Thread: Hafco T13S rollers not engaging

I suspect this machine has rubber In feed and outfeed rollers, personally am not a fan as I had a similarm machine and they started to wear very quickly.It was a horrible noisy thing and couldn't wait to get rid of it.
The rollers should be chain driven from the motor and you would need to check this is still ok.
Making damn sure your machine is unplugged from the power so you can safely examine the rollers, if you can turn them freely by hand then there is problem with the drive train.If you can't turn them then try rotaing the cutter block by hand to check they are still moving, their movement will be very slow though.
There may even be some bad wear on the rollers so check this too.
Also it may be a case of cleaning the tables as there may be too much friction, you can get some special lubricant for this, don't use silicone spray asI do!

As far as depth of cut goes, I presume you mean 0.5mm which seems reasonable for hard timbers or wide boards.

all thicknessers stick at times. a bit of candle wax rubbed over the surface helps the timber glide on thru nicely. I have never used a bench thicknesser where I didn't need to help the timber feed through. butt feed smaller boards and try to keep forwards pressure by pushing/pulling the timber through. Once the timber does get stuck, dont let it stay stuck for long (2 seconds = too long) because the feed rollers are still turning and are just being grinded away by rubbing on the surface of the timber. the more times you allow the timber to get stuck, the faster the rollers will degrade, basically dont let it get stuck under any circumstances or you will be buying a new set of rollers every month.

I haven't received a brand new hafco bench thicknesser, but check to make sure that the base plate doesn't have a layer of protective plastic adhered to it (its usually a very neat job without bubbles or anything so it can be hard to see), it should be removed as it was only there to protect the steel surface from corrosion during shipping. this plastic will increase the resistance through the machine a huge ammount.

A couple of dumb question, what is the minimum material thickness the machine is capable of handling, and are you having the problem while the material is around the starting thickness (12mm) or once it gets close to the finished thickness?

I ask this because if it is near the minimum thickness for the machine, the rollers may not exert enough pressure to feed the timber. One work around is to build up the base of the machine with something like smooth melamine sheet that is kept stationary, with the work moving across it's upper face. With say a 16mm sheet as a riser, 6mm finished on the work would be 22mm overall to the machine and well clear of any mechanical stops/limitations of the machine, and the timber should move smoothly over the melamine surface.

If you are having issues well before you get near the machines minimum thickness, are you feeding the boards in the same position, or arranging them to equalise wear on the blades and rollers?

















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Hmm I've never had an issue with my T13S and the rollers - the only thing I can think of is does the wood but any change green or got lots of sap? I know when I was chucking a whole load of fence palings through mine this cause them to slip and ending up with the black marks you say you get . .. also just read are the board all out level - as they maybe low spots were the rollers just don't grip .. .

Also the HSS blades that come in the T13S aren't that great, they go blunt pretty quickly, I know using my K01 Carbide blades I can know 1mm off wide hardwoods without an issue (although I do tend to just take the 0.5mm for the finish).