Care and feeding of my Festool Planer

[john ferri]

I've had the HL850 planer for many years now and it has seen very light use. I let it out of its cage recently and surprised by significant discoloration of the metal base of the tool (the part that planes wood). The tool is stored indoors, but used outside in my garage. Two questions follow:

1. Can a species of wood discolor the tool's metal base?

2. Is there a way to restore the original color?

Some feedback would be appreciated.

 

[woodguy7]

0000 steel wool & camellia oil.  Any pics ?

 

[ajones]

Hi

If the base discolouration bothers you it might be worth checking out the price of a new base off festool as the quickest and best,but probably most expensive way.

failing that flour grade wet and dry on a known flat surface....

a picture would be good.

 

[JeromeM]

I've had the HL850 planer for many years now and it has seen very light use. I let it out of its cage recently and surprised by significant discoloration of the metal base of the tool (the part that planes wood). The tool is stored indoors, but used outside in my garage. Two questions follow:

1. Can a species of wood discolor the tool's metal base?

If the base is steel, yes. Iron can be coloured by contact with some woods.

2. Is there a way to restore the original color?

As others have said, fine abrasives will work as the stain will not have penetrated.

 

[john ferri]

Thanks, I appreciate your responses. I'm hesitant to use even the mildest of abrasives, my guess is the sole is an aluminum alloy. I tried some polish with a cloth, but the discolored areas still feel rough when you run a finger over it--like rust only it does not look like rust.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

It is just a tool.

Put some paste wax on it and use it.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Thanks, I appreciate your responses. I'm hesitant to use even the mildest of abrasives, my guess is the sole is an aluminum alloy. I tried some polish with a cloth, but the discolored areas still feel rough when you run a finger over it--like rust only it does not look like rust.

Unlikely to have aluminum for the sole.  It's typically a stainless steel mounted to the aluminum frame.  No problem polishing up the sole plate, then putting on a coat of wax and buffing it to remove the excess.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Sorry, keep forgetting about correcting my previous post.  The HL850 does have an aluminum sole plate.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Sorry, keep forgetting about correcting my previous post.  The HL850 does have an aluminum sole plate.

Which makes it the Achilles heel of the HL850.

You probably assumed it was something harder than plain aluminum because it should be.

The sole is not even anodized. Unless it is coated with something after every use it quickly oxidizes.
Subsequent use scrapes of that oxidation to the point that the non-adjustable sole is no longer co-planer
with the cutter head.

 

[sancho57]

Like someone else said ,

Its a tool,

if it works like its supposed to I wouldnt sweat it.

 

[Dixon Peer]

Like someone else said ,

Its a tool,

if it works like its supposed to I wouldnt sweat it.

Agreed.  But a lot of posters here are Festool fanatics, which is fine.  I take good care of my tools and occasionally go over my Lie-Nielsen planes with a care kit I bought from them.  I also blow the dust off of my Festool tools before I put them back in their systainers.  One can carry these things a little too far perhaps, but what the hell.

 

[Michael Kellough]

The HL850 is a unique design.

Most portable planers are made of some kind of reinforced plastic to which all the parts are attached. The main sole on most planers is also aluminum but simply fixed with screws so it can be readily replaced if excessively worn or it can be shimmed to be co-planer to the cutter if it is only slightly worn. It would be nice if the sole was something more resistant to wear like the stationary jointers these portable machines resemble.

The HL850 takes another approach. The chassis of the machine and the main sole are a single casting to which all the other parts are attached. In the case of the HL850 the plastic parts are simply shrouds to cover the motor and guide the debris and provide safe and friendly surfaces to hold. To replace the sole is to replace most of the tool.

This design makes the HL850 very robust and surprisingly well balanced for it's form.

The problem is that the sole oxidizes so readily. Every time you take off a layer of oxidation you loose a few microns of the sole. Eventually the cutter rises above the surface of the the fixed sole (the equivalent of the jointer's outfeed table) and the tool increasingly resemble a traditional hand plane rather than a portable jointer.

You can still do good work with it in that condition (just like a hand plane) but you'll always get snipe as the tool exits the work since the cutter is high.

So, keep the sole waxed like you do on real jointers to forestall oxidation and erosion..

 

[john ferri]

I've attached some pictures here for general interest. Thanks for all the responses. The marks on the sole plate do not come off, but rubbing the sole with a mild aluminum polish turns a white sock black in a hurry.[attachimg=#]