By: lheavrin

lheavrin — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:58:36 +0000

I disagree with rotating only nicked cutters. A reinterpretation of shifting a straight knife blade should be utilized when addressing nicks in carbide cutters. Carbide cutters are either numbered or there is a tick mark in one corner. At all times all cutters should be cutting on the same cutting edge whether by number or orientation of the tick mark. If a nick develops and a line appears in a planed board, there is a nick in all four or six carbide cutters around that cutterhead. Just like with a straight knife planer when you offset one knife; with carbide cutters you remove one of the nicked cutters and switch it with another cutter from anywhere else on the cutterhead. I call it hop-scotching cutters. This way you keep all cutting edges the same and you still have an equal number of sharp and dull cutting edges on your cutters. Add to that, if you plane wood prone to silica deposits or just grit such as in reclaimed wood, the carbide cutters wear down ever so slightly all the way around the cutterhead. This wear causes the cutting edge to recede. So when all of your cutters recede back, then you get a nick, then you rotate the culprits, that new cutting edge stands proud by however many thousandths-of-an-inch cutting deeper into your board leaving a bigger track. So I advise don’t rotate, hop-scotch.

Comments on: Eliminate a Nick in Planer Knives

By: lheavrin