Parks Planer Settings

Modified on 2009/05/25 16:56 by joewells — Categorized as: Maintenance

Parks Woodworking Machines

Various Settings for Planer Knives and Rollers

Submitted by Dave Fleming, e-mail: djf3rd@pleamonn.net.

These settings work for all planers, not just Parks.

Planer:
Lower bed and place Dial Indicator on center platen with contact point in "UP" position. Find the lowest point of the knife (cutting circle) and set the dial on zero.

See note below.

1. Top Infeed Roll: Move Indicator under top infeed roll and adjust roll .050" below cutting circle.

2. Chipbreaker: Move Indicator under chip breaker and adjust chip breaker .020" above the cutting circle.

3. Pressure Bar: Move Indicator under the pressure bar and adjust pressure bar about .002" above cutting circle.

4. Top Outfeed Roll: Move Indicator under the top outfeed roll and adjust roll to .020" below the cutting circle.

5. Bottom Rolls: Set Dial Indicator, on center platen with contact point in "Down" position and set dial at zero.

6. Bottom Infeed Roll: Move Indicator over bottom infeed roll and adjust roll .006" above platen.

7. Bottom Outfeed Roll: Move Indicator over bottom outfeed roll and adjust roll .006" above platen.

Bottom Roll Settings may have to be increased to about .012" above platen to feed very rough stock.

Note: These settings are based on moving the Dial Indicator from side to side to determine the parallelism of the knife or roller to the platen.

Knife Height For Both Planer and Jointer:

Maximum Height of Knife Above Cutter head is .100" for HSS Knives.
Maximum Height of Knife Above Cutter head is between .031" and .039" for TCT knives.

All Settings May Have To Be Adjusted ( +/-) Depending Upon Machine And Wood Species Being Machined.

Note: it is best to check the relationship between the cutterhead itself and the table/platen first just to make sure they are parallel to each other before proceeding to set the knives themselves.

Also see the Wiki article Getting Peak Planer Performance by Robert Vaughan for more detail on this process.