it is indeed backlash, i just didnt expect sooo much of it :/
anyone own a AXMINSTER TRADE AT260SPT?
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it is indeed backlash, i just didnt expect sooo much of it :/
TheTiddles
Established Member
It’s a worm drive, anything with a high ratio will exhibit a lot of movement on the input, if the output is small. My AW106 has about the same
Aidan
Aidan
ah i see, as long as its nothing i need to complain about its ok
, the table doesnt move when its locked in placeI've had my p/t for a while now and thought I would share a few more thoughts on it. Overall it has been great, but I did have an issue a few weeks ago which I thought might be worth sharing in case anyone has a similar problem.
The issue was a piece of wood jamming when thicknessing it. I wasn't taking a very big cut, but it really jammed. I got it out (not very easily), but then couldn't get anything to pull through. I called Axminster and they said they would arrange for an engineer to come and have a look. One thing they asked me is whether I had waxed the beds.
I had waxed the beds quite recently because my workshop is cold and rust can be a problem. However, I thought I'd try some microcrystalline wax and lo and behold it started working properly again.
It took a while to get the engineer visit arranged because of the Christmas holidays. I told them it was working but they were happy for the engineer to come anyway as I was also keen for them to have a look at the minor snipe I was getting.
Engineer came today and immediately said that the roller tension was likely to be too high. He thinks they're using stronger springs but not adjusting the settings to compensate. He said that would cause the snipe and also the jamming, because the rollers are putting too much downward pressure. Took him a few minutes to adjust and hopefully I'll now have snipe free results. He ran a piece through which looked good but I'm yet to try it in anger myself.
Top marks for Axminster's service.
The issue was a piece of wood jamming when thicknessing it. I wasn't taking a very big cut, but it really jammed. I got it out (not very easily), but then couldn't get anything to pull through. I called Axminster and they said they would arrange for an engineer to come and have a look. One thing they asked me is whether I had waxed the beds.
I had waxed the beds quite recently because my workshop is cold and rust can be a problem. However, I thought I'd try some microcrystalline wax and lo and behold it started working properly again.
It took a while to get the engineer visit arranged because of the Christmas holidays. I told them it was working but they were happy for the engineer to come anyway as I was also keen for them to have a look at the minor snipe I was getting.
Engineer came today and immediately said that the roller tension was likely to be too high. He thinks they're using stronger springs but not adjusting the settings to compensate. He said that would cause the snipe and also the jamming, because the rollers are putting too much downward pressure. Took him a few minutes to adjust and hopefully I'll now have snipe free results. He ran a piece through which looked good but I'm yet to try it in anger myself.
Top marks for Axminster's service.
starlingwood
Established Member
Hi Nick,
I've just bought one of these and I'm getting snipe from the thicknesses. I think its down to the tension. Do you know if it was just a case of unscrewing the small nut at the bottom of the spring or is it a little more work?
The short answer is that I don't know for certain because Axminster sent an engineer out and he adjusted it. Unfortunately I didn't see what he did because I wanted to stay out of his way (covid).
The adjustment is the 4 nuts which are in rectangular "windows" in the thicknesser part of the machine. This is one of them:
I think you just need to unwind those a bit to take some pressure off.
The alternative is to give Axminster a call. They should either send someone out to look at it for you, or talk you through the adjustment.
The signs of the pressure being too much on mine were: the first roller kicking the timber up as it grabbed it and then the timber slapping down on the bed, snipe, and (after a bit of use) a jam. It was the jam which prompted me to call Axminster and for them to send someone to adjust it.
Since then, the snipe has pretty much disappeared. I will occasionally notice some very minor snipe but I suspect that's down to the particular pice of timber I'm machining (e.g. perhaps it has a slight bow in it). It's not the norm and is not enough to cause any problems even when it does happen.
I hope you get it sorted.
The other thing I find is that the fence doesn't always stay square to the bed. I've taken to checking it quickly with a square and adjusting it if need be (which is easy enough to do).
starlingwood
Established Member
Hi Nick,
Thank you. I watched a couple of videos (I think the Woodgrafter) last night and I realised I did not locking down the height adjustment wheel. I will give that a try first to see if it rectifies it.
That didn't help me unfortunately.
What happens when you feed a piece of wood in to the thicknesser? Does it kick the back up and then slap it down? Mine did that before adjusting the roller pressure. Now it just goes in very smoothly.
I can't see any harm in taking a bit of tension off the rollers to see if that helps. It shouldn't be hard to make an equal adjustment on each of the four nuts and assess the effect.
starlingwood
Established Member
Nick, I've just tried it now and locking it improves the snipe only marginally, its still very much there.
Yes it slaps down the timber rather than taking it softly and gracefully.
When I went to calibrate the digital readout (again as per Woodgrafter video by placing a measured thickness piece of wood) I sensed the rollers were to low as he inserted a longish piece of oak and I couldn't do that and get that blades to bite, I was about 5mm off from touching the blades so I had to use a small enough block that went in between the rollers, I found it was bang on. I will speak to Axi later and see if releasing those nuts will do the trick. Nice and quiet though isn't it?
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It is indeed very quiet. I'm really pleased with mine.
The engineer from Axminster told me that he suspects they have changed the springs in the manufacturing process but haven't allowed for that in setting the spring tension nuts.
If it's slapping the wood down then I'm almost certain the tension is too high and that reducing it will make the operation much smoother and solve your sniping problem too.
The engineer from Axminster told me that he suspects they have changed the springs in the manufacturing process but haven't allowed for that in setting the spring tension nuts.
If it's slapping the wood down then I'm almost certain the tension is too high and that reducing it will make the operation much smoother and solve your sniping problem too.
I've just purchased the AT260PT (linear rather than spiral cutters) and religiously followed Andy's videos to set it up. Over the past few days I've been using it for the first time and, to be honest, for the first time with any planer/thicknesser.
I've also just joined the forum and its excellent to see posts on here and, especially, today, with the 260.
I hooked mine up to my Axminster ADE1200. Ordinarily I would add a spur to my existing 4" dust extraction system but, with the 260, I decided to buy a 2m flexible pipe and cuffs and connect it directly. Yesterday I planed and thicknessed my way through some 2 metre sections of Douglas Fir and the dust extraction ran beautifully.
I've also been planning and thicknessing some smaller lamination sections for building a bench and the machine is great to use.
I am seeing some sniping, not much to be honest. I'm also pleased with the accuracy of cut. I set the table up using Andy's suggestion and the lamination sections are coming out to within a quarter of a mm of what what I want. Given that I calibrated the table with a skinny as well as a thick piece of "calibrated" wood, I'm happy with that given that the wood thickness sits somewhere in the middle of the range.
Feeding through long sections is a bit unwieldy. I found it hard to keep a planed bit of wood, turned by 90 degrees flat against the fence quite difficult if the wood is off square prior to planning. I suspect that this is technique (or lack of). I also noticed that its hard to get that same bit of wood through the thicknesser even with rollers because, when the wood comes off the rollers, the table doesn't quite have enough support to hold it, even when locked down. I found quickly that locking the table is a good idea. I've also patted myself on the back for buying a machine with a digital thickness adjustment gauge. It's so easy to use and fantastic for gradually thicknessing the wood consistently.
I also find the exit of the chip extractor a bit of a pain as it comes out over the top of the out feed table and, if kept quite short so as to minimise friction losses in the pipe, it wants to droop over the bed and can foul wood exit.
I noticed the bump with the wood and assumed that it was part of how things worked. Today was going to be a day doing something else but I think I need to have a chat with Axminster customer services as I had planned to use the machine over the weekend and it probably makes more sense to have the machine set up properly before I do.
It's nice to be part of this group. So many forums are US based and, while that is fine, having a UK forum with UK people buying from UK sources and using UK terminology is great for people, like me, who are inexperienced in woodworking.
I've also just joined the forum and its excellent to see posts on here and, especially, today, with the 260.
I hooked mine up to my Axminster ADE1200. Ordinarily I would add a spur to my existing 4" dust extraction system but, with the 260, I decided to buy a 2m flexible pipe and cuffs and connect it directly. Yesterday I planed and thicknessed my way through some 2 metre sections of Douglas Fir and the dust extraction ran beautifully.
I've also been planning and thicknessing some smaller lamination sections for building a bench and the machine is great to use.
I am seeing some sniping, not much to be honest. I'm also pleased with the accuracy of cut. I set the table up using Andy's suggestion and the lamination sections are coming out to within a quarter of a mm of what what I want. Given that I calibrated the table with a skinny as well as a thick piece of "calibrated" wood, I'm happy with that given that the wood thickness sits somewhere in the middle of the range.
Feeding through long sections is a bit unwieldy. I found it hard to keep a planed bit of wood, turned by 90 degrees flat against the fence quite difficult if the wood is off square prior to planning. I suspect that this is technique (or lack of). I also noticed that its hard to get that same bit of wood through the thicknesser even with rollers because, when the wood comes off the rollers, the table doesn't quite have enough support to hold it, even when locked down. I found quickly that locking the table is a good idea. I've also patted myself on the back for buying a machine with a digital thickness adjustment gauge. It's so easy to use and fantastic for gradually thicknessing the wood consistently.
I also find the exit of the chip extractor a bit of a pain as it comes out over the top of the out feed table and, if kept quite short so as to minimise friction losses in the pipe, it wants to droop over the bed and can foul wood exit.
I noticed the bump with the wood and assumed that it was part of how things worked. Today was going to be a day doing something else but I think I need to have a chat with Axminster customer services as I had planned to use the machine over the weekend and it probably makes more sense to have the machine set up properly before I do.
It's nice to be part of this group. So many forums are US based and, while that is fine, having a UK forum with UK people buying from UK sources and using UK terminology is great for people, like me, who are inexperienced in woodworking.
