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13.4 Adjusting the Thicknessing Feed Rollers
As the planer knives are sharpened and re-set you may find it necessary to adjust the thicknesser
feed rollers to ensure that timber is fed through smoothly. These are set at the right height and
pressure at the factory, but may require adjustment to compensate for slight changes to the
knife height in the cutterblock.
Assembly:
SIDE VIEW
END VIEW
MB746 MB746/2
Adjusting screw
MB732
MB448 / Pressure spring
13mm Locknut
The height of the rollers is set to the cutting circle as follows:
Cutterblock
MB749 Fluted Feed Roller
MB748 Plain Feed Roller
Cutting Circle
1mm below
2mm below
Before adjusting the height of the feed rollers first check that are no saw shavings trapped
beneath the bearing blocks. Adjustment is made using the 8mm adjusting screws located
beneath the bearing blocks. Surface-plane a peice of hardwood flat and to square. Next
thickness it to give you an exact measure of the cutting circle. Wind the thicknessing table down
1mm and set the bottom of the fluted feed roller to the top of your hardwood setting piece. The
height of the roller should be set equally at both ends. Use the same technique to set the plain
roller to 2mm below the cutting circle.
The pressure springs are mounted on studs and tensioned by 13mm locknuts. The pressure on
each spring is factory set. On the chain side of both rollers the spring should measure 65mm,
while on the non-drive side of the rollers the springs should measure 55mm when compressed
(the reason for having more pressure on the non-drive side is to compensate for the pressure
exerted by the chain). These settings may not be ideal for every cutting operation and we
therefore recommend that you experiment to find those that best suit you. If the pressure on
these springs is too light for example, the rollers may slip and not feed the wood through the
cutterhead. If the pressure is too great on the serrated feed roller, the serrations may be deeper
than the cutterhead can plane off, especially on thin soft stock. In such cases the pressure
should be reduced. Rollers do not require a lot of pressure for light cuts. If you plan to take
deep cuts, you will have to increase the pressure. If increased spring pressure does not propel
the wood through the cutterhead, the rollers need cleaning, or the thicknessing table needs to
be waxed.
