Hardness: 85 Hrc Rockwell hardness, A scale. We offer these Blades in HSS as well! Please click here to order HSS Knives instead! For more information on these Knife Setter Gages, please click here! If you experience any difficulties with the use of this website or feel uncomfortable ordering online, please call us toll-free at to place your order over the phone! It is easy to read, but it can be inadvertently moved, so if I find myself needing more precision in calibrating thickness of cut I will probably add the digital readout at some point.
Crank handle can sometimes bump dust hood. Once I got the hang of it I was able to minimize this from happening much, but it feels like a minor design oversight. Variable Feed Rate. One of the differentiating characteristics of this machine is the fully variable feed rate with a standard machine configuration this is FPM , which is powered by a dedicated feed motor and switch. This is critical for using the same machine to perform all of the functions that the offers, as each of these functions can be optimized at a different feed rate, and further refinement can be performed within each function based upon wood species, figure, character, etc.
The machine shipped with the standard 3-knife cutterhead so I tested that configuration first. Not only did it remove the material, but the motor barely indicated any load, and the sound level was only modest whereas I had anticipated scaring the entire neighborhood with such an aggressive cut.
The little snipe that remains can be easily removed with a random orbital sander for finished projects, and when using it for surfacing rough planks I normally cut a bit from each end anyway so it becomes a moot point.
Spiral Cutterhead. Since this will likely be my most commonly used accessory on the Woodmaster, I installed it next. The spiral cutterhead is a true helical design, where the blades are set at an angle to the work piece so that they are actually taking a skew cut as a blade passes through the wood, similar to holding a hand plane at an angle to shear the material at a more gentle angle.
This design is ideal for planing figured stock, and any other material that might be prone to tearout with a traditional cutterhead. The process of swapping out the traditional cutterhead for the spiral design was straightforward, and I found the manual to be a great ally. Once the cutterhead was set up, I fed the same maple plank through and it left an amazing surface quality.
Figured Lumber. Spiral cutterheads are known for putting a great surface on figured lumber while traditional cutterheads can tend to produce tearout on these materials. I planed quartersawn oak, curly cherry, birdseye maple and curly birch, and the spiral cutterhead performed flawlessly in all cases.
To make it a fair test, I ran the same boards through with the standard cutterhead installed and although I did notice a small amount of tearout on a couple of the figured pieces when using the standard cutterhead, the results were, surprisingly, pretty similar. I believe this a testament to a high quality standard planer head and precision ground blades on the machine, along with infinite variable speed rate that allowed me to slow the feed down to improve the surface quality.
Sound Levels. The with the standard cutterhead planed the same board while producing about 92 decibels, which is a dramatic improvement. With the spiral cutterhead it ran at about 82 decibals, and it was easy to have a conversation with the planer running. With my dust collector running I can barely hear the planer as it operates. The only downside that I found with the planing functionality is that the feed rate maximum 16 fpm with a standard configuration is a bit slower than other planers in its class, which can generally feed in the fpm range.
I suspect that this limitation is due to the multi-purpose nature of the machine, where the other functions require lower maximum feed rates. Also, because it allows such a deep cut into the wood, it will make short work of any planing that I need to do in my shop. Given the choice between higher speed and true variable speed control, I prefer to have the ability to slow the feed rate down to deliver a better surface quality on figured lumber or glued up panels.
For me, finish quality is more important than raw throughput. Next Time. In the next segment of this article I will look at the additional capabilities of the Woodmaster , including molding, gang ripping, and drum sanding.
I will also share some observations about dust collection. Read part two here. Woodmaster Tools, Inc. Click here to cancel reply. I recently built myself a 30 x 46 shop. Half of it is set up for woodworking. We built a home with a 1, square foot work area and we spend our winters doing woodworking.
We build all kinds of things. Eric Flansburg works full time but is starting a woodworking business he can jump into when he retires years from now.
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