Hi,
I have an old Whitney 36" planer. The planer has a helical cutter head.
The problem that I am having is trying to feed yellow pine through it. I have planed a whole lot of wood with this planer and yellow pine seems to be the problem wood. Other woods don't seem to cause this problem. I know that a lot of it has to do with the sticky pitch in the wood. It leaves a sticky residue on the bed and it clogs up the feed roller. In the past, I have constantly stopped the machine and cleaned the pitch off with lacquer thinner and then put a coat of paste wax on and buffed it off. I have also tried cleaning the feed roller. These processes sometimes helps for a little while, but it doesn't take long for the boards to stop feeding again. After pushing and pulling the boards to no avail, we have actually used the forklift to push the boards through. I've got a potential large order coming up with some 4" x 30" x 20' yellow pine beams that a guy needs planed. I would like to take the order, but I need help in figuring out how to get my planer feeding yellow pine better than it has been doing. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Thank you in advance for any help that you may have.

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Chrome plating the rollers will help you with fewer shutdowns to clean.

I bet your dust collection is not keeping up with the planer.

Thanks, David.
Do you mean that if I have the feed roller chromed that the pitch and dust of the pine won't stick to it as much? Also, my dust collector seems to be pulling the chips and dust out fine. I've got a big torit dust collector behind my shop.
Thanks again for your help.

Larry

Maybe try one of the spray on slipricants instead of paste wax. Coat the bed and the wheels after a good cleaning and then periodically spray it on again before things start to grab.

Or raise the bed wheels on the planer. It doesn't give as nice of a finish though. But it won't be dragging on the surface of the bed.

Thank you, Leo.
I saw online where one guy was talking about a product by Wurth that is called Woodslide. From what I have seen online, it is a product from Switzerland, I think. I will check with Wurth to see if they sell it in the states. I see where raising the bed rollers might help. I guess it just might cause snipe on the end or ends of the boards.

It'll also cause a little more chatter if you raise the wheels. Just put them up enough so the wood doesn't rest on the bed. You'll have to determine if the surface quality is going to pass your standards. If it get sent through a wide belt then it won't matter.

Ok. Thanks, Leo.
Most of what I plane for folks is not sent through a sander. I will just have to see how the finish looks if I raise the rollers up some. Thanks again.

Plus I'm not to fond of putting sappy woods though a widebelt.

Is there a way to upgrade your feed rollers? That’s heavy pitchy wood. The teeth might be worn enough so adding pitch build up they might just not be biting in like they used to.

I use the lubricant waxilit 22-60 on my planer bed when boards stop feeding. Immediately fixes the problem, however I don't plane pine so I can't speak from experience regarding your specific situation. I do not have bed rollers either.

Leo, I'm not a fan of putting sappy wood through my wide belt either. It just gums the belt up so fast.

Jason, I have wondered about that. I may look into what's available. Yellow pine is the only wood that it doesn't want to feed. The feed roller is fine for all other wood. Thanks

Nacho, today I thought about Waxilit. I use it on my moulder, but have never used it on my planer. I will give it a try. I also saw online that Wurth sells a product called Woodslide. But, I called Wurth in Atlanta today and they said they don't sell it at their location. If I can locate it elsewhere, I may give it a try too. Thanks

When we run into pitchy pine we rig an airline to blow off the feed rollers. And give them a squirt of wd-40 every couple hundred feet to break up any pitch that stays.