I am in the process of restoring a craftsman alien head planer. I couldn't find any info on setting the blades for it. Anyone have any experience in this?
Got a model number (or a picture to help identify)? You can most likely find a manual for it over at the VM site, such as this one for the 103.23700 which should describe the procedure.
Manual says a tool for setting blades was available. I don't have it, and haven't removed the cutters yet for that reason. If you come up with something, let us know!
That is the one I have. Mine is still in pieces being painted, so I haven't dug too deep on the blade depth. If I don't find anything, I will plan a piece on my dewalt and the run it through the alien head planer while it is off just to see where it is hitting.
One of these? The bar is missing completely? I ask because one of my bars was there, but not functioning. I addressed that with a piece of spring steel.
Smitty - thank you. Mine is completely gone. Im not sure what spring steel is but will look it up! Also - I have seen pics of the bars going in opposite directions, as well as some angled in parallel to one another like yours. Not sure which is best!
Mine are same direction and material can only be fed into the machine from right to left. I don't really think opposite directions would function at all (?)
There is a small (1" x 1", approximately) piece of bent metal that is above and in the center of each bar that pushes it down to the the stock being worked, so it does it's job holding work down / preventing kick-out. I used a piece of banding, from a stack of lumber (for example) as a replacement for a missing "spring". That stuff is what I referred to re: spring steel. It flexes but doesn't really want to bend, making it perfect for this application.
Maybe larger (wider?) stock of the same thing could be cut to serve as a replacement bar? I don't know. But I would say that both are needed to safely use the machine.
Thanks - I did discover that it isn't safe! Fortunately I made sure not to stand on the exit side when I tested it or I may not be writing. Thanks for your help!
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