Thread: Tanner 12”thicknesser

Originally Posted by BLTasker

I’ve just bought myself an old tanner thicknesser...

Me too. Tanner 12" Thicknesser.

From what I can tell, Tanner produced two different versions of this thicknesser. The older one is 12¼” x 4" (which is the one you've got - I think) while the newer one is 12¼” x 6" (mine).

I found instructions for the newer one on here somewhere - and it has instructions for setting up the knives, rollers, pressure bars, etc. I'm not sure if the older model is set up the same.

Cheers, Vann.

I had a Tanner 12x4 for over 20 years, a later version than your one. It had a lubricated gear box and variable speed feed. The assembly of rollers, cutter head, breaker and pressure bars might be the same. I always had some trouble setting that up perfectly. Just before I sold it I looked on the web and copied some concepts from a different brand thicknesser, about relative heights of blade edge, rollers and bars. Very precise but easy to do. Worked perfectly. I lost my notes but the guy I sold it to may send me a copy. I'll post the info here if I get it. If height adjustments are off, even a tiny bit, mine would not feed right, or scavenge shavings properly.
IMG_20210523_173450_6.jpg
Looks like you have some bad corrosion. Is there any corrosion or damage on the plain bearing surfaces (shafts and bushes). If so you may need a tear down and fix it. If the bearing surfaces are tolerable, make sure everything is lubricated before any test runs. Dry bearing surfaces will damage if run

The lubrication of your version will differ from mine, so there is some guesswork here. Obviously you have a nipple each end for the cutter head bearing. A lever action gun with the right nozzle will feed that. I can't see your oil wells for the rollers, but if they are the same as mine, you see them with the side covers off. i lifted out a rubber bung and dropped in some 90Wt gear oil. I'm guessing that spur gear in the photo needs grease, unless its getting sprayed with dust. If the gear is running on a plain bearing it will need regular lubrication. I would check the motor bearings also, if they are manually oiled, they need regular drops. Before any lube anywhere, clean aggressively with air.

The panhead screws adjusting your rollers/scrapers assembly. I would not adjust them until you have the correct method. A lot of corrosion there, so I would hold the screw position and lift the lock nut, squirt some Lanocoat onto the thread. If you need to clean the internal thread properly, do that when you have the notes on height adjustments.

These ideas assume that you may be just initially trying to get it safely working. If you are doing a full tear down straight away that's another story.

I always had compressed air handy, to unblock shavings in the chute and around the cutter head. Also, the single central riser column, keep dust and shavings off of that, the gear machined on the column. Dust migrates into the gap between column and the iron housing, making height adjustments difficult. I normally ran that column dry, but you could try some wax like you may use on your machine beds, but keep the gear dry. You could try oil on the column and gear, but you have to keep it clean.

I never had dust extraction. You should. A pickup hood would be pretty easy for your one.

That "front feed roller" you point at in the first photo, it can look a bit pitted and ratty but still work ok. They can get gummed up, dust impacted into the teeth. I used to scratch it out with a short spatula.

What size motor do you have? What motor rpm and what gear reduction to the cutter head?

My Tanner 12x4 was build like a brick whatsit, and was perfect for machining the large number of beams and rafters for our house, and long runs of material. It was less good when doing a lot of short runs of very precise work. Not that it can't be precise, just that it's slow to set up.

Where are you located. I'm in Ellerslie, Auckland.
Good luck.
Gregg.
PS. A user guide with a lot of technical notes was uploaded on another thread. very hard to read. Second to last post.
Tanner 300mm Thicknesser Manual

I found the source of the settings that I used for the infeed, outfeed assembly. Take these as good beginning points, like when you start to tune your chainsaw carby. Deviations should be small, like a fraction of a mm for the chip breaker and pressure bar.

The guy in the video liked the settings for the Powermatic 209 used on his 20" Grizzly. They worked for me on the Tanner. I did experiment with lower infeed roller and tried different spring tension without getting into trouble. I'd say I still did not master the spring tension issue.
Shop Maintenance - 20" Planer Calibration - YouTube

At 1:50 there is this drawing...
powermatic 209 settings used for Tanner.jpg
It's a while since I did this, but I think I used some machined blocks of wood sitting on the bed for the 0.8mm difference, and just eyeballed the 0.2mm.