back end goes up, that means the front end is going down. Then it catches on the front edge of the center table.
I suppose that there is also the possibility that the center of the infeed roller is erroneously somehow located behind the center of the bed roller, which would also cause the infeed roller to push down the end of the board.
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