Excitement at the Planer

[FeltzE]

This weekend we were working on running oak flooring for one of my neighbors, Saturday went fine, but sunday we had a little excitement...

We have been ripping the lumber to width on the Baker edger, which worked like a champ, but being I was raiding a big stack of misc, oak, from 4/4 to 5/4 we were resizing all the blanks to 15/16" prior to running them through the logosol,

Well, through the ear plugs over the roar of the RBI 20" planer and 2 hp blower I thought I heard a whirr , ... ??? is that a split in the lumber  ??? , then bang   bang, and the RBI was alive with noise, after a quick shut down I pulled the hood :-/ there was one of the gibbs, pretzle bent around the planer head. Apparently 2 of the set screws came loose enough to release the gibb, I never did find all of that planer blade :'(

Still with work to do I cleaned up the head, dremeled out the damage, and sharpened 2 blades, My 4 blade head is now operating in the 2 blade mode, and much to my supprise quieter than ever  ;D That DanG  RBI has never been without a lot of vibration but is quite smooth now,... Hmm maybe I should keep it a 2 blade machine from here out...

Eric

[Fla._Deadheader]

   WOW, That could'a been serious.     Glad ya wasn't speared by shrapnel.

[ohsoloco]

Yeah, I'm also glad to hear no one was hurt.  Whenever I change blades on my planer (but mostly my jointer), I'm always a bit nervous that the gib is the only thing holding that blade in place...must be why I stripped the threads on one of my gibs on the jointer  :D

[Brian_Bailey]

Eric,  

I'm always apprehensive when I first start up my planer and jointer after a blade change.

So much so that I'm spending the bucks and replacing both cutter heads with helical ones from Byrd tools.

Here's a link to what I'm talking about.

http://www.byrdtool.com/journals.html

[mur]

Hello:
A friend gave me his system that he uses on his planer and I am now using the same system.  When he works in his planer, nobody goes to see him or interrupts or visits.  He's in his own zone.  Tools are counted and everything is checked twice on the way out.  He fires up, runs a board, shuts down, locks out and then goes back in and re-tightens everything he had worked on.  I use his system with my Logosol.  No problems so far.  It's when you get distracted, usually by others, that problems start.  

[FeltzE]

Well we were both wearing ear and eye protection,... another good reason to keep your shields on!.

Brian, Michelle already mentioned that the multi blade head may be the way to go. I just hate dropping another several hundred on replacing the whole head. Anyone have a price on one? ???


When I first got my planer several yrs ago. I overtightened one of the set screws, and stripped out the hex, ended up drilling and tapping it an all day affair befor it was over. I normally as per the mfr tighten everything run the machine for a few boards  then recheck tightness. (mfr recommends checking at first 5 hrs, then every 20 hrs)

I think there is a manufacturing issue here (the old safety anaylist in me looking for systematic problems) The manufacturer has made a simple and effective gib system that relys only on the set screws pinching the gibb and blade in place. The logosol on the other hand have tapered journals where centrifical force causes increases the wedging power of the gibb. Additionally the use of set screws instead of bolts offer less surface for the tool to engage torque to the screw, eg. 1/8 inch allen wrench vs. 11mm open end wrench.

All this commentary noted, it ultimately is my fault for not rechecking my machine periodically during a long run that I'm sure heated up the machine allowing for some expansion of the components  :

[FeltzE]

This is an example of a tapered journal like whats on the Logosol, the RBI has parrallel journal walls with the head being drilled and tapped for set screws that press the gibb to the blade

https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/fig41.gif

I made the picture a link, it's too big.
Tom

[GF]

Balancing the RBI with moulding cutters is some time a job also.

We were planing some lumber on the RBI without a dust collector and my brother was at the outfeed side, anyhow he was talking and when he went to hand the board back to me across the top he accidently stuck it in the dust chute, have to admit that 5HP balder shredded that board spitting out big chunks.  Luckily no one was hurt.  

[GarryW]

That sounds like when I was doing some shoe moulding in white oak that was not properly sized. I ended up breaking off the side of the cutter, which of course could be heard banging around inside. And since it was a 2x cutter (cuts 2 pieces at a time), I could still use it but, in my case, I got a lot more vibration from the unit. I'm glad that the planer was heavy enough not to move around the garage. At least, I think that I learned my lesson by properly sizing the pieces first.  

garry

[edsaws]

I have to agree with Mur after running 100 ft or so shut it down and retighten them gibbs. I've got and old belsaw 12.5 in planer molder with a 3hp motor. I had one of the blades loosen once an scared the crap out of me   not to mention making one heck of a noise. So now I retighten every once in a while. Just to be safe.

[Norm]

Boy that would have scared the   out of me.

I always go back and retighten (is that a word) after I've run the head but something like that would sure make a guy religious about it.

Hey Brian after you get those installed I'd like to know how they work out for you.

[FeltzE]

That RBI with the 5 hp will spit out some stuff ... for sure!!!

We often plane SYP with 3 inch knots, when one of those comes loose run for cover.  

Having a 20 inch planer bed working narrow lumber I often will feed multiple pieces at one time staggering the ends so who ever is helping dosn't have to grab 2 or 3 at once, the draw back is when you grab 3 pieces get 2 thick ones and ... not paying attention ;D slip a thinner one in between, Add 2 seconds of stupidity,    and you may get a shop cannon, launching that thin piece back out the infeed at the planer head speed...

Did I show you my current lumber bruise ???