Delta 55-280 planer broken

[jeff...]

Planing some more Black Locust last night - heard a loud noise come from the planer and the stock stopped feeding through. Motor and cutter still turning. Spent some time and took it apart to find a broken gear laying in the bottom of the gear box cover along with a shredded plastic gear box cover.

Searched on-line and found a parts drawing at servicenet - called delta customer service and all went well. Till she told me I should have my parts in 7 ~ 10 days. Would have liked them a little sooner but at least it's covered under warranty...

These are pretty tough little planers, this is the second one I've owned. Guess black Locust might be just a little to hard for it. I'm finding that to be the case with a lot of my tools. Black Locust is about like working with a brick.

Greasy Pics:




Thanks

 

[NZAPP1]

:slap: Stop taking such a large cut :slap: Glad it covered under warranty

 

[gazzer]

Impressive! Did it seem like the locust jammed before it let go, or did is stop feeding without an indication of problem? If the latter, I would guess that the sprocket was faulty to begin with.

Good luck with the replacement - and, while your waiting for the part, resist the urge to feed by hand

-G

 

[sapwood]

Sorry about your planer woes Jeff :-?
Does black locust require ultraviolet lighting for planing?

Roger

 

[Bas]

You may want to try some softer woods.

Like hard maple. Or Ipe.

Or stop buying such wimpy equipment and steal Scott's machines

These are pretty tough little planers, this is the second one I've owned.

OK, I have to ask now....what happened to the first one?

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

It had to be a bad sprocket- I would have thought the chain would fail before a sprocket!

Bring some of that fine wood out here and maybe we can work out a deal to use the beast! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[jeff...]

It had to be a bad sprocket- I would have thought the chain would fail before a sprocket!

Bring some of that fine wood out here and maybe we can work out a deal to use the beast! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I agree with you, I think it was a defective sprocket. But little does Delta know, since I got it in September - I've probably planed more lumber than most people would under a 2 year warranty period. I know atleast 3000 BF of WO and 3500 BF of ERC and perhaps another couple thousand BF of odds and ends maple / sycamore / ash and hickory have been through it. it's had 5 sets of knife changes and they are double sided knifes I'm on the first side of my 5th set of knifes. These are tough little planers. I know the little Dewalt is the preferred, but I done wore out one of these 55-280's this is my second.

There's one thing you have to do before turning it on and that is apply a little loctight to the nut that holds the pulley on the knife head - that nut likes to come loose (it's a left hand thread) and bums up the shaft - other than that it's a tough little planer

sometime soon - I'm gonna need to plan and sand a black locust glue up approx 30" x 60", is the beast up to the challenge?

Thanks