Yesterday while planing a 12 inch 8' piece of 4 quarter cherry my Delta 15" 10yr old planer quit being able to advance the piece. i have completely taken it down and recallibrated all things and now discover that the gear drive has ceased to turn the infeed roller. since taking apart the gear box is a rather large dirty job I am looking for someone who has run into this before and could suggest an easier, I hope, plan of action.
Mike Curtin, Southport NC
just read the rest sorry wrong place
Likely one of these causes:
(1) the gear shift lever is in between speeds- make sure it is all the way in or all the way out (only shift when the machine is running). I hope this is all that is wrong.
(2) gear box problems
a. most everything in the outer (dry) gear box is chains and sprockets- though not likely, you may have a broken chain- a member here had that problem. It is a relatively easy fix.
b. As Mike says, it could be a sprocket set screw. An even easier fix.
c. While there are other things that can go wrong, there is a relatively small, weak, pinion drive gear, part of the poorly designed feed speed selector mechanism, in the inner, oil-filled gear box that can get eaten up if you don't change speeds properly- you should only chain speeds (push or pull the lever) when the motor is running and NOT under load (not planing a board). Make sure the level position is full in or full out. The pinion gear could be stripped, broken, split, etc. and no longer working- if so the feed roller will not turn. It is a relatively inexpensive part, but . . . .
(2)c. requires draining and taking the wet gear box apart, a messy and fairly difficult procedure if you are not mechanically inclined. For detailed instructions and good pics how to disassemble the gear box on all these generic* 4 poster, 15" planers, go to the instructions for i
nstalling a Byrd Shelix on the Byrd site. *Motor on top (Delta)/motor on bottom (others)- most use the same gear box.