Woodmaster 718 planer infeed roller-

[ErichKeane]

I'd mentioned this before (in a thread about how projects cause projects cause projects, I ended up needing to make a steady rest and a Jarno 15 dead center to get here...), but I was finally able to start this!

Basically, my Woodmaster planer rollers are rubber, and got covered in sap at one point (then sawdust), then started slipping. I'd cleaned them, but I've still got some slipping issues. Upon taking the planer apart, I found that the rollers are in 'meh' shape, plus seem to have a little bit of a bow to them. SO, I decided to look at replacements, since these are likely ~30 years old. A rubber roller is a reasonable $75, so I considered buying two new ones.

However, I noticed that the factory has a serrated steel at a lofty $154 (https://www.woodmastertools.com/sho...18-serrated-steel-feed-roller-2/#&gid=1&pid=1). I considered buying that since I figured it would go a long way to solving my problems, but reviews showed that the serrations are perhaps a bit harsh and mark up the wood on finer cuts. Additionally $154 seemed pretty steep! PLUS, I've got a lathe! I decided I'd try a less aggressive version by just diamond knurling instead.

The 26-27" length is RIGHT at the end of my envelope. My tailstock ends up overhanging the bed by ~3/4" with this setup, but I've still got another ~14", so i figure I'm fine. The material goes a bit into the taper in the spindle head, but is big enough to not go through the spindle itself. I have a 1 9/16" spindle (and am aiming for 1 1/2"), but unfortunately I couldn't get 1 9/16" material. Here's the build!

I need to face/center drill both sides so that I can use a live-center. Since it doesn't go through spindle, out comes the new stead rest!


After that, I can put it between centers and get to work. The roller is 18 1/2" of roller in the middle that goes into some 2" long 3/4" diameter bronze bushings. Going longer than that is no problem, since it goes into space. The 'short' end is only those 2", the other end continues on into a pulley (new ones have a key, my old one doesn't, but I'll probably cut it anyway), then into space again, so the dimensions for that aren't critical either.

I start with the 'short' end. I ground some HSS in a few configs (plus used a brazed carbide cutter), and finally found something I like. I did just about 2" (measured with a ruler, so not particularly accurate, but good enough for this job). This is also my first time turning between centers! I used a Mcmaster Lathe Dog (cheapest I could find believe it or not) that hit a bolt in the faceplate:

Turned, plus a chamfer on both points. I did an aggressive one on the to-be knurled side since I'll likely be taking a bunch of material there anyway:


The inside diameter of the bushing is just about .750 on the dot, the previous part was .7493. I ended up at .7491. I consider that a win

UNFORTUNATELY, When I bought a few lathe dogs, I only picked up a 1", 1.5", and 2" version. Not very useful for gripping my new .75" diameter I quit for the night, and ordered the .5" and .75" lathe dog on mcmaster, so progress hopefully continues tomorrow!

 

[ErichKeane]

A buddy of mine came over and wanted to see how knurling works and brought some fancy camera, so he took a few hundred pictures while I worked! I ended up doing things out of order since he was over (I cut the knurl/center section before the end was ready), so you'll see that the one side is still at ~1.4" instead of the .75" that it is supposed to be at. I ended up cutting that after he left, and got it installed.


First, took ~1/4" off the total diameter to get down to a touch less than 1.5" (factory rubber is anywhere from 1.45"-1.55", so I shot for the middle):


Next, a picture he took that is unrelated, but absolutely gorgeous to me:


Then, the knurling begins (both are in-motion shots!)!






I think this is my second pass. I did 3 passes, R->L, L->R, then R->L again, I think this is the L->R pass.



And how the knurling turned out:



And finally, my photo of it installed. I didn't get any of cutting the other 'small' diameter nor the key, but here it is installed. The key cutting op went poorly (I'd forgotten to lock down my Y axis, so a bit of the 'unused' keyway to the right of the pulley is double-cut by a bunch), but is perfectly functional.



As you can see, the Right of the pulley ended up ~1" too long but it fits under the cover and I didn't want to cut it and lose my center in case I have to rework this in the future. I ran a few pieces of wood through, and it worked flawlessly! If I don't make a cut, it leaves a nice knurl pattern in the wood, but it is very shallow (which was my worry about the factory serrated version, which leaves deep lines) so it planes out as soon as the blades touch!

 

[brino]

Nice close-up shots, it is like being there........with my magnifying lamp between me and the work.

I can almost smell the cutting oil!

-brino

 

[ErichKeane]

Nice close-up shots, it is like being there........with my magnifying lamp between me and the work.

I can almost smell the cutting oil!

-brino

Hah, yeah! He did a great job with the photography. Just shows how bad I am about it. The ones where I was knurling (actually under power feed ) and it looks 'stopped' took a really bright flashlight and some sort of really fast shutter speed. A bunch of the photos I didn't post apparently had the camera trying to mess with ISO to the point it got really grainy.

I'm really excited with how the project turned out. This ended up being a giant series of projects to get myself able to make this (See my Jarno post!, I had to adapt a steady rest from a different lathe, figure out how to get a dead center, and a brief interlude making a drawbar!), so its a relief to have had just about everything work out just right! I would have loved a little better of a surface finish on the last op, and to have not screwed up the keyway, but overall a successful project!

 

[7milesup]

@ErichKeane
How has this worked out for you? Ironically, I just came into possession of a Woodmaster 718 and my infeed roller is worn out. I did a Google search about serrating a wood planer infeed roller, and this thread popped up. Sweet!
My thought process is the same as yours regarding purchasing one from Woodmaster. The serrated roller is $154 plus $23 for shipping and then tax on top of that. They also have a urethane infeed roller now, which is even more expensive.

 

[ErichKeane]

@ErichKeane
How has this worked out for you? Ironically, I just came into possession of a Woodmaster 718 and my infeed roller is worn out. I did a Google search about serrating a wood planer infeed roller, and this thread popped up. Sweet!
My thought process is the same as yours regarding purchasing one from Woodmaster. The serrated roller is $154 plus $23 for shipping and then tax on top of that. They also have a urethane infeed roller now, which is even more expensive.

It worked out fantastically! I basically went from the rubber roller slipping non-stop to one that worked perfectly for everything I threw at it! I ended up selling it a few years ago though, as I switched my shop over to full-time metal. In the end, I probably could have done a mildly harsher knurl, but the one I had was perfectly functional.

 

[7milesup]

It worked out fantastically! I basically went from the rubber roller slipping non-stop to one that worked perfectly for everything I threw at it! I ended up selling it a few years ago though, as I switched my shop over to full-time metal. In the end, I probably could have done a mildly harsher knurl, but the one I had was perfectly functional.

Awesome! Thanks for the reply. It seems that some of Woodmaster's products are very expensive so I am looking forward to making my own and saving some $$$.