Ridgid Planer R4330 - Blades Dull Immediately after usage

[johnnyUtah05]

Hello,

I recently purchased the R4330 and it was working great on Red Oak boards. Then I got some Hickory Flooring and started to remove the unfinished ridges on the bottom and not planing the finish off b/c I have heard that the finish can quickly dull planer blades.

After realizing that my blades were dulled after a few hickory boards, I went and bought some new blades. After 5 or more boards they were dulled again. I'm lost here... new machine, dulled blades, level infeed and outfeed..

Any insight will help. I plan to wax the bed. My thoughts are that hickory is a very hard wood and could be causing this dulling; however, a planer should definitely be able to handle hardwoods like hickory. The other thought is that the blades are crap. They cost about 30 bucks. I wonder if there is a carbide option.

Thanks for your comments.

Johnny

[BadgerDave]

My first thought is that you might be trying to take off too much in a single pass through the planer. While I don't personally own that planer, I seldom try and remove more than 1/32" per pass on mine. Maybe consider using a hand held belt sander to remove the bulk of material you want gone and then finish it off with your planer.

[drainman scott]

You probably know that the blades are double edged and can be reversed .. I have a R4331 and mostly use it for pine/hemlock . A friend of mine had some old barn beams I believe they where chestnut he wanted planed . After cleaning the dirt from them I planed about a 1/8 off each side total in small increments .. about 150' board feet and went through a set of blades both sides.

Next time I plane old beams for someone I will ask them to bring a new set of blades unless it's my mother then I will do for free .

[CWSmith]

I'm not surprised, hickory is the second hardest wood in north America!

Looking it up on Google, this is a brief description:

"Wood Properties of Hickory

It is considered an extremely durable wood, thought to be able to withstand nearly anything. On the Janka scale, hickory comes in at an impressive 1820. That's about 41% harder than the traditional Red Oak. It is the second hardest hardwood species in North America"

I would imagine that if it was old and dry-hardned, it would be like trying to plane iron,

CWS

[johnnyUtah05]

ha ok... so it seems that its the hickory hardness as well as taking off too much perhaps that is causing the dullness. Still wish there was a carbide blade option.

[johnnyUtah05]

Thanks for the replies. From what I hear it could be that I am taking too much off the top in conjunction with the hardness characteristic of the wood... I do have the depth gauge set to 1/32 +- ; however, I don't exactly trust that. That being the case, I'll stick with quarter turns. I'll also give belt sanding a try before my first pass.

Even so, after switching the blades today, I realize they are really cheap feeling. Is there an upgrade for these types of planer blades? I've seen someone swap out the blade mechanism for a helix.

Also, I have seen some users add a flat board underneath the work piece.

[Bob D.]

Yes, and yes.

Yes, you can buy carbide blades from third party sellers who make them for all planers and jointers.

Yes, you can buy a helical cutter head with carbide inserts for the RIDGID jointer.

There are multiple sources for both. Search the web and also look on YouTube to see what's involved
with making the changeover to the helical cutter.

If you search this Forum you will probably find a thread or two discussing both of these options.

[johnnyUtah05]

whoa... Shelix helical heads are $$$$.... perhaps a blade change is cheaper. Anyhow, I ran a 6 foot hickory board through the planer at +- 1/32 and the blade was significantly duller. That is the culprit here from what I have investigated thus far. Flipped the blades for some oak and walnut and everything was good. This machine (or all lunchbox machines with flat blades) perhaps don't like hickory flooring. I don't know for sure though.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Bob D.]

you get what you pay for, same as anything else. Carbide bits cutting on an angle will handle hard, tough wood much better than straight HSS knives.

There are loads of reviews on YT. Maybe not for the RIDGID planer but search on 'DeWalt DW735 shelix cutter' and you will find over 100 videos. What you read there should give you an idea of how much improved your planer will be compared to your OEM straight blades.