15" Delta Planer Rebuild

Not sure if this is the right forum to put this but here goes. I picked up a 15" Delta planer cheap at auction last December. I new the outfeed roll had some deep grooves worn into it and the adjusting hand wheel had a lot of sloppy play in it so last January I decided to dis-mantel it and see what other problems I could find before using it.

As received after a clean up.

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The inside indicated a lot of hard use.

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One thickness adjusting nut was broken.

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And here is an indication of what caused all the problems, a good dent in the chip breaker, indicating that a piece of wood with steel in it had been fed into the planer. The second pic is the chipbreaker after straightening and cleaning.

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The reason the adjustment wheel was so sloppy was the adjustment shaft was worn where it was supported by the top bushing and the bushing had some were as well, after my parts order arrived I bored the bushing to accept a bronze bush and bored the bronze bush to accept the new shaft. My reasoning being the bronze bush will not wear the expensive adjusting shaft (screw) and the bronze bush will be easy to replace in the future.

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The next pic. is the new outfeed roll with new bushings and the old one.

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The outboard cutter head bearing was running dry (on the left) so I replaced it with a snowmachine bearing, double lip seals and rated for 10,000 RPM.

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Continued in next post.

Carlos B

Continuing with the planer rebuild, I now know were the problems are I put a parts order in and started cleaning up the castings and reassembling. Here is the base casting after a good going over with WD-40 and emery cloth, the bed rolls have been reinstalled and adjusted to specs.

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After the columns and screws are reinstalled the head is installed on the columns. Here supported on shop made gauge blocks so the screw adjustment nuts could be bolted to the head. The head is then locked in place and the planer flipped to install the cleaned and lubricated adjustment chain.

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Here the chip breaker, cutter head and dust deflector are installed.

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A new set of knives are installed.

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I then drained and flushed the gear box, refilled with extreme pressure gear oil. Checked gear backlash, very little indicating little wear. Cleaned and lubricated drive chains and reinstalled.

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Cleaned and installed the cutter head cover.

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A new 230 V start switch and extra heavy #12 cord.

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A newly painted dust exhaust hood with 5-4" reducer connected to dust collector.

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And here is the finished planer.

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Performance: My current project is a large woodworking/patternmaking workbench. I built the top in 2 pieces each 3 1/4 X 14 X 78". Each half weighed almost 100 lbs. The planer fed those huge slabs smoothly and left a nice finish. The second pic is the 2 halfs joined to make the bench top a full 28" wide.

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I'll upload the bench build when I am done.

Carlos B

Nice job of restoring, that planner should give you years of quality service

Good Morning. Just curious if the cost of parts and the unit was significantly less than a new one. It looks like an industrial machine. I'm just guessing, but a new, hobbyist level machine might be about the same cost, but, most of us that subscribe to this site look at the repair process itself as fun and worthwhile on its own.

My total cost parts and auction price was a little less than $600.00 Canadian. Not included were some parts I already had in stock cutter head bearing, new Knives and the electrics. A 15" cheap import will cost you $1500.00 C +, a Delta 15" will run you $2000.00 +. You can get a 12 or 13" portable for a similar or lower price but the work they can do is not comparable with the heavy 15" and most of them have snipe problems.

Carlos B

Thanks again. I was thinking more along the lines of a Craftsman, about $300 US.

Sounds about right, about $410 Canadian. Like all things now its a branded import portable and if you can't lock the head to the columns you will have snipe problems. The DeWalt portable is one of the few portables where you can lock the head. But we are really comparing apples and oranges, I Have 2 Mastercraft portables they are ok for small stuff and if you don't mind cutting off the sniped end but they are pretty useless for the big stuff like my 2 workbench halves, the wood alone weighs more than those small planers.

Carlos B