Spirits to the Rescue!

Last night, I was working on the head rest for my Maloof rocker. I had jointed and ripped the piece of maple that will become the head rest. Now, all that needed to be done was to pass it thru my big industrial 15″ planner. One problem; the planner was stuck behind a huge pile of lumber and I really did not feel like moving all that mess just to plane one small board.

In the corner of my shop, my old discarded Delta 12” portable planner sat under an inch of dust. I had stopped using it a while back because I kept fighting with it to push and pull boards thru it. The problem is the rollers, they are made of rubber, and even if I kept cleaning them with a damp cloth, they never really had the bite needed. I had read somewhere a while back that if you clean the rollers with mineral spirits it should help.

So,  I pulled the Delta out of retirement and cleaned the rollers with some mineral spirits!
Hallelujah!!!
The planner pulled the board and pushed it right out very smoothly.

Cheers!