# Commissioning a 'used' Sedgwick planer/thicknesser



## RogerS (7 Sep 2009)

I thought it might be worth documenting all the various problems and solutions to buying and commissioning one of these _on your own_ in the hope that it might help someone else out.

It was a modern MB planer/thicknesser bought on eBay. I was outbid the first time round but, as I seemed to have built up a bit of a rapport with the seller, I sent a quick note asking to have first refusal if the original purchaser pulled out. As luck would have it they did. 

First problem. Transport! The Sedgwick was located in Stirling and I'm in Worcestershire. It weighs 390kG so what are the options? Especially as collection had to be on a Saturday.

Option 1 - Hiring a van with a taillift for the weekend (the only day they could load up the Sedgwick) would be £150 plus another £150 for petrol. 

Option 2 - try a truckers forum to see if there were any return loads. Replies ranged from a p*ss-taking £900 'and I'll do it for you this weekend' to the suggestion of shiply.com and PalletForce.

Option 3 - Shiply - I received two initial bids of £400 and £300 both of which I rejected. One thing that I didn't realise was that, presumably, the other bidders can see what's already been bid as over a period of a few days the price gradually came down and down..so worth mentioning that it pays to wait. 

Option 4 - PalletForce. Meanwhile I'd received two quotes from them and the cheapest was a staggeringly low price of £75 + VAT which I took.

In discussion with the seller, we agreed that it would be better to remove the tables and to pack them separately along with the very heavy and solid fence etc. This is what he did and packaged both items on to two pallets having liberally smeared grease over all exposed metal parts..a nice touch. One hour later and both pallets were loaded and on their way.

Then Bank Holiday came and went. So did Tuesday and still no indication of delivery date - not that I was in any hurry as that was part of the deal. On Wednesday my resolve cracked and I called to be told Friday was the day.

Now we've got a stone covered parking area outside the workshop so I bought in three sheets of suttering ply to cut up and lay down as a rolling surface for the pallet truck and to act as a ramp over the door threshold of the workshop. About 30 minutes after arrival, both pallets were inside the workshop for examination.







In the forefront is the pallet with the two tables, fence, dust chute and bag of bits. Behind is the main body on its' own pallet and can you spot the deliberate error? This is how it arrived and after seeing the driver use the thicknesser rollers to swing the planer round a bit on its' pallet I was a bit concerned to see that no wood had been wedged between thicknesser table and the cutter block and feed rollers as per recommended best practice. Glad that we removed the infeed/outfeed tables. Fingers crossed that the thicknesser table will be OK.

OK - how to get 240kg+ of cast iron off its' pallet by myself. Looking at the pallet I saw that it was supported on three bearers and that if I cut through to remove one of the outermost bearers that I should be able to tilt the planer/pallet over and then walk the planer off and onto the floor. One hernia later and mission accomplished. Notice the block of wood is now officially in place.






I then checked out the second pallet and removed the infeed table which really was a struggle. It's about 1m long and extremely heavy.






On opening the bag of goodies I was delighted to find that the seller had enclosed pieces of paper telling me which bag of bolts belonged where - again a very nice touch - although not being present when it was dismantled it took a bit of head scratching to make sure that all was in order.

So here are a few more pictures of the beast.
















The fence moves on a steel bar about 2" in diameter!

The next task will be to fit the tables. I'm fairly confident that I can assemble the outfeed table by myself as I can use the thicknesser roller as a support and also perhaps use one of those screwfix roller stands - especially as the outfeed is not as long as the infeed. But the infeed does pose a problem. I will probably end up making a temporary support stand as I don't want to rely on those screwfix stands given the weight.

The other 'problem' (or not) is going to be power. Poor research on my part. It is single-phase - that's the good news - and I naively thought that it could be powered from a 16A supply. In your dreams. The steady state current load is 18A, fed from a 40A fuse and takes a staggering 87A - that's eighty-seven amps - on start up. So the whole thing is crying out for a permanent switched feed and the supply cable fixed to the floor with cleats. Only problem is my workshop consumer unit doesn't have any spare ways.   

To be continued.


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## Imperial (7 Sep 2009)

Good post Rodger, makes a change from the usual stuff and very helpful to all the members :wink: Dont you have any friends nearby who can give you a hand?


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## Blister (7 Sep 2009)

Nice machine :lol: 

If I was local I would have given you a had with it


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## Chippyjoe (7 Sep 2009)

Roger,dont know if this helps, my Hammer P/T is 4HP and planes 410mm wide. 

When I first fired it up,it kept tripping the 16amp breaker,but I had it changed for a 16 amp C rated breaker and its been fine since,dont know if that helps.

Mark.


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## OPJ (7 Sep 2009)

£75 + VAT sounds like a bargain, Roger (I'll have to bear that in mind! :wink. This will certainly be an interesting thread, well worth following - thanks for taking the time to keep us updated.


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## wizer (7 Sep 2009)

I don't envy this task at all but intrigued all the same. Refitting those tables will be quite a task. Getting them trued up and aligned properly will be 'interesting'.

Maybe hire an engine lift or hydraulic table. Hernias and Slipped Discs are not amusing.

Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing it 'commissioned'.


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## Gower (8 Sep 2009)

Roger, I don't know if your workshop has any substantial roof beams but I'm partially disabled and got fed up asking my more fit friends for a lift so spent £20 on a set of 1Ton chain blocks. Everything takes a little longer but at least I'm independent. As to your latest acquisition, the colour green says it all.
Cheers,
Jim

I've just noticed that this my 300th. post. Seeing that I've been a member since 2004 you might think I'm a pretty poor contributor compared to some but I visit the site daily and glean a great deal from the more experienced folk. I would be feel bereft if parted from my daily fix.


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## wizer (8 Sep 2009)

On the other hand Gower, some of us are just loud mouthed slap head back whingers... :lol:


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## bob321 (8 Sep 2009)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUSTINLITE-112-5- ... 286.c0.m14


 :wink: :twisted: 



*bob321*


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## Gower (8 Sep 2009)

wizer":1h5ge24l said:


> On the other hand Gower, some of us are just loud mouthed slap head back whingers... :lol:



Who on earth could you be talking about Tom? :roll: 
Jim


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## Blister (8 Sep 2009)

bob321":34k3qwhh said:


> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUSTINLITE-112-5-KVA-GENERATOR_W0QQitemZ250494172469QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_BOI_Industrial_Tools_Generators_ET?hash=item3a529dbd35&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
> 
> 
> :wink: :twisted:
> ...



OK I give up :? 

whats the connection ? :wink:


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## bob321 (8 Sep 2009)

its a bad a*s genny 



*bob321*


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## RogerS (8 Sep 2009)

Don't joke! It looks as if getting the tables fixed will be the least of my worries. Researching elsewhere I now realise that motors don't like low volts during startup 'cos it can knacker them. So with me drawing 87A on startup along my weedy little cable, the volts drop (calculated about 31V) might be outside limits. Waiting for a response from Sedgwick.  

Be bloody funny if I blew the main incomer fuse! That would really upset SWMBO.


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## chris_d (8 Sep 2009)

Hi Roger,

I can give you a hand this Friday evening or anytime Saturday if you can wait that long?

Cheers,
C


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## RogerS (8 Sep 2009)

chris_d":3acq6mel said:


> Hi Roger,
> 
> I can give you a hand this Friday evening or anytime Saturday if you can wait that long?
> 
> ...



Hi Chris

That would be great if you could spare some time on Saturday. Friday I'm off to Yandles.

Cheers

Roger


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## RogerS (11 Sep 2009)

Friday update.

I was worrying quite unnecessarily about the electrics. I took off the cover on the machine to check the connections there which was just as well ecause the neutral on the feed cable was virtually off. Also live(red) on the cable was crossed over and fed the neutral of the machine and vice versa. Tightened up all connections...quite a few took a quarter turn which just goes to show that it's worth checking every year.

Connected it up to the mains and slung a voltmeter across the line. 253v offload - that's encouraging. Press the button and it all worked perfectly. No breakers dropped out (even though B rated) and the voltage dropped to 226v which is well within the 6% spec'd by Sedgwick. So all in all I'm huffed.

Looking forward to Chris_d popping in this evening to fix the tables.


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## Steve Maskery (11 Sep 2009)

RogerS":8tdyl03u said:


> Be bloody funny if I blew the main incomer fuse! That would really upset SWMBO.



That reminds of an event during my childhood. I'd be about 9 or 10.

It was Christmas Eve, and all over the house, not a creature was stirring, except my Dad who was desperately trying to get the front room finished, just the last piece of wallpaper to go on around the light switch. Being December, the lights were on and he couldn't work in the dark, so he slit the paper, and, being very careful to keep his fingers out of the way, brushed the paper behind the switch plate.

There was an almighty Bang as wet paste kissed 240V and it didn't just blow the distribution fuse (this was before MCBs) it blew the main Elecricity Board fuse.

So some poor On-Call electric bod had to come out at midnight on Christmas Eve to get out lights back on.

Miserable pipper, he could have at least worn a Red Coat, he's have made our Christmas.

S


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## RogerS (12 Sep 2009)

And here it is all assembled. Special thanks to chris_d who braved the Friday night traffic to give me a hand with the tables.






We had a quick onceover with a level. The infeed table drops very slightly at the extreme feed end. About 1/2mm or so. No adjustment on the infeed..so if it proves to be bothersome I'll shim up the outfeed.


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## jhwbigley (12 Sep 2009)

RogerS":akviov0j said:


> We had a quick onceover with a level. The infeed table drops very slightly at the extreme feed end. About 1/2mm or so. No adjustment on the infeed..so if it proves to be bothersome I'll shim up the outfeed.




Nice 8) I finally got my Robland pt wired up and new knives fitted on friday morning. I tryed a bit of surface planing, the wood ended up a bit tapered :shock:. at first it was just that the knifes are set a little to low, but the i got the straight edge out, and the infeed table drops down a mil and a half at the fare end. lucky it looks adjustable. but that will have to wait till i'm next home in 2 weeks  

John-Henry


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## crazylilting (13 Sep 2009)

I just acquired an old one like yours. It's green though. It is a wonderful machine however mine does not have any dust hoods! Can they be gotten? I've contacted Sedwick by e-mail but haven't heard back from them and i'm getting tired of vacuuming up everything after planning. 

You got a nice machine there.


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## RogerS (13 Sep 2009)

crazylilting":3e4lm2nx said:


> I just acquired an old one like yours. It's green though. It is a wonderful machine however mine does not have any dust hoods! Can they be gotten? I've contacted Sedwick by e-mail but haven't heard back from them and i'm getting tired of vacuuming up everything after planning.
> 
> You got a nice machine there.



Try phoning them. Emails tend not to get answered.


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## jhwbigley (13 Sep 2009)

crazylilting":1d75mg2b said:


> I just acquired an old one like yours. It's green though. It is a wonderful machine however mine does not have any dust hoods! Can they be gotten? I've contacted Sedwick by e-mail but haven't heard back from them and i'm getting tired of vacuuming up everything after planning.
> 
> You got a nice machine there.



why not make one out of ply or mdf? 

simples 

John-Henry


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## DaveL (13 Sep 2009)

I only have an old Perform planner thicknesser, used in thicknessing mode only after buying a Multico planner, the dust hood did not fit well so I made one:


DaveL":27nqqplm said:


> I have the Axminster Perform version of this machine and could not get the dust collection 'thingy' to fit in thicknessing mode, so I made my own from scrap bits of timber and a plastic dust collection fitting, all held in place with two small clamps.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


As John-Henry says :

simples


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