How To Change Blades On Woodmaster 718 Planer

Woodmaster Tools 718 Review Part one: Setup and Planing

My lunchbox planer had served me pretty well over the years, but recently as I have started to work with more rough sawn textile, and doing a lot more woodworking in general, I came the conclusion that I needed more functioning and capacity in a planer. This led me on a research projection that involved all the usual suspects. I went back and forth between fifteen″ and xx″ models, and the various offerings in these categories were strikingly similar to 1 some other. Then I stumbled upon the multi-function machine from Woodmaster Tools, and several things jumped out at me that separated Woodmaster from the pack:The machines are manufactured in the The states, which is almost unheard of in small-scale shop woodworking tools these days.The clever design allows the 718 to also serve as a drum sander, molder and gang rip saw (I have always wanted a drum sander but have never been able to dedicate the infinite in my minor store).

Every time I called Woodmaster, I talked to a person who could reply all of my questions without having to look anything up. A couple of the folks I spoke with actually own and utilize the same machine every bit the one I was inquiring nearly. That is the benefit of dealing with a small visitor that sells only ii primary items; combination machines such equally the 718 and dedicated drum sanders.

I went with the post-obit configuration:

Model 718: 18″ capacity with 5HP farm duty motor
Pro Pack that includes sanding drum, gang rip, and molding caput
Screw cutterhead

Woodmaster Tools 718 Planer Setup

Setup. Fedex brought the 575 pound shrink wrapped pallet to my dwelling using a lift gate. The driver was rolling information technology upwards to my garage door on a pallet jack earlier I fifty-fifty saw him coming. Everything was packaged well, and it was fun to open each box. I was impressed with the heft and obvious quality of each component as I unpacked it.

The 718 came with a DVD that explained setup, operation and maintenance of the machine. While I don't generally similar reading manuals, I found this DVD to be a great resources. Although the DVD is slightly outdated and the machine has been updated since it was made, there are but slight differences between the model featured in the video and the current model, so the video proved to be quite helpful as reference. The operator's transmission is well written and explained everything that I needed as I fix the motorcar.

Initial setup took about 2 hours, which was quicker than I expected. Much of that time was spent tipping the machine, installing casters, and propping the 500 pound machine back up. I couldn't get over the simplicity of the machine, given its breadth of capabilities. Everything is easily accessible, and has obvious purpose. I believe that anything on the machine could be easily replaced if necessary, although given the industrial forcefulness of all components; I don't anticipate doing much repair.

Initial Observations:

Overall Design. After doing a lot of enquiry on an upgrade for my planer, I was about 98% excited about the Woodmaster. My only reservation was around the multi-purpose pattern of the machine. My anxiety centered around the fearfulness that the requirements of so many functions would forcefulness complexity into the car. For me, complexity is the enemy. I was relieved, and in fact delighted, equally I took the comprehend off the motorcar to find one of the simplest designs of whatever tool in my shop. There are surprisingly few parts, and the purpose of each seems pretty obvious. Kudos to the brilliant inventor(south) who seemed to share my love of the One thousand.I.South.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Cutterhead Motor. I went with an upgraded farm grade motor which tin withstand continuous use. This is probably overkill for my needs, but I have e'er been a fan upgraded motors. This one is a massive 5 HP (220/30A) American made Leeson motor, weighs in at near 100 pounds, and looks like it means business.

Loftier Quality Machined Steel. All of the steel components, such as planer heads, molder caput, accessory shaft, etc. are made of cold rolled steel and the precision and quality are obvious.

Morse Tapered Shafts and Pivoting Bearings. The easy changeover process is enabled past two clever design points. First, the planer head attaches to shafts that include a Morse taper design at the inward end, providing wiggle room when aligning the planer head for mounting. Boosted flexibility is a provided by the use of pivoting bearings that support the tapered shafts also as the accessory shaft. Each bearing is mounted onto a beefy piece of cast iron which holds the bearing solidly into an aligned position and dampens vibration during functioning.

Concatenation-driven Bed Adjustment. Bed height adjustments are made via threaded shafts powered past a gear driven heavy duty chain. This delivers solid slop free adjustments that do not seem to be effected by vibration from motor operation and lumber milling. Nice mechanism.

Heavy Bandage Fe Bed. One thing that I capeesh about the machine's pattern is that heavy cast iron is used where it adds value, and lighter steel is used where such mass isn't needed. The machine'south bed is a robust slab of ribbed cast atomic number 26. This expressionless flat durable platform is critical for maintaining high quality surfaces during all milling operations.

Steel Enclosure. The enclosure is made of heavy gauge steel, which is massive enough to minimize vibration, but light plenty to remove for occasional function swap-outs. If I detect myself having to remove it frequently, I may opt to add the hinge kit which allows the enclosure to pivot out of the way without having to elevator information technology.

Feed Roller. The standard soft rubber feed rollers are unusual for a planer, and strike me as beingness more necessary for molding applications where there is not as much surface area to grip afterwards the initial pass when some of the material has been removed. The soft safety grabs well (sort of similar high performance car tires) and then they are neat at feeding stock, but I conceptualize having to supercede them at some indicate.

Woodmaster sells replacements for $40, and they appear easy to supervene upon, so I am non terribly bothered past this assuming that I don't burn through them also quickly. After a month's worth of heavy testing I practice not run across any sign of article of clothing. If excessive roller habiliment during planing ever becomes a problem, Woodmaster sells a serrated steel infeed roller for only this purpose, simply I doubt it will ever become an issue for me.

Thickness Guess. The motorcar comes with a unproblematic scale that is magnetic so it can be easily adjusted when different bases are used. It is piece of cake to read, just it can be inadvertently moved, and then if I find myself needing more precision in calibrating thickness of cutting I will probably add the digital readout at some signal.

Creepo handle tin sometimes crash-land dust hood. One minor nit about the machine's design is that manus crank used to conform the bed superlative tin can inadvertently ding the dust hood. Once I got the hang of information technology I was able to minimize this from happening much, but it feels like a minor blueprint oversight.

Variable Feed Charge per unit. One of the differentiating characteristics of this automobile is the fully variable feed rate (with a standard automobile configuration this is 0-sixteen FPM), which is powered by a dedicated feed motor and switch. This is critical for using the same machine to perform all of the functions that the 718 offers, equally each of these functions can exist optimized at a dissimilar feed charge per unit, and farther refinement can be performed inside each part based upon forest species, figure, character, etc.

Let'south Do Some Tests: Offset up, Planing.The auto shipped with the standard iii-knife cutterhead so I tested that configuration starting time. The ability of the motor was apparent as it plowed through a 12″ wide plank of hard maple effortlessly, which is something that my lunchbox planer would struggle with. I set the depth of cut to the total 3/16″ that the machine allows, which is about 5 times the depth that my lunchbox planer can remove without excessive strain. I couldn't believe it. Not only did it remove the cloth, just the motor barely indicated any load, and the sound level was just small-scale whereas I had anticipated scaring the entire neighborhood with such an aggressive cut.

Snipe. The snipe that I experienced "out of the box" was minimal, and through adjustments in feed roller force per unit area and slightly tipping both the infeed and outfeed tables upwardly, I was able to remove the bulk of it, with only about .002″ to .007″ remaining. The little snipe that remains can exist easily removed with a random orbital sander for finished projects, and when using it for surfacing rough planks I usually cut a bit from each end anyhow so it becomes a moot indicate.

Spiral Cutterhead. Since this will likely be my nearly normally used accessory on the Woodmaster, I installed information technology next. The spiral cutterhead is a true helical design, where the blades are set at an angle to the piece of work piece and then that they are really taking a skew cut every bit a blade passes through the wood, similar to holding a manus aeroplane at an angle to shear the material at a more than gentle angle.

This design is ideal for planing figured stock, and any other material that might be decumbent to tearout with a traditional cutterhead. The procedure of swapping out the traditional cutterhead for the spiral design was straightforward, and I plant the manual to be a great ally. Let'southward see how we do with 122 cutting edges.

Once the cutterhead was ready, I fed the aforementioned maple plank through and it left an amazing surface quality. The surface wasn't noticeably cleaner than what was produced past the standard knife fashion cutterhead had left it, but a bit shinier.

Figured Lumber. Spiral cutterheads are known for putting a bang-up surface on figured lumber while traditional cutterheads tin tend to produce tearout on these materials. I ran several different figured and quartersawn planks through the planer, and I couldn't brand it gouge the surface with annihilation that I threw at it. I planed quartersawn oak, curly cherry, birdseye maple and curly birch, and the spiral cutterhead performed flawlessly in all cases. To make information technology a fair test, I ran the same boards through with the standard cutterhead installed and although I did notice a pocket-sized corporeality of tearout on a couple of the figured pieces when using the standard cutterhead, the results were, surprisingly, pretty similar. I believe this a testament to a high quality standard planer head and precision ground blades on the machine, along with infinite variable speed rate that allowed me to boring the feed down to ameliorate the surface quality.

Sound Levels. My lunch box planer screamed at around 100-105 decibels when planing a 10″ wide maple board, and information technology was the one tool in my fastened store that I could hear from most anywhere in our habitation (which meant restricted planing hours). The 718 with the standard cutterhead planed the same lath while producing nearly 92 decibels, which is a dramatic improvement. With the spiral cutterhead information technology ran at virtually 82 decibals, and it was piece of cake to have a conversation with the planer running. With my dust collector running I tin can barely hear the planer as it operates. Given that my shop is attached to my house and in a suburban neighborhood, my family and neighbors are unanimously pleased with this attribute of the 718, and I can at present plane wood any time I want without agonizing anyone'southward serenity.

The merely downside that I found with the planing functionality is that the feed rate (maximum 16 fpm with a standard configuration) is a scrap slower than other planers in its class, which can mostly feed in the 20-30 fpm range. I doubtable that this limitation is due to the multi-purpose nature of the machine, where the other functions require lower maximum feed rates. In a follow up conversation with Woodmaster they indicated that they can customize a 718 for faster feed rates (up to 27 FPM), just to be honest, if I hadn't noticed this on paper, I wouldn't have noticed it at all because it doesn't feel slow to me. Also, because it allows such a deep cutting into the wood, it will make short work of any planing that I need to do in my shop. Given the choice between higher speed and true variable speed control, I prefer to accept the ability to slow the feed charge per unit down to deliver a ameliorate surface quality on figured lumber or glued up panels. For me, finish quality is more important than raw throughput.

Next Fourth dimension. In the side by side segment of this article I will wait at the additional capabilities of the Woodmaster 718, including molding, gang ripping, and drum sanding. I will also share some observations about grit collection. Read office ii here.

Watch as Paul changes over the Woodmaster 718 from drum sander to planer:

Photos By Author

Source:

718P-153 Model 718 with Pro-Pack $2,874
718-SH2 Spiral head for 718 planer $1,125
3875P Farm Duty 5HP motor upgrade $195
WM47T Crown Top 11/sixteen″ ten 4-five/8″ $95
WM47B Crown Bottom 11/16″ 10 4-five/8″ $95

Woodmaster Tools, Inc. www.woodmastertools.com
Phone: 800-821-6651