Zero lead planer

In a planer for surfacing a wood article with a planer cutting element, an improvement comprising:

• a pressure plate opposing said planer cutter element to capture said wood article against said planer cutter element for surfacing of said wood article;
• a slidable mounting arrangement for said pressure plate allowing movement of said pressure plate toward and away from said planer cutter element;
• a planer frame;
• and
• a biased coupling between said pressure plate and said frame whereby said pressure plate maintains a given separation from said cutter element and resists said slidable movement up to a given magnitude of force along a direction of said slidable movement.

In a planer for surfacing a wood article with a cutting element, an improvement comprising:

• a pressure plate opposing said cutter element to capture said wood article against said cutter element for surfacing of said wood article;
• a slidable mounting arrangement for said pressure plate allowing movement of said pressure plate toward and away from said cutter element;
• a planer frame;
• and
• a biased coupling between said pressure plate and said frame whereby said pressure plate maintains a given separation from said cutter element and resists said slidable movement up to a given magnitude of force along a direction of said slidable movement, said biased coupling being an air regulated coupling whereby an air pressure magnitude applied thereto establishes said given magnitude of force.

In a planer including a cutting head mounted upon a shaft defining a first axis and having a cylindric distal end and including a frame, an improved bearing housing for support of the distal end of said shaft, said bearing housing comprising:

• a bearing housing including a cylindric sleeve for receiving and rotatably supporting said distal end of said shaft, said sleeve defining a second axis, said bearing housing including a first flange;
• a first link rotatably coupled at a first end thereof to said first flange;
• a second link rotatably coupled at a first end thereof to a second end of said first link;
• a second flange fixedly attached to said planer frame, a second end of said second link being rotatably coupled to said second flange whereby said bearing housing is maintained at a given vertical position maintaining said first and second axes in a horizontal plane and said first and second axes may be manually aligned without manually supporting the weight of said bearing housing for sliding said sleeve on and off said cylindric distal end of said shaft.