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I'm going to thickness some material using a Safe-T-Planer and my drill press speed is adjustable. Should I set it for slower or faster? I'm thicknessing mahogany and european spruce.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

The recommended speed is 5000 RPM if I recall. Set your drill press to its highest speed for the best results as I haven't seen a press yet that spins at 5000 RPMs.

Edit: I use mine at 2720 RPM if I recall which is the fastest speed on my drill press. Works great but certainly don't expect a glass smooth surface.

Hi I use the safety planer in a small 5 spd 40$ harbor freight drill press at 3600 rpm. MY guess higher speeds for soft wood like spruce and slower speeds for hdwd like mahogany my 2 cents ernie.

Hi I use the safety planer in a small 5 spd 40$ harbor freight drill press at 3600 rpm. MY guess higher speeds for soft wood like spruce and slower speeds for hdwd like mahogany my 2 cents ernie.

Fast, but no more than 6000 rpm. My drill press doesnt get anywhere near that fast.

Typically when surfacing woods of different hardness and grain structure you alter the depth of cut and rate of feed, not the cutter speed. This is speaking generally and not specifically to the safety planer, but a standard joiner or thickness planer have no method to vary the cutter head speed ( unless you're Amish and use air rather than electric motors) Some modern thickness planers will however provide different feed rates to provide for either finer finish off the machine or to compensate for different woods. So harder woods or those with grain structure that is prone to tear-out will need to be run through more passes at a shallower cut and a slower feed rate. If Wagner recommends 5000 RPM, than get as close to that as possible without exceeding it and follow these guidelines and all should be well.

Brian

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

What does the minimum power of your drill need to be
to run the safe-t planer without problems ? .....

Or what size of a drill press do you guys have , who use it with good results ?
THANKS