Guineafowl21 wrote:...There’s some backlash in the adjusters so I’ve been experimenting with either starting with knives high and adjusting down, or starting low and adjusting up.
With the first method, the knives could be knocked back as they hit the wood, with the second, they can be flung outwards a little by the spinning motion...
As neither of my RB planers are up and running yet I can't speak from experience. However:
I would treat this the same as a handplane iron - adjust in the outwards direction. With the two "clams" correctly torqued down the knives shouldn't be able to move as a result of the centrifugal force of spinning. If they can there's something wrong (not torqued correctly; distorted clams due to previous overtightening*; etc.).
A lot of cutterblocks of this design (including my first RB) don't have slotted knives, in which case knives moving outward due to centrifugal forces can result in serious injury and/or damage to the machine. The "clams" alone should be tight enough to hold the knives. The adjuster slots will probably hold the knives and prevent them being thrown across the workshop at speed - but I doubt they're designed to do that.
* distorted "clams" due to overtightening was the problem with my first RB - and the reason I bought a second (incomplete) machine for parts.
I believe the correct torque to be around 90-100ft lbs? Does anyone have any better info on that?
Cheers, Vann.