Dewalt Planer
The "Finishing 1/Dimensioning 2" knob is on the front, left side.
Do NOT turn this knob when the machine is OFF, only when it is running.
The Stop knob is on the left side, near the front, gray, circular, about 3-4" wide. This knob is not (yet) accurate, due to the new helical carbide cutter heads. This will be fixed, eventually.
- You MUST use the dust collector, connecting the blue 4" hose to the back.
Note, when done with the machine, you MUST clean the dust collector filter, see the notes on the dust collector.
- Check the wood for metal, nails, screws, etc, before planing it.
- Insert a test piece into the front of the planer.
- Check the red arrow "Material Removal Gauge". Note, this is NOT very accurate.
- Run a test piece through, measure the results, adjust the height.
Note, at MOST you should take off 1/16" per pass, but 1/32" per pass is recommended.
Jointing, Planing and Squaring a Board
This is a tricky topic that many new woodworkers have trouble figuring out. I'm not going to try to explain this topic fully, there are lots of good articles out there, I recommend reading them. This one might be a good start:
https://www.woodmagazine.com/no-fail-routines-for-jointing-and-planing
Some background that may make the above easier to follow:
A planer does two things, it adjusts the thickness of a board and it makes two opposite sides of a board parallel to each other.
A jointer makes two adjacent sides of a board perfectly perpendicular, i.e. at 90 degrees to each other.
To square a board, i.e. make it have four sides that are all at 90 degrees to adjacent sides, you need to use both. Here's a quick example, but as I said, this is a tricky topic and I'm not going to claim to be an expert. Research it.
First joint one side of the board.
Then rotate the board and place the side you just jointed against the jointer fence, and joint the adjacent edge.
Then joint the other adjacent edges.
Then plane the side opposite of the first side you jointed.