The New 15" Powermatic Planer

[gmackelburg]

A 15" Powermatic planer replaced the shop's 13" Dewalt planer last week.  Unlike that and the 20" General International planer, it has metric table elevation leadscrews, so one full turn of handwheel causes 2mm (rather than 1/16") of table movement.  

Like the 20" planer, it has a digital readout (DRO) of the distance between its Byrd Shelix cutterhead and its main table.  Unfortunately, unlike the device on the 20" planer, that Wixey WR550 will be more vulnerable to a loss of calibration because more than a brief press of the ON/OFF switch initiates re-calibration (as would battery removal).  But at least it will turn itself off automatically after a period of nonuse!   Operating instructions are attached.

Currently the planer is powered by a dedicated 20Amp 208Vac circuit through a 24Vac series connected boost transformer to provide the recommended 230Vac.  Since the manufacturer also recommends a currently unavailable 30Amp circuit, measurements were conducted to determine if that's really necessary.   The results shown in the other attachment suggest that it's not.

That attachment also suggests that, even though a 1/2 clockwise turn of the handwheel causes slightly more aggressive cuts (0.0394" vs 0.0313"), the planer should handle them nicely.  But users and teachers/students should probably be made aware of the difference, especially if they use/teach that technique.  Maybe just using the DROs instead of counting handwheel partial turns (which some seem to have trouble with anyway) would be better?

Maybe adding DROs to the drum sanders would be worthwhile?