[huff]

National Lampoon's Economic Downturn Vacation

I work in video games, and it's seemed this year to be pretty immune to the recession. Kids always want their video games, and when you can't do much else, like building that addition, or moving to a new place, picking up a game or two to play away the misery is a comforting alternative.

Or so we thought.

Looks like it's finally trickled up, or down, or sideways, and as such, we had The Meeting today. While not officially laid off, I'm on 'forced vacation' starting tomorrow morning. The good news is that I don't have to get up early! The bad news is that we're waiting on a deal with another company before we can all come back. These kinds of things are notoriously painful and slow. There's a lot of wishy-washy back-and-forth when trying to get a game started, or in this case, finished. We were told that they "don't want to cancel it," but there's a lot of negotiating still going on. Meanwhile, the bosses - who are really great guys - have tried every avenue they could imagine - old contacts, cell phone games, 1-off stuff we could all do separately, like the script I alone wrote for another company earlier this year, and of course, subcontracted work for larger games being made elsewhere - a usual savior for us. Unfortunately, large companies are all saying the same thing - the recession has them fighting just to feed the mouths in their own companies.

There are 40 in our employ, and with one side job going still, only 5 will be coming in to work on that, and I'm not on that project. I do have 19 vacation days saved up, and will be paid for them as the days off add up, but after that I'm unpaid until we get work. The bosses gave the other company an ultimatum - we must know where we stand by the 15th of October. That's sort of the cut-off date., but if we get the greenlight to continue tomorrow, we'll be back to work on Friday. It's all up in the air. It's looking like at the very least, some layoffs will unfortunately be in order. The other company hasn't even paid us for all the work we've done up until now, so we're robbing our own coffers to pay ourselves for that for the time being. Fortunately, I'm one of about 9 leads, and the bosses privately told us that they will consider us last during layoffs. This isn't really favoritism, though. Mostly it's just seniority, and our knowing how the bulk of our programs and processes work. Small comfort, though. I'd hate to lose any of us. It's a great group, and the end of the day was filled with hugs, well-wishes, and scribblings down of email addresses so we could all stay in touch in the interim, or in case that's it for the company.

Meanwhile, I have some unexpected free time. Sleeping late, cleaning the workshop "for realz," sawing up huge Eucalyptus logs, finally conquering The Ebay Pile (most of which isn't even worth selling anymore - anyone need a 3" thick book on Visual Basic 6.0 from half a decade ago? How about two of 'em? - it's all queued up, and for that much I am excited. I do wish I had no money worries so I could go buy all the lumber I need for the half dozen or so projects I really want to build - organizers, wood storage, cabinetry, shelving, etc. Plywood is pricey! I've had this happen once before in about 2003, free after we were all let go at the end of months of hard work at a company, trying to enjoy the time, worrying alongside that about finding new work. I'm fine, though. I have a good amount saved up in several different areas. However, with the incredibly high cost of living here in LA, it really isn't as much as it seems. You can scale things for yourself by noting that a 1-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath house of about 800-900 sq. ft. on a sub-1-acre lot, with a 1-car, detached garage, all built in and negligibly maintained since 1924 currently goes for - starting - about $650k, rents for about $2500/mo, no A/C. It's crazy times.

Anyway, good luck to us all. Apparently none of us is safe from this economical beast.

I hope your next post will be telling us you're back to work, but untill then, keep your spirits up and try to enjoy a few days off ( just a few!). I hope all works out well.

 

[gfixler]

National Lampoon's Economic Downturn Vacation

I work in video games, and it's seemed this year to be pretty immune to the recession. Kids always want their video games, and when you can't do much else, like building that addition, or moving to a new place, picking up a game or two to play away the misery is a comforting alternative.

Or so we thought.

Looks like it's finally trickled up, or down, or sideways, and as such, we had The Meeting today. While not officially laid off, I'm on 'forced vacation' starting tomorrow morning. The good news is that I don't have to get up early! The bad news is that we're waiting on a deal with another company before we can all come back. These kinds of things are notoriously painful and slow. There's a lot of wishy-washy back-and-forth when trying to get a game started, or in this case, finished. We were told that they "don't want to cancel it," but there's a lot of negotiating still going on. Meanwhile, the bosses - who are really great guys - have tried every avenue they could imagine - old contacts, cell phone games, 1-off stuff we could all do separately, like the script I alone wrote for another company earlier this year, and of course, subcontracted work for larger games being made elsewhere - a usual savior for us. Unfortunately, large companies are all saying the same thing - the recession has them fighting just to feed the mouths in their own companies.

There are 40 in our employ, and with one side job going still, only 5 will be coming in to work on that, and I'm not on that project. I do have 19 vacation days saved up, and will be paid for them as the days off add up, but after that I'm unpaid until we get work. The bosses gave the other company an ultimatum - we must know where we stand by the 15th of October. That's sort of the cut-off date., but if we get the greenlight to continue tomorrow, we'll be back to work on Friday. It's all up in the air. It's looking like at the very least, some layoffs will unfortunately be in order. The other company hasn't even paid us for all the work we've done up until now, so we're robbing our own coffers to pay ourselves for that for the time being. Fortunately, I'm one of about 9 leads, and the bosses privately told us that they will consider us last during layoffs. This isn't really favoritism, though. Mostly it's just seniority, and our knowing how the bulk of our programs and processes work. Small comfort, though. I'd hate to lose any of us. It's a great group, and the end of the day was filled with hugs, well-wishes, and scribblings down of email addresses so we could all stay in touch in the interim, or in case that's it for the company.

Meanwhile, I have some unexpected free time. Sleeping late, cleaning the workshop "for realz," sawing up huge Eucalyptus logs, finally conquering The Ebay Pile (most of which isn't even worth selling anymore - anyone need a 3" thick book on Visual Basic 6.0 from half a decade ago? How about two of 'em? - it's all queued up, and for that much I am excited. I do wish I had no money worries so I could go buy all the lumber I need for the half dozen or so projects I really want to build - organizers, wood storage, cabinetry, shelving, etc. Plywood is pricey! I've had this happen once before in about 2003, free after we were all let go at the end of months of hard work at a company, trying to enjoy the time, worrying alongside that about finding new work. I'm fine, though. I have a good amount saved up in several different areas. However, with the incredibly high cost of living here in LA, it really isn't as much as it seems. You can scale things for yourself by noting that a 1-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath house of about 800-900 sq. ft. on a sub-1-acre lot, with a 1-car, detached garage, all built in and negligibly maintained since 1924 currently goes for - starting - about $650k, rents for about $2500/mo, no A/C. It's crazy times.

Anyway, good luck to us all. Apparently none of us is safe from this economical beast.

Thanks for the words of support, folks. It occurred to me that vacation days are work days that don't count weekends, so really the 3 weeks of buffer is 4 weeks. That made me feel a little bit better.

Mike - I've worked on mostly PSP games, but also on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, and I think the Wii. The team has also fiddled a bit on the 360 and PS3. Our team ported Star Wars: Battlefront II from PS2 to PSP. We've done a He-Man game back in the day for the three main consoles (XB/PSP/GC + PC) which only came out in Europe. We made both PSP Transformers games for the recent movies. We worked on-site at EA (subcontracted) on the Goldeneye sequel a few years back. We made a Scooby Doo game ("Who's Watching Who") for PSP. Our team made the Wall-E game for PSP. We seem to get a lot of work on things that were my favorite cartoons growing up We also made some training simulations for DARPA for training military teams. Lots of miscellaneous shorter stuff mixed into that.

PurpLev - sounds like Boston is pretty expensive, too!

huff - might be awhile before I'm posting that, and this little break is a perfect time to catch up on all the posting I've been too busy to get to!

 

[REK]

National Lampoon's Economic Downturn Vacation

I work in video games, and it's seemed this year to be pretty immune to the recession. Kids always want their video games, and when you can't do much else, like building that addition, or moving to a new place, picking up a game or two to play away the misery is a comforting alternative.

Or so we thought.

Looks like it's finally trickled up, or down, or sideways, and as such, we had The Meeting today. While not officially laid off, I'm on 'forced vacation' starting tomorrow morning. The good news is that I don't have to get up early! The bad news is that we're waiting on a deal with another company before we can all come back. These kinds of things are notoriously painful and slow. There's a lot of wishy-washy back-and-forth when trying to get a game started, or in this case, finished. We were told that they "don't want to cancel it," but there's a lot of negotiating still going on. Meanwhile, the bosses - who are really great guys - have tried every avenue they could imagine - old contacts, cell phone games, 1-off stuff we could all do separately, like the script I alone wrote for another company earlier this year, and of course, subcontracted work for larger games being made elsewhere - a usual savior for us. Unfortunately, large companies are all saying the same thing - the recession has them fighting just to feed the mouths in their own companies.

There are 40 in our employ, and with one side job going still, only 5 will be coming in to work on that, and I'm not on that project. I do have 19 vacation days saved up, and will be paid for them as the days off add up, but after that I'm unpaid until we get work. The bosses gave the other company an ultimatum - we must know where we stand by the 15th of October. That's sort of the cut-off date., but if we get the greenlight to continue tomorrow, we'll be back to work on Friday. It's all up in the air. It's looking like at the very least, some layoffs will unfortunately be in order. The other company hasn't even paid us for all the work we've done up until now, so we're robbing our own coffers to pay ourselves for that for the time being. Fortunately, I'm one of about 9 leads, and the bosses privately told us that they will consider us last during layoffs. This isn't really favoritism, though. Mostly it's just seniority, and our knowing how the bulk of our programs and processes work. Small comfort, though. I'd hate to lose any of us. It's a great group, and the end of the day was filled with hugs, well-wishes, and scribblings down of email addresses so we could all stay in touch in the interim, or in case that's it for the company.

Meanwhile, I have some unexpected free time. Sleeping late, cleaning the workshop "for realz," sawing up huge Eucalyptus logs, finally conquering The Ebay Pile (most of which isn't even worth selling anymore - anyone need a 3" thick book on Visual Basic 6.0 from half a decade ago? How about two of 'em? - it's all queued up, and for that much I am excited. I do wish I had no money worries so I could go buy all the lumber I need for the half dozen or so projects I really want to build - organizers, wood storage, cabinetry, shelving, etc. Plywood is pricey! I've had this happen once before in about 2003, free after we were all let go at the end of months of hard work at a company, trying to enjoy the time, worrying alongside that about finding new work. I'm fine, though. I have a good amount saved up in several different areas. However, with the incredibly high cost of living here in LA, it really isn't as much as it seems. You can scale things for yourself by noting that a 1-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath house of about 800-900 sq. ft. on a sub-1-acre lot, with a 1-car, detached garage, all built in and negligibly maintained since 1924 currently goes for - starting - about $650k, rents for about $2500/mo, no A/C. It's crazy times.

Anyway, good luck to us all. Apparently none of us is safe from this economical beast.

Gary,

I worry about my job too, I understand where your comming from- But your job sounds really cool. My son is big into psp2 wresteling, gta, and legos star wars. For the life of me I cannot understand the appeal of turning people into legos. I hope things work out for you, and your back to work soon.

bob

 

[gfixler]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

 

[degoose]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

I have pulled apart and rebuilt a RYOBI 12 1/2 Planer and replaced all the parts over a few years.. it was easy to get it apart and most of the part were available from the loca bike shop. LOL
Finally after all the ******************** I had to put up with. repairing it many times ,........ got permission from the department of Finance to get a 15 " professional planer.
2HP industrial motor. good machine. triple belt drive. On a stand… all so much better than the small 12/13 models.

 

[stefang]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

Sorry about your lay-off . As long as you are young and healthy you will be able to improve your situation. As for your machine problems, it's probably easier and a lot less frustrating to use your router, assuming you have one, to do the other side after jointing than mess around with the impossible planer.

 

[Jimi_C]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

Sounds like ball bearings somewhere inside that are shot. You can always check Sears Parts Direct for replacement assemblies, but it may not be worth fixing if it's too expensive.

 

[REK]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

I know your watching your money, but I consider my dewalt planer a throw away, if the problem can't be solved in a reasonable amount of time-trash it. I hope you can figure the problem out in short order. Using your router sounds like a good idea, if you have a nice flat surface and an hour to make a jig why not? I find that when things are progressing I feel better.
bob

 

[GaryC]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

Gary, really sorry to hear about the lack of employment. Hope that turns around soon. Wish I could offer information to help with the planer but, no help here. In the past, you've always shown ambition and inventiveness… I'm sure you'll end up on top of these circumstances.

 

[a1Jim]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

Hey Gary
I know how you feel when I've been questioning if I have work I sometimes can't make myself go out to the shop even though I've been dying for shop time. I hope your work gets going again and you find a good solution to your planner problems.

 

[gfixler]

Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.

Late reply from me, but a thank you to everyone for your kind words. Still in limbo on the job front. Things are a bit dire all across the board, probably the same for most folks right now. Not too worried, though. I have a bit saved up, so I'm safe for awhile, and I have some options I can exercise if I really get in a jam. It's not a great situation, but it's not desperate times yet, and shouldn't be for a good while.

Oh, and Rob, thanks so much for the offer! I can't believe 2 weeks has flown by since this post, but I meant to come back and recognize your generosity. I think I'm going to figure out the planer soon, but I'll keep everyone posted. Lots of other stuff to be on about in the meantime. More on that in some upcoming posts. Thanks again!

 

[gfixler]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

 

[lew]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

Gary,

There should be some numbers stamped into the side of bearing. Take the old bearing or the the good one on the blade holder to a motor shop. They can probably fix you up.

Lew

 

[davidpettinger]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

lew, thats a good idea.
Gary, another one is to find a local machine shop that has a good 10 ton press. They will have center point arbors and split pressing cups to help remove and replace that bearing. You may even be able to leave the knives in place, but go to the UPS store and buy some small bubble-bubble wrap to protect them.

 

[Jimi_C]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

Wow, little weird seeing my name mentioned out of the blue Glad to see you got to the issue. After years of playing roller hockey, I guess I know a blown bearing when I hear the symptoms

Those don't look like they'll be too hard to replace at least, now that you've got the hard part done. Does Sears parts website still offer them?

 

[asthesawturns]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

Not sure, but I think that is the same planer I have, I will contact you when I have the same scary noises. Good luck with the work thing.

 

[REK]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

Gary,
God those pictures look like my dewalt planer. Those screws to get at your knives, get them now while there out. On my dewalt planer, every other screw was on impossible to break loose. Luckily I was still on my one year warrenty, I took the planer back and got a new one. To prevent the screws from doing that agine,
about once every 5o board feet, I break all the screws loose and put a coat of anti sieze on them. And they can still be hard to break loose. I admire your determination, I would have thrown the planer away before doing ALL THAT…

 

[Jimthecarver]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

Gary, try doing a search for Allied bearing in so. cal.
Thats where I get my bearings from they are great.

 

[gfixler]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

Thanks for the info, everyone! I'll round it up and let you all know how it turns out.

 

[gfixler]

Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.

UPDATE

There were things stamped on the side. One side said CHL and the other 6203Z. This turned up one link online to a Chinese bearing place, but I couldn't read anything. I searched up Jim's Allied, but the one I found had branches all over, but nothing in CA. I found Alliance Bearing in CA, but I couldn't track things down. I took to measuring the bearing with calipers and found it read goofy in inches, but to perfect values in metric (40mm OD, 17mmID, 12mm width). Then it dawned on me that I should just check out Sears' parts page online (searspartsdirect.com). I found the model number on one of the plastic shrouds in the garage, put that in, and got a parts explosion diagram with a long list of parts beneath, each able to be added to my cart. It's discontinued, and the bearing isn't available anymore, but the replacement bearing they promise is functionally equivalent (#STD315231). It was a bit under $5, of course with $6+ shipping So, for a bit under $12, I should have the proper bearing in the mail soon. That was the standard shipping rate, so it's EST'd to arrive on December 4th. I sure hope it's the right bearing after all of this! My garage is a mess with parts.

Thanks again, and I'll update how it all works out, or if it doesn't