Advice on purchasing a table saw and planer thicknesser

[christmas]

Hello. Could someone help me with some advice on purchasing a table saw and planer thicknesser

I am in the process of setting up a business making small garden accessories after being made redundant and could do with table saw and planer thicknesser to allow me to resize stock.

My issue is I do not have much space and only have about £1000 to spend on both tools (I am aware that this won’t go far). I have looked at second hand, but most of these machines are way too big for the space I’m presently working in

My plan is to use by machines as a bit of a stop gap to get me going before I build a bigger workshop which would allow me to upgrade these machines to something more suitable

As an example of what I have been looking at are these are these two machines the Bosch GTS 10 XC saw and the Metabo HC260C planer

Any help and tool suggestions would be very appreciated

Thank you

 

[shed9]

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear of the redundancy and good luck with the new venture.

You may want to give some more info on the type, size and volume of stock you expect to be putting through both machines and the expectations of the final machined items. The Bosch GTS 10 XC seems to get good reviews and there are a few cheap mods out there to improve on it's use. The Metabo is probably a step up from the usual lunch box planers so is not a bad option at all - however it does go back to the question of what you want to put through both machines.

Factor in the ancillaries as well, blades, PPE, etc and dust extraction.

 

[Jameshow]

Id also look at the metabo 315c

https://www.ffx.co.uk/product/Get/M...693-230V-Site-Table-Saw-With-Sliding-Carriage
Just because it has an induction motor.

So much quieter.

I have a cheap titan table saw and it drains your will to live! Ditto the titan thicknesser.

Cheers James

 

[christmas]

Morning.

Thanks for the kind comment about my redundancy.

I am making wildlife and garden accessories from recycled/reclaimed wood, at present I am make bird feeders and boxes. At present I’m not planning to make anything bigger than a hedgehog hut

When I get any raw material, I machine and glue them together into 600mm x 300mm panels. I then rip these down into the sizes that I require. Whilst making these panels both machines could be going for a couple of hours, which would only be a couple times a week.

I presently have a cheap Lidl table saw (which I have had for years) that does job (with a lot of modifications) and I have borrowed my dad’s Axminster MB9020 planer thicknesser. Both machines work and just about do the job, but any kind of accuracy is very difficult.

The Bosch table saw was one that I seen on the Axminster website that seems to get some good reviews but I open to suggestions. As far as the planer thicknesser goes, then I wanted something better than a cheap Chinese lunch box machines. So I am looking at the Metabo or Record PT260 machines, but the record is going for nearly £800 which makes it expensive compared to the Metabo. I would like to go up to the next level of machine but money and space is an issue

As far as dust extraction goes, I have a record REDE1 extractor, which works really well as long as the filter is kept clean. The plan is to upgrade this to a bigger more capable system when space allows

 

[heimlaga]

As money is short when you are laid off I suggest secondhand machines rather that spendng a lot of mony you cannot really affod to spend on too cheap machines that really will not do the job.

 

[LJM]

Recycling wood can be time consuming, which is bad enough in a hobby situation, but commercially you’d want to expedite the process as best you can; if it were me, I would spend the money on a couple of solid second hand machines.

They needn’t be huge machines.Some of the simple, older saws (Startrite, Multico etc) have quite a small footprint. £1000 will go a long way with such machines.

There’s plenty of information and assistance available on this and other sites, so it need not be a complex minefield.

Your business can grow around these machines, and you can focus on the output and crucially, sales!

 

[Spectric]

I am in the process of setting up a business making small garden accessories after being made redundant and could do with table saw and planer thicknesser to allow me to resize stock.

Sorry to hear about redundancy but there are going to be many more, good that you have kept looking forward and looking to recover and at least you live in a nice location. When I think of garden accessories I tend to think rustic, solid and not precision carpentry so do you really need a PT at this point in time? Then you can get a table saw and a mitre saw which will probably be of more use unless you already have one. Can you give more ideas on what you are looking at making.

 

[Fitzroy]

Second-hand machines can bring great value for money, so long as you are somewhat mechanically minded to avoid buying a dud, or being able to fix the few niggles they may have. Any of DeWalt DW1150, Metabo HC260, Record PT260, Scheppach HMS260 would suit and often come up on gumtree or ebay, should be able to pick one up for 200-400 depending on condition.

 

[maznaz]

https://machineatlas.com/guides
This can be quite helpful for side by side comparisons. It has new and used options.

 

[Jacob]

If you are buying both a combi might be good value. Some have morticing attachments and spindle moulders too. There's one here 240v Combination Machine *DELIVERY* Sliding table saw Planer Thicknesser | eBay I had an earlier version of this and it was fine.
Another one here LUREM Maxi 26 Plus /RECORD POWER/, Combination Woodworking Machine, 240V | eBay the same "improved " version compared to the one I bought about 1986. It was very good and much better than expected for a low end machine, did loads of work and sold it on still working well.

 

[akirk]

You may find it tricky to buy a Metabo 260C - I had one on order and cancelled as stock is now not arriving until July...
I have bought a lumberjack planer thicknesser (direct from them) for c. £360 which will handle wood up to 254mm - I also have a Triton lunchbox thicknesser (as I want to have the flexibility of the two machines running separately) which is a couple of hundred - so similar total cost to the Metabo - not as good perhaps, but easy to use and we have had them successfully working for some of the wood on a big garage refurb / shed build... and they work well

 

[danst96]

Metabo mentioned above or another second hand saw like a Kity 614 might be the best shot, you really want a induction motor if you are working with the machine a lot every day if you want to retain any sanity. Perhaps for the sanity of your neighbors too if your workshop is at your house. As for a P/T, hard to say but worth just keeping an eye open rather than rushing into something if you can afford to wait, a basically new looking Jet 310 sold on here for £200 a few weeks ago so you might strike lucky. If you are in a rush, the metabo is probably the best available at that price point, loads of brands are selling essentially that same machine but as far as I have seen metabo offer it at the lowest price.

 

[ex-71]

I have the Metabo T/P and find that the changing from one mode to the other can be a real pain and time consuming. This is probably more down to me than the machine, but I find it a total faff when installing the dust extraction unit for planing (which enables microswitch), spending an inordinate amount of time getting it done. As I say probably more me than it. Other than that I find it a capable piece of kit although it can annoy the neighbours (a bit on the loud side).

 

[christmas]

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, plenty to look at. I did look at the Maxi 26 machine that Jacob suggested, looks nice, but sadly way to big for my present workspace.

I not in any rush at present so am happy to wait until the right solution comes along, I have seen that no one seems to have any P/T in stock at the moment and that they are hoping that stock will start arriving from July.

I am still thinking that the Metabo HC260 may be the best fit for what I want at present. My concerns are the switching between modes and then having to spend time re-aligning everything again when switching back. Some info from users of the machine would be really helpful.

As far as the saw goes, i’m wondering if the Axminster AC216TS or AC254TS would be a better saw than the Bosch that I was originally looking at. I’ve read that the Bosch can struggle with accuracy which hopefully the Axminster machines will be better at. I would like the AC254TS but this is £800.

Mind you I’m still keeping my eye open for a good secondhand machine, which hopefully will be easier now that lock down is lifting a bit more

 

[MARK.B.]

New stock's of machines could be further delayed due to that Big Green Machine currently blocking the Suez Canal

 

[Doug71]

Regarding table saws for about 5 years the only table saw I had was a Elektra Beckum TKHS 315 (older model of the Metabo mentioned in the third post). I bought it second hand, used it daily for ripping stock to size before planing, it cut miles of timber and never let me down.

I never see the point of the little brushed type site saws unless you are throwing it in and out of a van everyday.

 

[LJM]

How about this to get you going:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/...p_ios&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ios_social
or

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scheppach-Ts2500-Table-Saw-/333936572217?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
or

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hitachi-...-/224396115279?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

 

[RobinBHM]

Metabo HC260C planer

great machine -I bought one of those when I started out -back when it was Elektra Beckum badged

 

[johnnyb]

my advice is to buy a triton 2000. it's a wonderful machine accurate and capable and very versatile. planer thicknessers are rubbish below a certain price point.
I'm a triton fan boy(at least the aussie made stuff) and the mk3 is also equally capable but the bugbears from the original design were ironed out.
don't touch a maxi 26(sorry jacob) me and a lady from this forum could not abide ours( and couldn't get our money back either)

 

[patrick k]

the metabo is a good p/t ive one and used it a lot i also have the bosch table saw again a good machine they got me started ive just kitted my workshop out with new felder machines but will be keeping the others for when im on site