My Delta Planer: Love Story

The second woodworking machine I ever purchased was my Delta 22-560 planer.  I got it used on craigslist for $100.  It still works and I have developed a healthy relationship with it which I feel needs to be documented.

This machine is a fairly typical bench top planer of the "lunch box" variety.  It has two 12.5" blades (or knives as they are called for some reason.)

These machines are the workhorses of many hobby woodworking shops and have become very popular due to their ease of use.  Also, even if you are a hand tool user, planing lumber to thickness can be extremely time consuming and tiring.  A planer is a good thing to have.

My experience with this particular machine has been pretty positive, so this will not be a critical look at the shortcomings of small planers.  Rather, I'm going to take some time in the next few blog entries to talk about some of the things I've done with this planer to make it as useful as possible in my small shop.

The main areas that I'll go into are - parts and maintenance, chip / dust collection, building a mobile stand, and finally, addressing the age-old blade sharpening debacle.


More to follow,
Lucas

Sectors kill Math

I had a teacher in grade 8 math who gave you an extra mark on any test if you wrote I love math anywhere on your test paper.  I usually lost a mark for writing I hate math.  It also got me detentions after school and acidic stares from my teacher.  But it was true.

And I still hate math.

The whole point of using a sector is to simplify calculations and thus reduces error.  Explaining how to use it actually takes longer than just picking one up and using it.

The basic premise is that a sector represents two sides of an isosceles triangle; that is, a triangle with two equal sides and corresponding angles.  You don't need to remember grade 8 math to get it though. 

The key is that all measurements are relative to one another along the length of your sector.  

So in this picture you see my sector set on a ruler at the 0 and 4 inch mark.  I've lined up my sector at my "6" mark.














In this picture you can see my dividers set to the "3" mark on my sector - you can't see it but my sector is still on the 0 and 4 inch mark as above.

In this photo I take my dividers and set them onto the ruler.  You can see that they span between the 1 and 2" marks - that is to say, exactly half of 4 inches.  Since I set my dividers at the "3" mark (half of 6) I got half of my layout - which was 4" on my ruler.  Again, it takes longer to type this out than to show it.


And really that's all there is to it.  I've been using a sector since I made one and find it to be amazingly accurate.  The only downside to using a sector is that you have to make one yourself.  I made mine out of scraps of oak and a very small inexpensive 2" hinge from Home Depot.  It's not the best but it works - I don't know of any manufacturer who makes a sector anymore.

So that's all you need to get away from tricky math.  Get yourself a set of dividers, make yourself a sector, and stop doing math.

Sector 7G

Last fall I spent a weekend at the Port Townsend school of woodworking and took a two day seminar on hand planes.  The main instructor was Jim Tolpin - I found his two day seminar both relaxing and invigorating all at once. 

After the course I picked up his book the New Traditional Woodworker.  I then picked up By Hand & Eye which he co-authored with George Walker.  Both books make mention of an essential hand tool called a sector.  They both describe what it does - however, neither book describes how to build one.

I finally found a blog entry on the georgewalkerdesign blog.  It's a bit tedious to find, so here is the link.

I made mine out of scrap two-foot long oak strips.  In hindsight I should have used maple which is lighter and perhaps easier to read, but oak works.  My wife had purchased these for some craft a few years ago but she never wound up using them, so that's another reason I wound up using these up.

All I did was square up the sticks to the exact same dimensions, and then I used a set of dividers to make 11 equal steps on each board.  I then used a marking knife to square the steps across the face and edges of the sticks.

I then went over the knife marks with a sharpie and numbered each line up to 11.  Yes I like Spinal Tap.  I finished up with two coats of clear shellac.

Make sure the distance from the hinge pin to
the first mark is the same as all the other divisions.

The only tricky part about designing this thing is ensuring that you account for the hinge.  Whatever the distance between your lines needs to be the same from the first line to the rear of the hinge post.  Some people say it should be the centre but in the end that doesn't matter so much.  What matters is that you don't do what I did initially and mark the first line to the front edge of your stick- that skews your measurements.

After that you just need to learn how to use it - which is actually easier than building it since it involves very little thinking or math.