Hi,
I recently bought a piece of land with an old house on it in Japan and now I’m trying to completely renovate the house. I’m in English teacher, 58 years old, and have no experience with woodworking. I’ve completely gutted the house, the ceilings, the interior walls, the bathtub and outside wall of the bathroom are gone. I’ve replaced one support pole which was badly beaten by termites, I’ve replaced the section of a support beam and I am soon to replace another support pole all because of termites. Imagination, DIY books and the Internet are my teachers.
Today I have a simple question. I bought an old Hitachi planer, an 1804n 136mm, which is very similar to the Makita 1804n. I have a problem in adjusting the depth of cut. I turn the knob in the direction indicated (clockwise) and this increases the ‘depth of cut’, but I’m unable to decrease the ‘depth of cut’ using the control knob. If I continue turning the knob clockwise, it bottoms out, solid. If I turn the knob anticlockwise, it unscrews from the shaft, as I believe it should do. At present the only way I can decrease the ‘depth of cut’ is to loosen the knob and then take a rubber mallet and hit the front of the front base plate.
Could the problem be as simple as replacing the somewhat worn washer under the knob or is it something more complicated? Or perhaps it’s me?
Any ideas?
Replies
Maybe you're supposed to adjust it with a mallet. Hey, it's not a bug, it's a feature! (Bill Gates) ;-)
If you don't get info here, try Taunton's other forum, Breaktime (Fine Homebuilding). My guess is that the knob should have a set screw, or some such, to keep it from unscrewing, so you can back that adjustment screw off with the knob. But I'm not familiar with that particular planer. You might also wanna check to see if you can find an owner's manual on line.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
I'm not familiar with your brand of planer, one thing I am sure of is the height adjustment knob is missing a set screw or a small roll pin.The knob should raise and lower the table ( or cutterhead) .The washer has no bearing on it.Look for something that locks the knob thru the screw shaft.The knob turns the screw,the screw engages vertical gear. If you have another nut of the same thread as the screw spindle, use it as a lock nut. The locknut should be tight against the knob,this keeps the knob from turning off when turned counter-clockwise.
mike
This is the <6" hand planer, right? Whoever said Breaktime might be your best bet is correct, but in addition, you could take a look at a parts diagram <click> for the 1806B and see if anything looks like a possible suspect in your problem.
Thanks very much for the feedback. There isn't a set screw or pin which goes through the "screw shaft" and only the top half of the shaft is threaded. The next time I'm at a hardware store, then I'll get two nuts, screw them on to the shaft, lock them against each other and then I can perhaps see how it is supposed to work.There's very little on the Internet about the Hitachi 1804n (F-40B). Perhaps Hitachi sold the design to Makita because the Makita 1804n is almost identical, but the control knob is different.
I'll let you know how it goes.
What about the compression spring (part#28 in the diagramed linked in my previous post)?? If that's messed up, the adjusting mechanism wouldn't work correctly.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Yes. It's probably is the compression spring. I don't think it's broken, just worn out through old age.
The shaft itself is fixed, meaning it doesn't rotate at all. I'll probably stick with the mallet for the time being.
Thanks again.
"I'll probably stick with the mallet for the time being." Or a bigger mallet, LOL! Good luck. Sounds like you're into a great project!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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