Delta 12-560 Planer Incident (Pictures)

[iclark]

Take a look at the piece of poplar that your were planing.

Is there a big knot, a nail, or some foreign inclusion (piece of ceramic, musket ball, or whatever) where the planing stopped?

Your drive pulley has been sheared apart. The part that wobbles and the part that is still a snug fit to the shaft used to be all one part.

Unless there was a casting flaw in the pulley that just took a long time to propagate, that usually means that something stopped the cutterhead from turning and the aluminum pulley failed before the belt did.

Without being there to check, my guess (N.B.: WAG) is that you either hit something really hard in the board or one or both of the bearings for the cutterhead shaft seized.

There is a reasonable chance that the drive belt, the drive pulley, and the shaft bearings have also been used for automotive or home appliance (washing machine, dish washer, etc). The trick is finding either a cross-reference or someone knowledgeable enough to be the cross-reference.

The folks that sell retro-fit carbide cutter heads (Shelix, for example) might be a resource for that info and/or whether they sell a retrofit kit for you planer model. Unfortunately, I am not remembering the name of the WNer who has occasionally offered those carbide cutter heads in SnS.

For a 12-1/2" bench top planer, the price of putting it back into service might be better spent on an upgrade to a larger planer if you have room. What is the used planer availability like where you are?

It might be worth pinging your local woodworking clubs to see if one of the members is either upgrading their planer or selling their power tools.

[barryvabeach]

Bill, the video was a great help.   I agree with Iclark -  the problem you are seeing is not the likely cause of the problem, instead it is the result of a problem.  My guess is the cutter head was rotating at a few thousand RPM, and came to a full stop in under a second.  Note that before it came to a stop, the motor was turning, and the belt between the motor and the pulley  ( yes the part in question is called a pulley )  was forcing the pulley and the cutter head to rotate at a high speed while it was overcoming the force of the cutters shearing wood.  The cutter head stopped first, and as the rest of the assembly stopped in turn, the belt sheared off ( remember , the motor was going full out - then stopped on a dime ) and the pulley shattered.  The good news is that while I was afraid the wobble was a bearing had gone bad on the shaft, there does not appear to be any wobble in the bearing -  meaning that the threaded portion we see in your video does not appear to move at all.  So it is possible the pulley has just broken so that is why it wobbles.  However, I don't know enough about how it was constructed - usually they are solid so it would either stay fixed, or break in pieces,  I wonder if some internal part of the pulley had broken loose ,  which allows it to wobble.  To get it off, a pulley puller would be nice, though not even sure that would work because it may just break it up further.  If you really wanted to play with it, you can try to make your own puller.   puller  All a puller does is use two or 3 points behind the thing you want pulled, and a screw or bolt in front.  As you turn the bolt, you pull the ends of the puller towards the front.  I have made some out of wood, though metal is better.   The one I linked to is just a piece of steel, and the loose bolts are bolted into the thing that is supposed to be removed, and the center bolt applies the pressure. Here is DIY example  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AVmZH8aATa...8CyWrDHKM/   the two legs go behind the thing you want to pull, and you tighten the bolt against something that is to stay put,  in this case it is the bolt that is sticking out of the pulley.   3 legs are better in some cases to keep the pressure even, though 2 can work in many cases.


Unfortunately, as Iclark mentioned,  getting the pulley off would only be step one.  Then you would have to find out what caused the cutter head to stop.  If it got stuck on a knot, and still turns smoothly, and with out any excess noise, you could be okay.  It is possible that the sudden stop was caused by a problem in the bearings or something else, or even if it was caused by a knot, the sudden stop could have caused damage to the bearings or other parts of the machine.  If it were me, and I had time to kill or an emotional attachment to the machine,  I would put the nut back on the pulley,  and use a ratchet to try to turn the cutter head.  If it felt very tight, that would be a sign of a problem. Another option is to open it up like you were going to change the blades , and using some very thick gloves try to rotate the cutter head.  Again, if it spins very smoothly,  great. If it doesn't,  I would give it a decent burial.   Note that the motor probably also overheated when it came to an instant stop, and overheating can shorten the life of a motor, so even if the cutter head moves smoothly ,  there may not be much life left even if you fix this problem.

[Flat Lander]

Link

Check out above link.
Good Luck

[stav]

On the plus side, if the machine is toast, you can always use the cutter head to make your own jointer ala Matias Wendel.

[bpatters69]

Thank you all for the helpful replies. I am going to get a puller from HarborFreight as Stave suggested to remove the drive pulley. For $15 it is worth seeing what is happening. 

I am not sure if there was any type of knot in the Poplar. I did inspect each board but who knows, maybe I missed something. 

The cutterhead turns smoothly as far as I can tell. I depressed the locking mechanism and turned the cutterhead and I could not see any issue. I don't hear any clicking or anything that makes me think anything is grinding. The overheating engine is concerning though. I think I mentioned it earlier but the unit was very hot once I realized what was happening and turned it off.

I am open to buying a new planer. This one is 19 years old so it has lasted a decent amount of time. I know the older tools last a lot longer.

[castguy2003]

I had almost the same thing happen to mine. Of course I had abused it for years, planing down 1 x 12 x 8' #3 pine boards for a martial arts school. I found an almost new used machine through this forum and it has performed well ever since. (BTW) I no longer make karate boards.

[stav]

I would guess a lot of the heat was generated by the belt rubbing on the stationary pulley and on the cover.  The motor probably got stressed too, but it might still be ok.  Try it with no load and see what it sounds like.  I had a Ryobi where the motor sounded terrible but it still worked for a very long time.  It was still working when I sold it (very cheaply).

[bpatters69]

managed to get the knob pulley off. I bought a $20 kit from Harbor Freight.

Here is a picture of the shaft which is where the knob pulley was attached:



Now for the telling pictures. I am afraid many of you were right. It appears the knob pulley still has the sheared\broken piece still attached.

The red arrow points to what I think is the sheared\broken piece.

Front


Back

Some of what you see on the sheared piece is dirt but it looks sheared\torn to me. It is also rough to the touch.

[castguy2003]

That pulley and shaft are toast unless you can find someone to spray weld the shaft and regrind it.

[Bit_Fiddler]

That pulley and shaft are toast unless you can find someone to spray weld the shaft and regrind it.

Agree with this...  I used to have the same planer and something very similar happened - results looked the same.   That pulley is burnt toast - no fixing that - it needs replacement if you decide to try to fix.   Back when you could get new parts for Delta, I tried replacing the pulley, but the shaft was damaged enough that it was obvious the repair would not last.  The new pulley still fit too loose.   Check the shaft key way and the roundness/size of the shaft since that is also in question.  A new pulley and key may go on, but the tolerances won't be what they were before this happened.  Given the forces involved, it won't last.

I took it as a sign and stepped up to a 15" planner and haven't looked back.   One of the better things I did.  That planer has given you good service, but the time has come.

Wish I had better news.
Dave