Ryobi AP1300 help please

[Cochese]

I've had this planer for about a year now, and lately I haven't been able to lower the cutterhead past about 1-3/8." The mechanism gets tough to turn at 1.5" and I'm afraid to try and force it to go lower. I know it can go down to as low as 1/4", so something is up.

Is this as simple as cleaning and lubing the spindle? Looking for suggestions before I tear into it. Thanks.

[dbhost]

Now I know these machines aren't the same, but there may be similarities with the AP1301, which is the model I have...

I had a similar problem, where the cutter head wouldn't go under 1". I fixed the problem by raising the head all the way up, and thoroughly cleaning the raise / lower screws, and shafts, then dry lubing them. You may want to get a blow gun in there as well and clean out anything that make be caked toward the cutter head... I tend to process a LOT of pine and cedar, and that stuff jams up my planer pretty often... Hopefully the AP1300 you have has the same problem. It was a very easy fix...

[Cochese]

User error this time. Thought I had disengaged the 'plane to...' lever. Oops.

[natausch]

Done the same thing myself several times, so don't feel bad. The location of the height limit is very well hidden on the AP1300.