Ridgid Planer Issues

[davejones]

I had my first major mishap in the shop last week while running my planer (Ridgid R4330). My knives were dull so I turned them to the other side. While doing this I found 3 bolt heads that were stripped on the knife backer bars. I eventually was able to get them out, and replaced them with some other bolts I had on hand. When I started running the machine again one of the new bolts backed out of the threads and caused the machine to jam. I blame this on myself for not using the exact OEM screws. Either the screws I used were not a very good fit in the threads (poor quality?), or I didn't torque them down the same (originals were hex heads, new screws were phillips head). Luckily, only my pride and the planer were hurt. :embaresse

So I ordered the parts needed to repair it (1 knife bar, new set of knives, and some new bolts). I received everything this week and went about reassembling it today. When I tested it out, I noticed that the sound is very different. It used to have a high pitch whine, and now has a lower pitch. Also it seems to be out of balance now. The planer never vibrated much when using it, but now does quite a bit. It is to the point where I notice the height adjustement knob moves due to the vibrations!!! I found a few complaints of this on the Ridgid forum, but this was never a problem with mine before.


So for those of you with this planer, have you experienced this issue of the knob turning due to vibration? Could this be a sign of something more serious being wrong with the planer? (i.e. cutter head not balanced any more)


TIA,
Dave

 

[McRabbet]

Dave,

You may have damaged the cutterhead bearings when you ran it with the replaced bolts causing an imbalance from one side to the other but in all likelihood the damage occurred when one of those substitute bolts backed out. According to the specifications, the R4330 makes 30,000 cuts per minute with its 3 blade cutterhead, meaning it turns at 10,000 RPM. A bolt coming out and jamming put major stress on the bearings. I don't own one (I have a DeWalt DW733), but my advice would be to replace the cutterhead bearings.

For others reading this, if you encounter a situation where the cap screws or hex bolts retaining the knives in a cutterhead won't come out because they have been over-torqued or are just totally stuck, a DeWalt service tech recommended to grind the screw/bolt head off or drill it out with a bit just slightly larger that the thread diameter. Just be carefull to avoid damage to the knife holder plate. The bolt head will be gone and when the knife holder plate is removed, the remaining studs can be backed out easily (i.e., it is almost always bolt head friction that holds them in). Always replace them with the same sized cap screw or bolt. You would be better off leaving a hole empty than putting in the wrong size, BUT you would need to leave one out of each of the three knife plates to maintain overall cutterhead balance (Note that I recommend replacing with factory parts the right way to avoid problems).