Popular Woodworking 2008-08 № 170, страница 42

Pushing the limits of thinness. Your planer has limits as to how thin it will plane your work. If you need thinner stock, you need to use a sub-table board to get your work thinner. Note that this can shatter your work.

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The best way to use your machines is rarely explained in the manual. Find out how to operate machines to get accurate results without sacrificing

• Part 6 Thickness

Powered planets seem like safe machines until yon start testing their limits.

be determined by two factors — using a sub-table board or not using a sub-table board. Most planers are designed so that you cannot lower the blades into the bed. If you use a sub-table, you can plane your wood all the way to oblivion. Most often you will find that as your stock gets thinner, it will have a tendency to shatter, which can be very dangerous. At some point, planing very thin stock should give way to a better machine such as an abrasive planer or drum sander. It might help to send smaller stock through at a slight skew angle to provide a smoother feed and to create a shearing cutting action.

Planers are also limited on how much material can be removed per pass. The thickness of the cut is usually determined by the width of the stock, the hardness of the wood, the feed rate and the finish desired. Although planer manufacturers recommend that passes be limited to less than Vs", '/t6" is probably the most common pass setting.

Clearing Jams

Periodically, wood will have a tendency to jam somewhere between the infeed and outfeed rollers. Jams can occur because of many reasons including: improper machine settings, wood that is inconsistent in thickness or width, knots or debris, infeed or outfeed roller

For a printable list of planer safety tips, vis popularwoodworking.com/aug08

56 ■ Popular Woodworking August 2008

malfunctions or distorted stock. When a jam occurs the safe thing to do is to stop the planer, stand to the side and wait for all moving parts to come to a complete stop. If the jam requires that you stick your hand into the machine make sure you unplug it first. Once the jam has been cleared, evaluate and correct the cause, then resume action.

If the board is thicker at one end than the other and jams during feeding, you do not need to shut off the machine. You can slowly crank open the adjustment wheel until the board resumes feeding. The reason this situation will not create kickback is because the infeed and outfeed rollers are totally engaged in the wood. Lightly lowering the bed position will relieve the bind that created the jam. However, it is always better to stop the machine, make the adjustments, then start it up again.

Dust Collection

Planers produce a large amount of dust, chips and fine shavings. It is definitely recommended that an adequate dust-collection system be used. Be aware that chips from the planer are passed at a high rate of speed and in the right conditions can cause a static charge. Make sure to properly ground your planer's dust collection system. PW

Marc is the founder and owner of the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, the largest woodworking school in North America. For more information on the school and its excellent curriculum, visit marcadams.com or 317-535-4013. You can download a free list of safety rules for planers at our web site at popularwoodworking.com/aug08.

IIBI

IN FUTURE ISSUES

• Part 7 ^^ Table Saws

Thefimdamental skills to get good (and safe) results with one of the most important ^ woodworking machines.

IN PAST ISSUES •Parti Learn the Skills to be Safe

The groundwork for

a lifetime of accurate _

woodworking is to I

understand your tools. ®

• Part 2 Practical Safety Devices

Choose the right .

guards, push sticks | and hold-downs to ^

• Part 3 Power Jointers

Most people use their jointers wrong, resulting I in warped stock and | unsafe operations.

• Part 4 Miter Saws

neither accurate or safe. I Here's how to fix I

both problems.

• Part 5 Band Saws

Band saws are safe if

used correctly; however ■

it's easy to step over I

the line and get bit. "