# Titan vs Sip Planer Thicknesser



## brianhabby (9 Nov 2016)

Hi everyone, 
I have been looking at small planer/thicknessers of which there is a wide range from which to choose.

Most of these small devices appear to be almost identical, the two main differences that I can find are the thickness of wood that can be thicknessed from between about 6" at 8" and the power of the motor.

The thickness of wood that can be handled is not so much of an issue but I believe the motor power could very well be.

The SIP model has a 1500 watt motor while most others have 1250 or even less. However, I have just seen the Titan from Screwfix which has a 1500 watt motor and at £149 is half the price of the SIP model at £299.

I know you tend to get what you pay for so what (if any) are the differences between these two machines? Does anyone have either of them and if so what are your recommendations?

Any and all comments and advice welcome as always.

Regards

brian


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## Petey83 (9 Nov 2016)

Both will be loud enough to wake the dead as both will be brushed motors. If you have the space and can get the extra cash is recommend going up a level to a basic induction model like the Metabo HC260.

That being said I was previously in a position where I didn't have space for anything bigger than a bench top machine and ended up with the Titan. The SIP and Titan along with numerous other clones will come from the same factory in the people's republic and are just built to varying specs for each brand. 

Of the 2 you mentioned I would say get the SIP. The fence on the Titan is utter junk as its nothing more than pressed steel that's has a lot of flex in it where as the SIP machine looks to have an aluminium box section type fence which will be better. I did pick up one of the aluminium box section fences from clahs olsen as a spare part and tried fitting it to the Titan but sadly it didn't work as fixings didn't line up and there was no sensible looking way to drill and tap new ones. 

both will do the job but will need fettling to get the best out of them.


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## curtisrider (9 Nov 2016)

I have the Titan and for the money it's great. It has been used for 30 minute sessions without any issues and it is is easy to flip from planer to thicknesser mode when needed. It is VERY loud and ideally needs a chip extractor if you haven't got one already, I have used my Henry hoover on it but it was full within a few minutes but coped well apart from that. I do push mine quite hard, and it just keeps going which you can't ask much more of for the low price. I can't compare it to the SIP but I can't imagine it's too different apart from being slightly larger.


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## SteveF (9 Nov 2016)

i have the woodstar
utter carp
noisy as hell
but i will keep it until I am desperate for a decent one

Steve


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## No skills (9 Nov 2016)

I had the Titan - it's junk. As mentioned the fence is a joke and the tables were so far out on mine I gave up and took it back for a refund.


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## RogerP (9 Nov 2016)

I'm with _Petey83_. If there any way you can afford one of the ***260 machines (there are many distributors - all much the same but different names and livery) you'll be far happier.


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## Honest John (9 Nov 2016)

I have the SIP one. I don't use it much but it does a good job when I do use it. It is very noisy and it's a machine that I limit its use to sensible times of the day! I would love one of the 260 type clones but I cannot give one the room or even justify it. The sip sits under the bench and is only brought out when required. It's bloody heavy and not realy I the portable category, at least not for me, but I just lift it (chin in, back straight etc.) straight on to a portable bench, use it and put it away. Not used a lot but brilliant when required.


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## brianhabby (10 Nov 2016)

Thanks for the replies, most helpful.

Petey83 & RogerP, I understand about the noise but a small bench top machine it has to be as I do not have room for the larger ones in my small shed/workshop. It's a pity no one makes a small machine with a quiet motor, Axminster did it with their TS200 & TS250 (I have the TS200 and it's great).

Cost is also important as I do not have a lot of spare cash to play with. 

Regarding the fence, that's something I hadn't picked up on, I wonder if the pressed steel one could be beefed up in any way.

I have a friend who is also looking for a similar machine and he was going to buy the Titan simply on price. I persuaded him to wait until I had done some research online, although I suspect he will go for the cheapest one anyway. If he does, I may wait and see what his machine is like before I take the plunge.

Incidentally, I do have access to a Metabo HC260 at the Men's Shed but can only use that on days when others are around (we have a policy in the Shed of no machine use unless at least two people are present). I want something I can use at home but with not much space, it will have to be one of the smaller machines.

regards

Brian


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## pops92 (10 Nov 2016)

I have the Titan on the grounds of how often I use it and cost. Have done a mod on the fence as shown plus handle extention shown. To enable me to use the nilfisk wet and dry I have I fitted a wood plug with 35mm hole,works brilliant.
I reset the blades just level with the outfeed table and it works great. Did have a problem with snipe till I redid the blades .
Bought when it was on price reduction so for my needs it's great.


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## brianhabby (10 Nov 2016)

Thanks pops92,

Interesting mod on the dust port, as long as you can suck the stuff away from the machine I don't suppose it matters how you do it.

I have been looking at the issue with the fence on the Titan as that seems to be the main bugbear with this machine and the only significant difference between the Titan & SIP. I know the SIP can thickness a thicker piece of wood (8" as opposed to the 6" of the Titan) but I doubt that will ever be an issue for me. 

I found a couple of YouTube videos showing a new shop made fence that seems to work quite well:

Marius Hornberger

Cosmas

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (10 Nov 2016)

Thinking about the noise that these machines make, does anyone know if it's possible to fit a quiet one?

regards

Brian


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## Bodgers (10 Nov 2016)

brianhabby":i5mvsmwp said:


> Hi everyone,
> I have been looking at small planer/thicknessers of which there is a wide range from which to choose.
> 
> Most of these small devices appear to be almost identical, the two main differences that I can find are the thickness of wood that can be thicknessed from between about 6" at 8" and the power of the motor.



I have the Titan. It is a better planer/thicknesser than no planer/thicknesser. That's about all that can be said about it. Most of the others in the price range are just clones of the same basic design. I think the best clone I've seen (because of its fence) is the Cotech branded one from Clasohlson:

http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Cotech-Pla ... er/18-3029

They are all as noisy and as basic as each other though. I've never had much of an issue with the tables on mine though. 

I think I'll end up switching to the Metabo/Recordpower clones that weigh in at about 500/600. You get an induction motor and a half decent face with these.


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## Bodgers (10 Nov 2016)

brianhabby":2og91tpn said:


> Thinking about the noise that these machines make, does anyone know if it's possible to fit a quiet one?
> 
> regards
> 
> Brian



Anything is possible. An induction motor is going to be a lot bigger though and you would probably have to play around with the (flimsy) plastic gearing to match up feed rates and cutter rotation rates. Major surgery I'd say. 

The noise these things make is often drowned out by a decent chunk of hardwood being chewed through the machine anyway. 

You could even get a helical head machined up for it I suppose... by the time you've done that you may as well buy the Metabo.


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## chris-a (10 Nov 2016)

Would just like to vouch for the Titan, I primarily use if for thicknessing so I've no cause to complain of the fence as I don't really use it but yeah it could be better. However for thicknessing mine has been an absolute workhorse, I would say I've run thousands of feet of mainly softwood through it + a fair bit of oak and it has not faltered once, often using it for a couple of hours at a time. Obviously have gone through quite a few blades, but blade changing is actually fairly quick with the supplied jig too. 

Couple of things - I took the blade setting bolts that tighten them onto the cutter head and binned them - having had most of them round off with not too much force I replaced them with better quality ones, much better and didn't seem to throw the balance out or anything.
I didn't have an extractor at the time and it got annoying having to wind the table up and down each time as it has a killswitch type deal whereby you have to have the extractor adaptor mounted on top/underneath for the machine to actually turn on, so I pulled the side cover off and just made a little catch to sit over the mechanism to override that effectively - I'm not advising anyone to do that, but it made my life easier as I can switch between planing/thicknessing at will. Alternatively, use a drill and a flathead bit to raise/lower the table for quick changeover.

Don't take too much off in one pass and it *should* see you well, mine has so far 

I am upgrading to a Sedgwick or similar but will be keeping this for small stock.

Sorry for the essay! Chris


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## pike (11 Nov 2016)

Here are the Titan dimensions compared to my Kity 439 (induction).

808x442x464 (32kg)
960x570x430 (41kg)

To be fair, price is significantly different but I'm just talking about the space issue.

If I had to have a brush motor then I'd probably try the Titan over that SIP for the money. Having used a brush motor thicknesser I would never go back because of the noise, unless you are using it in an industrial estate.

I do like titan as a brand for simple tools (leccy chainsaw, sds drill, hot glue gun and more which I own) but I wouldn't be so sure for something which has to accurately dimension wood.


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## transatlantic (11 Nov 2016)

Is that Cotech Planer/Thicknesser one ever in stock?


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## brianhabby (11 Nov 2016)

Does anyone know if anyone will be selling/displaying the Titan one at Harrogate next week? I will be there on the Saturday and if there is any discount to be had might as well take advantage of it.

regards

Brian


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## pike (11 Nov 2016)

Titan is a screwfix brand so I doubt it.


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## brianhabby (11 Nov 2016)

pike":1h0my20b said:


> Titan is a screwfix brand so I doubt it.


Ah, okay, thanks. 

regards

Brian


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## Bodgers (11 Nov 2016)

The Titan is already crazy cheap (160 I think) Any less and I think I would really worry about what it is made out of

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## Petey83 (11 Nov 2016)

Honestly buy the sip. As mentioned I had the Titan and I tried the fence mods and it was all just a pain. Whatever you save on buying the Titan I'll be spent in time and materials putting the fence right.


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## Bodgers (12 Nov 2016)

Petey83":14pqlo27 said:


> Honestly buy the sip. As mentioned I had the Titan and I tried the fence mods and it was all just a pain. Whatever you save on buying the Titan I'll be spent in time and materials putting the fence right.


Is there much of a difference, save the fence? 

Sent from my MI 3W using Tapatalk


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## Paul_E (12 Nov 2016)

Hi
I've had the Titan for about a year. The beds are reasonably flat (taper down about 10 thou in the last inch before the cutter on both beds but that may be intentional) although I know others have had problems. It makes a lot of noise but I tend to use it for very short periods intermittently. I couldn't grt it to plane square until I set both blades flat to the bed using a gauge and added a piece of 2X4 to the fence, now it works perfectly but I have to remove the fence to use as a thicknesser. For the price I can't complain, but obviously it not a high quality product. About the only spares I can find are blades, although I haven't needed anything else yet. Screwfix are great inside the warranty but I doubt there is any support after a year.
Paul


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## brianhabby (24 Nov 2016)

Well, having read plenty online (not just this forum) I finally went for the Titan as the only real difference between it and the SIP is the fence and I am sure I can sort that out without too much bother. Screwfix swung it a bit by sending me a £15.00 off voucher which brought the price down to £135.00. So with two years warranty that really can't be all that bad. 

I only got it today so haven't tried it in anger yet although I did run up the motor and it wasn't as loud as I thought it was going to be. Granted, ear defenders are needed but it's quite tolerable and I won't be using it every day anyway.

I have a space under the bench where it will live, just have to find space for the stuff that's there now. 

Incidentally, I mentioned that I have a friend who was think of buying one and he was well peed off when he heard that I had the voucher as he didn't get one. Screwfix said it was based on area but he only lives a few miles from me so wasn't impressed with that answer. I haven't seen him since he got it but no doubt will hear all about it at the turning club tonight.

I'll let you know how I get on when I've used it a bit.

regards

Brian


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## transatlantic (24 Nov 2016)

brianhabby":acpqhg75 said:


> Well, having read plenty online (not just this forum) I finally went for the Titan as the only real difference between it and the SIP is the fence and I am sure I can sort that out without too much bother. Screwfix swung it a bit by sending me a £15.00 off voucher which brought the price down to £135.00. So with two years warranty that really can't be all that bad.
> 
> I only got it today so haven't tried it in anger yet although I did run up the motor and it wasn't as loud as I thought it was going to be. Granted, ear defenders are needed but it's quite tolerable and I won't be using it every day anyway.
> 
> ...



I'd be interested to know what you can do if the beds aren't level? From what I have read, there is nothing you can correct for it, which I find a little odd. Especially as the the charnwood ones (which look very similar) do have something you can tweak (or so I'm told by the charnwood engineer, not actually bought one yet)


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## brianhabby (24 Nov 2016)

transatlantic":1w4s8fh3 said:


> I'd be interested to know what you can do if the beds aren't level? From what I have read, there is nothing you can correct for it, which I find a little odd. Especially as the the charnwood ones (which look very similar) do have something you can tweak (or so I'm told by the charnwood engineer, not actually bought one yet)



I'll let you know when I have had a chance to check it out more. If there is something wrong that's not adjustable or that I can't fix I will get Screwfix to replace it.

regards

Brian


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## transatlantic (24 Nov 2016)

brianhabby":1x3z2h4o said:


> transatlantic":1x3z2h4o said:
> 
> 
> > I'd be interested to know what you can do if the beds aren't level? From what I have read, there is nothing you can correct for it, which I find a little odd. Especially as the the charnwood ones (which look very similar) do have something you can tweak (or so I'm told by the charnwood engineer, not actually bought one yet)
> ...



Thanks. It would be good to know, because even if it is parallel to begin with, that may not be true down the road, so an adjustment seems essential?


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## transatlantic (1 Dec 2016)

transatlantic":2y63msy2 said:


> brianhabby":2y63msy2 said:
> 
> 
> > transatlantic":2y63msy2 said:
> ...



Did you get a chance to experiment?


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## DiscoStu (1 Dec 2016)

I have scheppach version and it's ok. Noisy but ok. You have to take it fairly slowly and you get a bit of snipe but for the cash it's reasonable and definitely better than no P/T. 


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## transatlantic (1 Dec 2016)

DiscoStu":2wasmx6z said:


> I have scheppach version and it's ok. Noisy but ok. You have to take it fairly slowly and you get a bit of snipe but for the cash it's reasonable and definitely better than no P/T.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



How do you adjust the beds for parallel?


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## Bodgers (1 Dec 2016)

transatlantic":2in3nzbx said:


> DiscoStu":2in3nzbx said:
> 
> 
> > I have scheppach version and it's ok. Noisy but ok. You have to take it fairly slowly and you get a bit of snipe but for the cash it's reasonable and definitely better than no P/T.
> ...



If you want adjustability these sub 300 screamers are not for you. If you think you'll be at the machine with a dial indicator on the beds you need to pony up at least 500 and get the Metabo (or clones) that have a nice induction motor and more adjustablity.

No adjustability on the outfeed table on mine, and the adjustment on the infeed is provided by the depth of cut wheel plus an occasional sharp bang with the fist to whatever side of the table might be a little high. This is not a high precision tool, but it basically does the job.


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## Claymore (1 Dec 2016)

I have an Erbaur version of the same P/T and it works great BUT yes its noisy but I live out in the wilds with no neighbours for miles plus I can wear ear defenders so that's no problem, I don't make furniture etc and just use it for thicknessing wood for my Intarsias. I recently let a guy from a local village use it after his Makita that cost nearly 4 times as much as mine ground to a halt and he was surprised how well it worked but still had to say its not a proper one lol wait until he wants to borrow it again 
the fence is flimsy but can be sorted or even replaced (the guy on Youtube does a good mod for these type of P/T)
For the money I paid for it i'd say it was a bargain

Brian


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## brianhabby (2 Dec 2016)

transatlantic":2g5weypl said:


> Did you get a chance to experiment?


Sorry, I did have a look but forgort to get back on the forum, just been so busy.

As others have said, there does not seem to be any adjustment for parallel on the tables although they appear to be good at the moment. Even without the adjustment, I still think it is good value. I don't have either the space or the money for a 260 anyway.

regards

Brian


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