Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone might have a piece of advice for me before I break in to the planer and try to diagnose the issue. My depth control knob is giving a lot of resistance when returning from a full-depth to a zero cut. I also noticed the knob appears to tilt slightly when turning the depth adjustment.
The planer is a modified Makita KP0810. If anyone has some advice on diagnosing the issue I would really appreciate it.
Ohhhkaaay, from the sound of it you have dust and crud and grit and maybe a loose screw or two in the mix. I don’t have one of these but looking at the parts diagram for the thing, it’s a pretty simple task to clean it out and get at the things that need tightening so they can be tightened and the things that may be worn out, replaced.
Unlike a lot of the cheaper planers, the front shoe is a cam-operated wedge moved along an inclned plane to set depth. The cheap ones are just a plate that a screw thread moves straight up and down against a foam rubber pad. Yours is better, similar to the Skil and the Rockwell planers of yore. But it does wear. things get loose and it does get dust in there. As well, the ‘modifications’ may be screwing you here.
To start, use compressed air to try to blow out dust and such, see if that helps any. The tilting knob may indicate things are loose and moving as you forced it against resistance. Not good, in the long run. A little lubrication with the right stuff is probably overdue as well. I’ve made a graphite and wax lubricant for similar situations, dust doesn’t glom onto it, but see what the manufacturer suggests. in the shop manual for the thing .
You should know how to maintain your tools, how to fix minor stuff like this.Parts diagrams like the one referenced above are your friend in these endeavors. Maintainance and shop manuals are god. The parts diagrams tell you what goes where and what its name is, if you can find a shop manual then life is a beautiful thing. A surprising number of them are available online, if you’re patient and persistent.
And this is a fairly simple tool. You wanna see complex, try the DOHC V4 engine on a Honda ST1100 or an industrial sewing machine. Me, I stand in awe of the people who engineered those.
hope that’s of use
doc…
If this is a KP0810 that has been modified using one of my kits, please send me a PM with your email and I’ll contact you direct. Thanks - Pete