Thickness Planer Help

[Daibach]

Once again this forum has come up aces.

I bought a Dewalt 735 planer seven months ago at the tool show but have only used it a little. The latest was to see how much I could salvage from some arbutus thats been drying and warping for a few months; (looks like most of it's going to be firewood)

Then this week I started to square up some fir for a new workbench but the wood kept stalling; the rollers wouldn't feed it properly even taking very shallow cuts. Blades can't be dull already, what's wrong?
Searched the forum. Someone about two years ago had the identical problem with a Rigid Jointer.
The recomended cure: clean the rollers with mineral spirits and wax the tables.
Sounds too simple but I'm a simple guy. Tried it; there was a surprising amount of grunge came off the rollers onto the cleaning rag; wax on, wax off; and the planer now works great!

This forum has been a big help to me. Thanks to all who are willing to share what they've learned.

[drumpriest]

As I was reading this post, I was going to start typing that recommendation, but I see that I don't have to know. A friend of mine had the same issue with the AP1300, those rollers just get gummed up, and that's what puts your work through.

My dewalt hasn't show any issue yet, but I haven't put any really pitchy stuff through it yet.

[Tom Hintz]

Once again this forum has come up aces.

The recomended cure: clean the rollers with mineral spirits and wax the tables.
Sounds too simple but I'm a simple guy. Tried it; there was a surprising amount of grunge came off the rollers onto the cleaning rag; wax on, wax off; and the planer now works great!

This forum has been a big help to me. Thanks to all who are willing to share what they've learned.

Good deal on your "fix".
We have heard of this so often I put a tory on my site specifically about waxing planer tables. Sometimes the Internet gets a little hysterical and likes to blame simple problems on whatever sounds more dramatic, "bad gears", "lousy rollers", or "electrical problems". As you have seen, sometimes simple maintenence is the real answer. Cheap, way less dramatic but it works!
Now, if you remember to repeat the maintenence occasionally your planing life will be far more enjoyable!

[poolhound]

I find that with the planer more than most other shop tools regular waxing is an important thing to do. The pressure on the table plus the fact that it does get covered in dust and I tend to clean it down thoroughly after each use removes a lot of the previous wax.

I have also found that you should try and avoid putting really rough and dirty boards through the planer unless you like constant rolle cleaning and frequent blade replacement.

If I have boards like this I tend to do a very quick pass with my belt sander first to get rid of the surface grunge.

[jackellis]

I've found the same thing happens with hand planes. Waxing the soles greatly reduces the amount of friction, which means you can more easily apply even pressure parallel to the board.

and to think my wife laughs when I tell her I have to wax my planes...