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How many RPM's are your drill presses? Mine has a max of 3100 RPM, but I think I read somewhere the safe-t planers is 4-6000RPM.
Any of you guys using under the recommended RPM's?

Most of press drill have a maximum around 3000... you got to get the money out to go higher. I'm pretty sure that at 4-6000 rpm you have a smooth cut, but i'm also pretty sure it could work great at 3100.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I just got one of those.
I don't know what my press speed is,
and I don't know how much runout it has, but that thing sure wanted to chuck some hard
figured walnut I was trying to thickness.
I gave up and used the bench belt sander.
Careful how you hold the wood.
Little bites, and keep the wood flat on the table.

Am sure that faster is better, but if you set your drill press on highest rpm and adjust the feed rate accordingly it will be fine.

The main thing is that the tool must be sharp just like any wood working operation.

Cheers

Kim

Here is a link to a tutorial by Robbie O'Brien in which he talks about spindle speed and use of the Safe-T-Planer:

http://www.youtube.com/user/OBrienGuita ... faLmBGKjJY

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Peter

Your spindle speed is fine, though bear in mind it isn't designed to hog off wood like a real planer.

Make sure the cutters are dead sharp. The table must be perpendicular to the spindle. This can be checked by chucking up a piece of coat hangar, such that you can rotate the spindle by hand and scribe a circle of 8 - 10" dia. on the table with the coat hangar barely touching. Anywhere it doesn't touch are low spots. And take off small amounts per pass, with narrow swipes.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I use mine a lot for tapering necks, headstocks and roughing out carved tops and backs. For each pass until I get to a light final one, I touch the edge of the safety planer disc to the top of the wood ensuring a blade isn't touching and lock the spindle. Each pass then comes out to around a 1/16" or so. You can use feeler gauges to adjust the final pass or two which will give you the best surface possible with a safety planer, at least in my experience. I used to thickness sides etc. with it before I got a thickness sander and it works well for that. As stated above, direction of feed is important to ensure it doesn't grab. My spindle speed is just over 3000 if I recall correctly.

Yes. Fast RPMs. Slow rate of feed. SMALL depth of cut. Equally important to all this: Nice, sharp cutters. Sharpen them if you have dulled them or loaded them up with burned-on surface loads of residue. Take small cuts at a time, at high speed, and feed gently. Wear protection against a grab. You should be fine. It's a great tool. But, like all other power tools, it'll hurt you if you don't take the proper precautions. Or, it'll hurt your wood if used improperly. For some ideas, see Robbie O'Brien's excellent "Luthier Tips du Jour" on thicknessing backs and sides with a Saf-T-Planer. It's on YouTube.