How to NOT destroy your planer rollers (and stop the slipping)
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
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"There is no sewing stuff back on after it goes through a planer" Truer words have never been spoken! And I loved the deadpan delivery too!
Are there any noted examples of planer accidents? I’ve seen some of the infamous jointer accidents, but a planer sounds unimaginable.
@@davidswanson5669A jointer is also a surface planer, so damage by either one should be similar.
No shortage of horse sense, common sense or just downright good sense in your shop Stumpy. You have a knack for hitting on things generally overlooked by the woodworking guru's out there and bring it all home in a very relatable way. Good job bro, God bless.
Well, I don't have a horse to ask. I can say that the closest my hands will ever get to being cut by a planer blade will be replacing them with the machine turned off and unplugged. There's only a handful of things I'm ever going to ask a horse about and woodworking ain't among them. Lol
😮@@martinoamello3017
What a difference it made cleaning the rollers. I was getting so frustrated not knowing how to clean them. I heard mineral spirits was the safest to use and it seems to be the ace 👍👍👍
After cleaning the rollers I waxed the main table and the two leafs, what a difference. My woods are planing properly and am glad I do not have to replace anything, much less the planer.
Now I know what to do next time besides get frustrated.
👍👍👍
I'm a relative newbie and I thought I had messed up my new planer until watching this video. Thanks for the practical advise. I enjoy your videos.
I was happy to see that Dewalt Customer Support actually posted the following reply concerning the cleaning their benchtop planers:
"For cleaning the rollers on your DEWALT planer, we recommend using mineral spirits. This helps to not only clean sap and debris, but it also restores the stickiness of the rubber on the roller, allowing it to better grip wood as it is fed through."
Thanks again for sharing your tips and experience.
Thank you. I bought my planer ex-demo which is not far from 2nd hand. It's never worked well. The giveaway was that the feed speed increased when it hit the outfeed roller. So I really needed this advice today and knew it was tucked away, back there somewhere. As for product, even the term "mineral spirits" is vague, because it's not *fully* descriptive and means different things in other countries. There's white spirit, turpentine, mineral turpentine, naptha, and stoddard and plenty more. I followed the naptha rabbithole, which we don't have here in Australia, but it led to Shellite which appears to be about the same. That really worked. Heaps of black stuff came off in the rag, but a second wipe gave no more black. So that's positive non-destruction, right? And the planer is SO much better now. I hope my comment helps your views.
Perfect timing James! I just bought a used Jet Planer and the guy said it doesn't feed like it used to. He thought he was going to have to buy new rollers. I'm going to give this a shot. It came with 2 new sets of blades to boot! Wish me luck!
Try sharpening the blades before you lay out the cash for rollers. 99% sure that's the culprit.
@@patw999 I'm going by what the seller told me That the wood just wasn't feeding through like it used to. I'm going to clean the rollers first before I do anything. He sold it to me with 2 new sets of blades so I got that going for me.
@@hotrodhog2170 The only reason I mentioned it is I had the DeWalt 13" 2 speed planer and after about a month it just would not feed right no matter how many times I cleaned the rollers. Eventually brought up the problem on LumberJocks and some one told me about dull blades causing that problem. As soon as I switched to the other side of the blades the problem went away until the blades got dull again. I purchased the Deulen sharpening jig and it kept the cheapie DeWalt blades running nice and sharp!
Luck
This video is a keeper, and DeWalt agree, here from their support site:
Please note, this process helps as well if the rollers are not pulling wood through properly.
For cleaning the rollers on your DEWALT planer, we recommend using mineral spirits. This helps to not only clean sap and debris, but it also restores the stickiness of the rubber on the roller, allowing it to better grip wood as it is fed through.
Caution* Be sure tool is unplugged and completely stopped before doing any maintenance!
Wow, my man, thank you! I thought I had a budget/junk planner and would need to suffer through sub-par results. Thanks for also highlighting preliminary and primary causes to address before sharpening the blades 👏🏼
After planing a bunch of Eastern Red Cedar, my planer stopped feeding. I followed your suggestions, using blade cleaner, but added one thing: Compressed air. "Shooting" air up into the rollers (while wearing a respirator) produced a combination of plumes of fine red sawdust and small wood chips. I believe that significantly cut down my cleaning time.
Thanks for saving me $100!! Stripped out an Allen head while changing knives, and turned into an almost complete tear down and tune up. Chuckled the rollers on the lathe and used lacquer thinner and a Mr Clean sponge. 5 minutes of cleaning. Now it's back to pulling without a less than gentle nudge.
I used some citrus solvent from Earthpaints. Worked excellent. Totally stripped the surface clean. Yes, it removed a bit of rubber but that's to be expected. I could probably clean one set of rollers a hundred times. They feel sticky again now. Ok, just ran a piece of maple with brand new blades. PERFECT feed and perfect cut! Yes!
Your videos are the best. Great information every time. Thanks !!!
Honestly the Knowledge you share with us is amazing, Thank you.
Ya, my rollers stopped pulling the wood through. Watched your video, cleaned them up, and they work great now. Thanks alot !! :)
Whenever I need Great advice I can always count on you. Thanks
To me, the planer requires more frequent attention than many other pieces of equipment in the shop. Along with placing a fresh coat of wax on the bed very frequently, I take the 'rubber eraser' and give it a quick rub on each of the pressure rollers (obviously, while the machine is turned off) nearly every time I use and clean the planer. It takes but a few extra minutes and I rarely run into a situation now where the material stalls feeding through. I'm going to try the blade cleaner (I use CMT) next time I use the machine - - Good suggestion! Thank you!
This is great information, but what can you do if you've cleaned everything and the rollers still don’t move the wood through the planer? My dad just gave me his old Delta 22-560 planer. He had disassembled it to clean everything because the feeder rollers weren’t working, but he ended up getting a new planer and passed the old one to me still in pieces. I spent a full day reassembling it, but when I tested it, the rollers still won’t feed the wood through.
Since this planer is a few decades old and Delta isn’t the company it used to be, most of the parts are discontinued and nearly impossible to find at a reasonable price. Is there a way to fix this, or am I out of luck?
Thanks for this great video!
On the Dewalt homepage they say
"For cleaning the rollers on your DEWALT planer, we recommend using mineral spirits. This helps to not only clean sap and debris, but it also restores the stickiness of the rubber on the roller, allowing it to better grip wood as it is fed through."
Seems like they want us to destroy the rollers a little earlier than the would last...
Great video! I especially like the parts about waxing the table and NOT cleaning the rollers while the machine is running!
Just watched this again James after finally buying a Ridgid planer.... great tip with the belt sander eraser!
Love your videos, definitely some of the best on UA-cam!
Thanks for what u do!!!
I'm sure glad I found your site! I thought the feed rollers were just shot. I have a Delta 12.5 inch planer, and I've had it for a long time. It still works great, except the rollers won't pull the stock through. Tried to get new rollers from Delta, but for my model, they are no longer available. I'm definitely gonna use one of your ideas to clean them!
you should be able to get those rollers resurfacdd. They remove the old material and pour a compound around the steel roller and then turn it to size, It will likely be costly unless you have a friend like did that redid my rollers years. Not sure what he used but was definitely not urethane. I just brush them down no cleaner needed. The stuff is hard enough to rsist the pitch and debris but soft eough to keep garb the wood. I am talking 25 years.
I don't know if this helps but here's what I did....first UNPLUG THE SILLY THING!!
Then I exposed the rollers as much as possible by raising the blade carriage as high as possible and then laying the planer on it's back.
I then took a piece of 220 grit sand paper and lightly went over the rollers to remove the dried dead rubber that was covered the surface of the rollers...of course this entailed intermittently activating the machine for a split second to turn the rollers to a new area.
Then I took a slight amount of 3 in 1 oil and finger rubbed it into the surface and immediately wiped it all off. This left a micro bit of residual on the rollers.
When complete I found that the rollers grabbed very well for a long time...if only my rollers weren't considered obsolete by the parts department.
There are specifically rubber cleaners in automotive stores. They’re used to clean windshield wipers and door seals.
Thank Stumpy! I'm new to woodworking and this video helped me fix my problem!!!
One thing you didn't mention which I discovered after cleaning rollers constantly is that with the new planers being made in an effort to keep prices down some use not the best steel for their blades and dull blades can be a culprit when a person encounters feed problems, not just dirty rollers. Keeping those planer blades sharp will help reduce troublesome feed problems on a planer. Just my 1¢ worth.
I spent 380 bucks on my delta planer back in 07. It has a great number of hours on it. Needed parts so I reached out to DELTA and they wanted 8 bucks per screw on the cutter head. They wanted 80 bucks for just the rollers. Since I needed all that and more...I found a good site selling OEM old stock...for cheap. Got all I needed for less than half. BUT now I am pissed, because I had no idea that was what I was seeing on the rubber rollers...now I am gonna clean them and have a spare set...thank dood!
I have been working on copier and office equipment for over 20 years, woodworking for longer, but what I have found is that Simple Green is a great cleaner for rubber rollers of any kind, either a good cloth or a piece of Scotch Bright and Simple green, will do the rubber rollers wonder, yes it is a pain to get them all the way around to clean, but it will help, and it will not melt your rollers
I work in the printing industry and I know that various chemicals can adversely affect various types of rubbers differently. Typically, when we spec out a part that will be in contact with a solvent based ink, we find out what type of rubber is being used so we can determine which chemicals it's compatible with. We don't purchase any parts unless we know the exact type of rubber that's being used.
Unfortunately, since many parts for these woodworking machines are made in China these days, the "rubber" can pretty much mean anything. Since the "rubber" being used could be an unknown blend, the machine manufacturer can't dependably recommend any particular solvent to us end users, since it may or may not react with the "rubber". I have found the Trend Tool Cleaner to work very well and I have had no problems with any rubber parts.
I like that woodmaster rollers have their own motor no need to turn on blades when cleaning.great. Video
Very helpful video Stumpy. I sure miss the intro music from the good old days. Thank you.
Lol your philosophy vid is awesome with a touch of comedy. Keep up the good work
Thanks mr. Nubbs. This really saved the day today.
I use straight Simple Green to clean the rollers. Works great and doesn't harm the rubber. Simple Green also works great to clean saw blades and router bits.
+Hardnox, writes _"I use straight Simple Green to clean the rollers."_
It's people! Simple Green is made out of people.
Fred Derf ... Soylent green...
@@fred_derf Very funny.
Hardnox, Ditto on the Simple Green. Works great overnight on pitch covered TS blades. Smells good too.
ive always used alchnol eith isopropal or nenatured. cleans pitch very good.
I use methyl hydrate and in bad situations scrub lightly with 0000 steel wool and I have been doing it for years with no apparent damage. There are many kinds of alcohol so I stick with methyl. I use it to clean the drum of my flat bed sander as well plus it dries right away. The more time any solvent has contact with the rollers the more damage it can do. Methyl evaporates within 30 seconds.
Thats two in a row that is just in time for me. Great info and timing
Gripp.
Is a tire softener for racing.
Works amazing and improves the life of the rubber.
Excellent video -- agree 100% on unplugging. I have a shelix head and shudder to imagine what that would do to a hand.
I recently used acetone on a rag to clean my rollers, and it turned out fine. I just grabbed whatever I had nearby that I knew would dissolve pitch without really thinking about it. It evaporates so quickly from the rubber that I don't think it has time to do any damage
I planed some treated lumber and after that my wood started to not move through the planer. I have a dewalt 735. I watched your video and cleaned the rollers and stainless steel tray with acetone. It was fine on the rollers. My tray has scratches in it, probably from the wood being pushed across it. Should I or could I use steel wool or wet sand paper to smooth out the tray or is there no need to Nd just wax the tray?
3:24 - a brilliant example of how to get a safety message across without overdoing it :)
Butter and dawn dish soap ! Perfect !
This was great. I used acetone on the rollers and waxed the bed. Never worked benter!
Thanks for the awesome tips liked and followed!
for rubber rollers, I use Bestine which is a rubber rejuvenating solvent. Copier techs use this for cleaning feed rollers.
Simple green works great! Mild too.
Use pure silicone rubber caulk to bond that crepe rubber abrasive cleaning block to a piece of wood about 15" long. that makes it a lot safer to clean both for rubber feed rollers and sanding belts under power.
Cleaned my planer with mineral spirits after watching this. Like new. Worked great.
NEVER USE PINE IN YOUR SHOP. Resins in pine is evil for every tool.
I have a DW735 dewalt planer and my feed rollers now don't feed at all. Trying to figure out but no success. Thanks for the tips.
Wow!!! What a collection of planes.
Thanks! I needed that
I've planed little more than pine and do a lot of it. I just cleaned my rollers for the first time and it was easy peasy. I've worn out many more blades ,but rollers? It's barely an issue for me. I guess I'm just lucky or something..
I guess one thing I've taken to doing is to only cut a quarter turn or 1/64s at a time. I don't care that I may have to run things through 63 times. I'm just not going to risk it stalling and otherwise screwing up delicate parts repeatedly..It took me a while to realize how fast blades wear out trying to cut more at once. Nope.1/64th and no more. In fact I don't turn on the machine if I think the wood will make contact the first pass through. I still lower it 1/4 turn regardless..
Informative! I'll check out the rollers on my Woodmaster tomorrow!
I've always used methyl hydrate, which works, but the blade cleaner is much more effective. Thanks!
Back in the day I was advised that cleaning printer rollers with alcohol would dry them out. Oil of wintergreen was recommended instead. Worked great and made the printer smell good too. I wonder if it would work on planer rollers too?
I don't even have a planer, I just came for the banter.
Any suggestions for removing titebond 3?
Holy crap it's like new! Thank you!
Use solvents as a last resort. A rag wetted with Simple Green wrapped around the roller for an hour or two will usually loosen it up so it can be wiped off with ease. Just be careful to not wrap the metal shaft or make sure to wipe it off and apply some metal protector to keep it from rusting. Always be careful wiping the roller in the machine, even with power off... those blades are sharp and may be closer than you think!
I made the mistake of running some wood Though that I had glue up ! Some of the glue was steel gooey! It made a mess! On my rollers ! I had to take the machine apart and CLEAN up the rollers! That was a big lesson learned!!!!!! I guess that’s how I learn even at my age !!!lol 🤪
Do you have a video on your collection of hand tools? Or on your handplanes collection?... Would be very interresting!
Thank you for this great video. I also use simple clean to clean blades. It's cheap and works well enough for me. I actually have to clean my rollers since I don't remember I ever did? :)
So, what if you made a simple board that had brushes on it... and you had that sit on the bed... and you set your planer to a level so the brushes would clean the rollers but not have anything pull?
Very timely - mine is starting to slip and I was wondering what to clean them with. Hey, Stumpy, love your stuff - tips, tricks, techniques and tools - I know these are a lot easier than build videos - I seem to watch most everything you do. However you do cost me a lot of money (example - I just order the Trend cleaning stuff and the big eraser! I am not interested in most build videos because I am not going to build 99% of what is being presented and they are not detailed enough to teach me how to do that build anyway. The new online woodworking schools are a better format for that (think Samurai Carpenter and Steve Ramsey). I will be watching for your school, if you ever decide to go that direction with some great builds.
mine has solid metal rolers.. then again its a 50 year old machine build from 8mm steel. :D
Also I can access the rolers and the cutting-head from above. It has an external motor as well, so easily replacable. :D
Love your work friend
I always try hard not to ruin the rubber when I'm soaking my roller. Thanks for the advice! ;)
Heading out to try and get a new Dewalt planer I bought new and it has never worked for me.
I have the same planer he has and you can rotate the cutterhead manually. Use the on board allen wrench. On one side of the machine is a slot with a cover that lifts up, allowing you access to the end of the cutterhead, which has a socket head bolt in the center. Take the on board tool, insert and turn. And turn and turn, Because the ratio of cutter head turns to feed roller turns is very high! 😉
Very educational, thank you!
Your shop looks interesting!
I've got the Dewalt DW734 and 735 and both times when those machines stopped feeding properly it was because the blades were dull. I would either flip/rotate the blades or replace with new and everything would go back to normal.
If you wax your bed, then flip the board over, the wax gets on the rollers... That can't be good. Also, doesn't the small amount of residual wax interfere with some finishes?
Safety first guy! I'm just like ya!!🤣
Most manufacturers won't suggest anything that could come back on them later. They don't want to be blamed when your 20 yr old rollers finally give out. On other equipment using rubber rollers I have used Isopropyl alcohol for years. Perhaps it shortened the life of some rollers but I still got years worth of daily use out of them. When it was finally time to replace them, I could never say it was because of the cleaning method used.
I say use what works - and if necessary replace the rollers in a decade or two.
Great info! Keep it coming
Thanks for sharing very good video have a blessed day
wow goooood job!!!!
This video was very helpful, even though I did mostly the exact opposite. So thank you for that!
I am a real wuss with machines and agree that safety is paramount but those rollers turn _very_ slowly as you can see from the feed rate by which they feed a workpiece through. They will not "rip" anything out of your hands ever. Neither will they pull a hand into the planer if you take the simple precaution of cranking it all the way up. Their pulling action relies on the friction generated by squeezing the workpiece down onto the trays. No squeeze, no pull.
There is also no need to remove the side panels or do a little unplugging dance either. I managed to safely clean the rollers with the planer running by taking simple precautions.
Took a narrow 1-foot strip of MDF off-cut and a narrow three-foot strip of a former cotton T-shirt. Nailed the latter to the end of the former. wound the cloth tightly on the end of the MDF stick, knotted it down even more tightly and cut off the lose ends, thus creating a giant MDF Q-tip.
Cranked the planer all the way up, had a good look at the rollers from underneath to make sure where they are and where the cutting head was. (They are 130mm ( 5 in apart per the manual.)
Sprayed the Q-tip and the roller with solvent, turned on the planer, gently pressed the tip of the Q-tip up against the infeed roller from the front, then slowly fed it all the way across from left to right and back again. The tip is more than two inches from the cutting head at all times and firmly under control.
Repeated it from the other side with the outfeed roller. I think it is a bit closer to the head but it pushes _outward_ so it is ok.
Finally, with the planer turned off, I used the Q-tip and solvent to give the trays a quick clean.
I used a product sold here in Germany as _Presto Teer- und Harz-Entferner_ ("tar and resin remover") and it worked like a charm. I think it is meant for cleaning chain saws. Took all of 15 minutes including the making of the Q-tip. Now that I have made that tool, it's just a quick wipedown that can be done in between planing jobs in next to no time.
Great video!
My shop is in my garage. I learned, early on, that the rollers in my Dewalt 735 lose their grip when the space temperature is cold enough that I have to wear a coat when working.
A friend who has WAY more experience than I stated that I will ruin my planer blades (12" PCable) if I ran glued boards thru the machine. I'm a beginner who is practicing on reclaimed wood I get from my PT job at Lowes. So will planing glued boards ruin my blades?
Glue will dull them quicker, but not so much that I wouldn't do it. Dirty wood is worse. Wire brush the surfaces of your rough reclaimed lumber first. Plywood and other sheet goods will dull them as well.
Thanks James. Don’t think I will be cleaning the planer (or anything else) when plugged in let alone turned on!
Good call.
Thanks for sharing
I clean mine with gas and a match. Good enough for Grandpa, good enough for me. He did it this way all the way up till he died in that mysterious shop fire......
My grandfather used to clean his rollers with sharpened skull shards taken from his enemies, or so he said that's what they were. I always suspected the shards were from former grandchildren who came into the shop and "touched" his tools. I did not touch his tools.
Lol
he mentions resin from pine I some green red oak a few years ago. The was a lot of it and I thought lets put this wood through my Makita 15 inch planar and it will be easier to smooth out.there was a lot of wood. everything seemed to go fine. About 2 months later I started having difficulty getting wood through the machine. Eventually a looked at the rollers. you never saw anything so nasty . they looked like they had been melted. Which is essentially wht had happened, The tanic in the oak had destroyed the rollers which were not rubber but some sort of poly. Fortunately I had a machinist friend who took the rollers. down to solid surface and literally poured a new polysurface and machined it to spec. Those rollers have been working for years although I do not do as much thicknessing as I use to. No green oak.
I use naptha.like used in the video.works great and hasnt harmed the rubber In last 4 yrs
Glycerin / glycerol is the traditional cleaner and revitaliser for rubber
Thank you!
This kind of reminds me of some reducer I had left over from painting a car door once. That stuff was the harshest solvent I ever came across. It would dissolve, loosen, or blister just about anything it came into contact with. It was great because it worked so well but one needs to exercise some common sense and use the mildest method available and not jump to using the strongest thing they can find.
My Delta Planer (Model 22-580) manual reads:
"You will need to clean the infeed and outfeed rollers (M) Fig. 40 periodically. Use soap, water, and a scotch-brite pad."
Well I'm going to use a product called rubber rejuvenator, I remember using it when I was a kid running printing presses which had rubber blankets I kinda remember a roller cleaner for the offset printing press but I think it was close to the same properties as the rubber rejuvenator. I'll let you know. BTW I just paid $50 for a quart of it.
I was thinking maybe a rubber eraser similar to those used on sanding disks and belts ? I wonder if this would be effective. EDIT: Never mind. I see you have one in the video.
As an aircraft mechanic and nurse I can’t imagine putting a rag near a rotating part of any kind much less a cutter head. I’m paranoid about anything loose on sleeves much less a rag.
I have an issue I’m not sure what it’s called. While the planer is pulling the wood through, there is a slapping noise. It makes a line across the wood all the way down the wood. Any idea what I’m encountering?
I have same issue. I've been wondering what causes that. Hopefully someone will know and reply.
DeWalt support recommends mineral spirits for the DW735 planer.
Well stumpy, Why don't you pull your blades out and clean them along with the blade holder at the same time. I do, and then wrap a towel tightly around my hand with alcohol and turn it on :) No blades to worry with and quick and easy. I call it my maintenance day. I also check the blades on my jointer the same day :) and vacuum under everything else as well. I know I'm late on this but I just watched it.
i clean mine when i do a knife change with no knives in the planer , its much safer just let her spin and use a white scotch bright they aren't abrasive so no damage