Delta 22-540 Planer slow feeding

W

Woodbutcher

New member
I like this planer because It leaves a very smooth finish. In some instances it is more useful than a larger machine. I have it set up on an 8 foot auxilary adjustable bed that eliminates snipe.

I think it needs new feed rollers because I have to manually feed anything over 2 inch wood and pull it out the back, rendering the machine about useless.

It is 15 years old and has planed a lot of wood. I can get by without it, but it's nice to have around. New rollers with shipping comes close to $140-150. Considering I paid 300 for the machine new, dumping $150 into it doesn't make sense, not to mention the time spent to R&R the rollers.

Any easy cheap fixes for this? A mirale solvent I can wipe the rollers with?
 
Planer Fix?

Planer Fix?

You may have already tried this, but just in case...

My planer is a Shopsmith, and I have the knurled infeed roller as well. Outfeed is rubber. It will stick on occasion, and then the blades just burn the wood in one spot, not good. The cause isn't the feed rollers, it is the steel table. A good coat of paste wax after cleaning with mineral spirits fixes it right up. Table might look clean, but the wood has to slide very easily, as if it were on Teflon. The wax does that.

And just to be clear, not talking automotive wax, which is mostly silicone these days. You want the old time furniture or floor paste wax, such as Minwax or Trewax.

I do clean the outfeed roller after each use, again with the mineral spirits, and that, too, helps.

Regards,
DWD
 
Infeeds are rubber

Infeeds are rubber

The infeed rollers on this planer are rubber. The wood slides on melamine as the infeed/outfeed table takes the place of the stock slide table. Melamine is very slippery and that's not the issue anyway. It planed fine for years. I suspect the rubber on the feed rollers has hardened and it simply does not grip the stock in the way it used to.

Had a machine repair guy that works on PC/Delta stuff tell me to wipe the rollers with "solvent." He didn't specify any one in particular. This seems like a short term fix that I don't have time to mess with.

I'm disappointed that I'll be tossing $300 bucks in the trash can on a tool that should have lasted longer. There seems to be no low cost fix to this problem and I can't understand why rollers are so expensive. They should be 20 or 30 bucks each.
 
Planer

Planer

Not meaning to argue, only to point out that there's little to lose by trying. Certainly won't cost $300 to try. I'm guessing you have mineral spirits on hand anyway, and if you don't have any furniture paste wax, last I checked Lowes, HD, and some local hardware stores carried tins of it for around $5. Johnson's and Briwax are two more brands.

Over time, there can be an accumulation of wood tars, dust, and the like on both the rollers and the melamine. Mineral spirits is a decent solvent for the accumulation and shouldn't attack either the rubber or the melamine. Once the melamine is cleaned, an application of paste wax should reduce any remaining friction.

I would point out that the stainless that makes up the bed of the Shopsmith planer is also smooth to the touch, but the application of the paste wax, much like on a table saw's cast iron, really makes stuff slide around very easily, almost like those old air hockey tables. I was surprised how much difference a little paste wax made the first time I renewed the original application I gave it.

Again, not meaning to get into an argument, just observing this may be a simple and cheap fix worth trying. And I agree $300 for a set of rollers seems very high, even by Shopsmith standards. Think the knurled infeed roller kit cost me around $100 though that was many years ago.

If one knows what type of rubber the rollers are made of, I suppose its possible to find a mild solvent. Various race car teams have been accused of "doping" tires to make them softer and thus more sticky over the years. However, doing so essentially weakens the rubber and shortens its life, so far as I can tell.

Best of luck with it. I don't think I have any more to add. If you do try these suggestions, though, I'd be interested in learning your results, for future reference.

Regards
DWD
 
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