I recently purchased a Delta 13″ planer. Problem, it seems to stop or stick on a board about half way through. I have cleaned the rollers and all appears to be in good working order, but it seems to stop on different types of wood, I have tried oak, walnut and same problem, different widths same issuer. The boards are clean and rough cut but once I get down to the desired thickness they stick and I have to pull them through. Do you think the machine needs to have rollers reset or the blades. I don’t get a lot of sniping so I don’t think thats the problem.
Thanks
Edited 7/29/2008 10:15 pm ET by airbalance
Replies
How deep of a cut are you taking?
Bio
Boards that are over 4" wide about a 1/64 or 1/32 and still had the same problem.
How recent is "recent?" If it's a new machine, you've only run a couple hundred bf through it or whatever, I'd suggest calling Delta. The cleaning you did is the first and most likely solution. Hard to imagine there's much adjustment you could do since the blades are self-indexing. Be sure anything you are advised to attempt doesn't void your warranty.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 7/30/2008 1:28 pm by forestgirl
Recent mean less than a year old an less than 300 BF.
Ouch, that hurts! I have the 12.5" and it's worked great from Day One. The first wood I put through it was old, oxidized varnished, oak from a big cabinet I took apart.
Hope you find the culprit.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
try waxing the table, that worked for me. Chris
Thanks I try that!
Why in the world did you buy a Delta????
Don't expect too much, perhaps you could use it to hold a door open or as a place to stack old newspapers.
I was burned badly by delta when I bought a 14" bandsaw. Junk out of the crate. I wouldn't own one of their "tools" if they came with a gold brick.
If we all avoided a given tool line because one person got "burned" with one tool purchase, we'd probably never buy anything at all. Well, who knows, maybe a Felder table saw or something along those lines, but not much else.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I think if you do a search you will find many people here dissatisfied with delta "tools"
One problem we woodworkers, (and Americans), have is that we have allowed low price to trump quality. In the past delta may have made quality tools. But now they pass off cheap junk and many people accept it.
I won't do that.
I want tools, not kits. Delta supplies kits. According to what I read here, and my experience, seldom, if ever, is a delta "tool" right when it's unpacked. The fit and finish are terrible. Customer service stinks and taking a 400 lb machine into their repair shop so they can "look at it" isn't really an option.
Feel free to buy all the delta "tools" you want. I won't buy them because of my experience with good tools and my hard earned knowledge of quality.
I just did a quick search and there were relatively few dissatified owners, oddly enough your name came up most often, frequently disparaging a machine you have neither owned or used.
Your story about the weight of the table breaking the trunnions on your bandsaw beggars belief.
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
Go to Amazon & look at the customer reviews of the current Delta offerings. It's dismal, esp. when you get the reviews by people that have previously owned the older versions of many of the tools. Current quality is not what it used to be & customer service S****S! I've got a bunch of Delta stuff, but probably won't buy any more. Too many horror stories, including a few of my own.
Never said they were great, never said the were ALL good just said that point out that any company make junk AFTER someone has it is of no use. And I pointed out that not everything is junk. Heck I am sure everyone makes some junk (call them lemons) So it would stand to reason that once in a while even a place that makes junk stumble into a good piece! :)
Doug Meyer
I'm not necessarily a Delta "fan" -- I own two of their tools currently, the 12.5" planer, which has performed just hunky-dorry since the first tme I fired it up (oak, maple, alder, some weird hard exotic, walnut, poplar) and their lowly intro-level scrollsaw, which is an unbelievably good machine for someone who just makes Christmas ornament occasionally with it.
Oh! I own a slightly old Unisaw, now, too. 1998 I believe. So far, so good. The shop is a mixture, whatever tool was "right" at the time -- Grizzly, Jet, RBI Hawk (couldn't resist, a good deal), Bosch, Makita.
The point is, to jump on a poster "Why did you buy Delta, I bought one tool and was burned, they're junk" is kinda ridiculous. With that approach, you're just a guy with a grudge to many (if not most) of us.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 8/1/2008 12:20 am by forestgirl
First off just because you own a tool does not mean it was a great idea to buy it. Also it does not mean that you had a lot of other options, or that you knew better at the time. So that being said when someone buys a tool and then asks about it after the fact (due to having issues say) their is not much point it telling them they should not have bought said tool. As was pointed out about the Titanic that ship has sailed.
I also have to agree with the post about if we never bought anything from a company someone complains about we would all be making our own tools. Even LN and LV have had people on here putting them down.
As for Delta it is not the best in the land but I do own a couple of them and they work well. (I Have a Unisaw, a jointer and a DC) I have had good luck with all of them. Would I buy them again today? Maybe not (these are only about 3 years old) but at the time SC was not available (at least around me) so I had limited options. And while it is possible to save up a bit to buy a nicer tool when replacing a whole shop you have to take your budge and make it stretch. So some of the nicer tools were out of reach.
So as you can see. NOT all Delta is considered junk buy ALL owners.
Doug
"So as you can see. NOT all Delta is considered junk buy ALL owners." Shall we count the hours (or minutes) before your IQ is called into question? ROFL!!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Morning Doug,
I would think that if we could find numbers like: Manufacturer X produced Y drill presses (or whatever) and they had Z failures; that would provide a much more meaningful measure of their quality.
As I'm sure we all know manufacturers are not perfect but we are! DeWalt had issues with their DW735 Planer knives, Delta had vibration issues with their 28-206 bandsaw, and I'm sure others can relate similar thangs with other manufacturers as well.
Another thing is that it seems like a lot of complaints are about hobbiest level machines and not so much about production/industrial strength machines. I think it would be safe to say that hobbiest machines are not built to the same standards as their production bretheren.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
I agree very much here. When you are a hobbiest and buy tools you do more so on value and sometimes what we deem as valuable comes in with a cheap price tag and sometimes poor workmanship. Ironically, depending on your luck, you may be able to get a value that is highly effective and good workmanship. On the converse, you can also buy the top of the line products and they still be faulty. It is the fact that last time I checked we are ALL human.
For instance, before I knew any better I simply bought tools from Sears (CRAFTSMAN). Now, I NEVER had a single problem with any of these tools until I saw or heard what others had to say and what is funny is even after I have heard what they have had to say I still turn on some of my Crafsman tools and they work as accurately as I think they should. I recently cut the 45 degree miters for a picture frame on a Craftsman miter saw and they were dead on. I paid 139 for the tool and as I said it cut dead on, so do I need a 1300 Festool or do I just need to name of the brand? At the end of the day half a dozen and six are still the same thing.
We also have to remember that for every one negative comment that someone has to report there are probably 50 positive ones. It isn't always that people come and praise a machine and how it works, it is the negative aspects that always come to the surface.
Just my 2 cents....
Bio
Thanks for advise about not getting on the Titanic after I'm at sea. Just kidding, I would agree I will not buy Delta again.
It's a good planer for a hobby grade machine. Are your blades sharp? The usual causes are dull blades, dirty rollers or a sticky table. 300bf of hardwood may have dulled the disposable blades, if you have a spare set (and you should) try installing them and see if your problem goes away.
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
My Dad's shop includes an old belt driven lathe and belt driven scroll saw that he bought used from his former high school in 1940. He has always had them mounted to his workbench (3 8" long 2x8's for a top mounted on 2x4 legs) and the whole thing shakes a tad when you try to turn some wood or use the scroll saw.
His very first ts--a Craftsman table model--he affixed to an old Singer sewing machine cabinet, complete with a sliding door for what he calls "the sawdust bin."
His "big" table saw is a no name model he picked up somewhere along the line and cobbled together. The fence is also something that he made up. It would never be confused with a Biesmeyer. He has never had a Forrest or Freud blade.
As a "child of the Great Depression," my Dad has always used what was available to get the job done. With his way less than state of the art shop, he has turned out all sorts of things over the years with what tools he had available. Although he wasn't making "fine furniture," he did make kitchen cabinets (using Craftsman shaper blades on his little ts) and other projects. No complaints from his customers as far as I know.
The point is that we are living in a very different world from that of our parents or grandparents. We want what we want and we want it pretty by golly quick, whereas my Dad's generation was much more apt to tinker with what they had until whatever it was would perform to their satisfaction. (Btb, Dad only sniffs at Norm Abram's shop and even says that "anybody could turn out good stuff with all that he has.")
If he were able, Dad would love to have the opportunity to fiddle around with a cantankerous planer just to see if he could make it whirl . . .
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