A few questions about the HL 850 E

[NERemodeling]

My first festool purchase (about a month ago) was a "lightly" used HL850 planer, i do fullly believe that the guy who owned it before me took great care of it and in his words only used it for about 30 minutes. He is a older man, hobbiest who has a large festool collection and admitted that he probably shouldnt have bought this planer as he prefers hand planes. enough back story...

I have a few condition questions for those of you that know or have the tool

I bought the tool for the "Hand Hewn" feature, needed for a beam project a customer wants done. For that project 100% accuracy dosent really matter but i would like the tool to preform all tasks exactly how it was intended to

The first thing that i noticed was that at 0 depth of cut it actually removed about .2mm  -- i later found out how to adjust the front plate and that seems to be ok now

on the topic of the front plate, it has a bit of up/down  side to side and front/back play  is this normal?  it seems the up/down play could really affect the cut

Now on the topic of the cut, the planer cut seems to step up twice before finally smooths out.  it happens on about the first inch in and then about 1.5 or 2 inch. they are aproximetly .2-.4mm step ups

next thing that seems off to me is the rear plate is concave. with a straight edge from front to back on the rear plate it only touches the extreme front and back of the plate with a noticeable, probably 1/16" or more gap in the middle..  the straight edge does seem to be inline with the planer knife

lastly, should the unlimited rabbeting depth guard lock up and out of the way? or does it spring down even when you click it up and over to the left detent? 

thanks for any info!

John

 

[tbellemare]

lastly, should the unlimited rabbeting depth guard lock up and out of the way? or does it spring down even when you click it up and over to the left detent?

Are you using the lever by the front handle to open the cover? You shouldn't put your hands near the cutter head.

The other issues don't seem at all familiar to me. I'll have to break mine out to compare. Can you provide images of what you are seeing?

Tom

 

[semenza]

Are the step ups you are talking about snipe at the beginning of the cut?

Seth

 

[NERemodeling]

yeah, the little green lever under the depth adjust handle, it moves forward, then to the left.   should the guard stay it the up position?   i saw a youtube video where it looked like the guard was staying up by itself while he was changing the cutter head.    mine does not stay up  

i will try to post a few pictures tomorrow

 

[NERemodeling]

Are the step ups you are talking about snipe at the beginning of the cut?

Seth

yes they are

 

[NERemodeling]

here are some pictures,

I will correct myself about the concave bend in the rear plate. i guessed around 1/16 or more from memory... but it is much closer to .5mm

the pictures with my thumb show the up/down movemet of the front plate, it only seems to move on the side closest to the cutter  but it also moves side to side and front to back. 

 

[ScotF]

lastly, should the unlimited rabbeting depth guard lock up and out of the way? or does it spring down even when you click it up and over to the left detent?   

Hi John,

Not sure if you got all of your questions answered, but the flip-up switch does not lock in the up position -- you have to hold it up and out of the way when using the unlimited rabbeting depth.  This is a safety feature to prevent the cutting head from remaining exposed after a cut.

Scot

 

[NERemodeling]

Hey Scot    thanks for the answer,  no i havent gotten any answers yet, still hoping smeone with the tool can fill me in on the other issues im having. Again i really appreciate you taking the time help

John

 

[semenza]

The snipe is mostly a planer thing in general. Some experimenting with the amount of force you are applying to the front and rear handles as you go into the cut  will help reduce it.

I checked mine..... the plate has some concavity in the long direction I used a really good straight edge and could not get a .5mm gauge underneath. So it is less than .5mm on mine.  The front plate has about 1/32" of side to side (rotational) wiggle.  I don't know for sure but I suspect this is the way they are supposed to be. 

Seth

 

[fdengel]

Not sure if you got all of your questions answered, but the flip-up switch does not lock in the up position -- you have to hold it up and out of the way when using the unlimited rabbeting depth.  This is a safety feature to prevent the cutting head from remaining exposed after a cut.

I haven't tried this specific usage with my 850, but wouldn't the flap be held up by the workpiece once you get started on an operation like that?  I would think you'd only need to manually hold it up until the planer was in place and the operation started...?

 

[NERemodeling]

The snipe is mostly a planer thing in general. Some experimenting with the amount of force you are applying to the front and rear handles as you go into the cut  will help reduce it.

I checked mine..... the plate has some concavity in the long direction I used a really good straight edge and could not get a .5mm gauge underneath. So it is less than .5mm on mine.  The front plate has about 1/32" of side to side (rotational) wiggle.  I don't know for sure but I suspect this is the way they are supposed to be. 
Seth

Thanks Seth, correct me if im wrong but im trying to start my cut with almost all or all my force on the front plate then start shifting the weight to the rear plate once it is becoming supported by the work piece

It seems odd to me that there is any bow in the rear plate as i was always under the assumption that these should be perfectly flat.

Also the the wiggle in the front plate especially up/down (depth wise) seems like it should be there because it will affect the depth of cut in the begining by making it deeper 

i hate to pay to ship it in for service just to find out there is nothing wrong with it, and on the other hand am regretting the purchase and not all that happy with the tool      not sure what to do really

 

[NERemodeling]

I haven't tried this specific usage with my 850, but wouldn't the flap be held up by the workpiece once you get started on an operation like that?  I would think you'd only need to manually hold it up until the planer was in place and the operation started...?
[/quote]

I assume you are right, and i understand the safety thing Scot was saying but i thought it would have been a nice feature to be able to lock it out of the way so you didn't have to worry about holding the lever until you got deep enough so it supported itself  another benefit would be simplified cutter head changes. but i could easily create some kind of block to hold the lever in the leftmost position for me so i guess its really a non issue

John

 

[ScotF]

I would give Festool a call.  Mine cut with no snipe out of the Systainer so something is not right...either technique or the sole is out of whack.  I think the tool cuts beautifully and I really like it.  Might be worth sending it in to ensure it cuts properly.

Scot