Is it possible to adjust the blade or rear sole plate on the 850 so that the blade is even with the sole plate rather than below it? The blade is not only lower, but it's lower on one side than the other. Very surprised that Festool shipped it like this.
Adjust HL850 Planer
- Thread starter sgt_rjp
- Start date
Michael Kellough
Member
Tim Raleigh said:
What is there to "set up" besides slipping the blade in the groove in the head and tightening the screws?
As far as I can tell this tool was deigned to be "perfect". As in, there is no provision for adjustment.
And it's pretty darn good until the outfeed sole wears. Which, since it's just cast aluminum takes very little time.
With every use the oxide layer is scraped off the sole and a new layer is formed. Then it gets scraped off with the next use and so on until the blade protrudes beyond the outfeed sole. At that point you'll get snipe at the end of each cut and long cuts will be convex.
Given how well thought-out the tool is overall I'm astonished that the designers failed to allow for wear of the sole. Maybe it was originally meant to be anodized or covered with some other more durable material.
Loren Woirhaye
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- Oct 3, 2007
- Messages
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To diagnose a little more, invert the planer and rotate the head so no blade is sticking out, then check the head parallelism with straightedge. Because the head is cantilevered out I suppose the shaft it's mounted on could be bent if the planer were dropped in the wrong way. If the head appears to be installed crooked, then it's not a blade problem. The head could be installed incorrectly or the problem could be in the planer itself.
Quote from Michael Kellough>>>And it's pretty darn good until the outfeed sole wears. Which, since it's just cast aluminum takes very little time.
With every use the oxide layer is scraped off the sole and a new layer is formed. Then it gets scraped off with the next use and so on until the blade protrudes beyond the outfeed sole. At that point you'll get snipe at the end of each cut and long cuts will be convex.
Given how well thought-out the tool is overall I'm astonished that the designers failed to allow for wear of the sole. Maybe it was originally meant to be anodized or covered with some other more durable material.
With every use the oxide layer is scraped off the sole and a new layer is formed. Then it gets scraped off with the next use and so on until the blade protrudes beyond the outfeed sole. At that point you'll get snipe at the end of each cut and long cuts will be convex.
Given how well thought-out the tool is overall I'm astonished that the designers failed to allow for wear of the sole. Maybe it was originally meant to be anodized or covered with some other more durable material.
I checked a little closer and the blade and rear plate are even, it's the front plate the isn't even left to right. With the straight edge across the entire rear plate to negate the 'convexness' of the rear plate, there is .88mm clearance between the barrel part if the blade. It that's the correct clearance, maybe it's the blade itself that is out of spec.
Loren Woirhaye
Member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2007
- Messages
- 124
If the front plate, which is adjustable for height, is not even it's probably something simple like being seated in there wrong. It should not be difficult to figure out how to seat it correctly I think, though you'll have to partially disassemble the planer to check out the situation. Handheld planers typically have a sort of ramp arrangement to adjust the front shoe depth, like jointer tables.
Heard from support first thing this morning: try to re-seat the blade in the drum. If that doesn't work, send it in for repair. Will try that tonight, although visually it looked like it was fully seated. I had great hopes for this thing. I already bought the bench unit and angle stop.
For me the bench and angle fence made all the difference.
When i first bought the 850, i only used it for flattening small logs (fireplace wood) on one side so I could square the other three sides with the bandsaw, or BS and TS 55. It sat around getting lazy until I brought home that bench frame and fence. The 850 almost never comes out of the frame until I need to flatten another piece of fire wood. In the meantime, I use it for straightening (planing) rough edges if it is quicker than setting up the TS. I bevel edges with ease. Make picture frames with tapered and/or grooved faces. Rabbeted edges. Haven't figured how to do dado's yet [unsure].
Once you solve your original problem, you will not regret your purchase of frame and fence.
Tinker
When i first bought the 850, i only used it for flattening small logs (fireplace wood) on one side so I could square the other three sides with the bandsaw, or BS and TS 55. It sat around getting lazy until I brought home that bench frame and fence. The 850 almost never comes out of the frame until I need to flatten another piece of fire wood. In the meantime, I use it for straightening (planing) rough edges if it is quicker than setting up the TS. I bevel edges with ease. Make picture frames with tapered and/or grooved faces. Rabbeted edges. Haven't figured how to do dado's yet [unsure].
Once you solve your original problem, you will not regret your purchase of frame and fence.
Tinker
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2007
- Messages
- 8,426
Yeah, sorry. You found a little glitch in the repair form on the website, which has now been corrected. [embarassed]
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2007
- Messages
- 8,426
I have so many bad AT&T customer service stories I could share. They are one of the worst in my opinion. They make it clear that you're not important to their business.
