Axminster at260spt planer thicknesser setup HELP!!

[Rob Cheetham]

Recemtly bought the axminster planer thicknesser at260spt (spiral). The results out the box were pretty good tbh but the outfeed table when tested was not exactly parralel to the spiral cutters from front to back. I was getting about 4/5mm movement on the back and more than double on the front. Therefore I decided to follow the woodgrafters calibration video on youtube. The video is brilliant but I still managed to mess it up lol. I snapped one of the stop screws for adjusting the outfeed table level. Axminster sent one out again straight away but now because I have had to insert a new stop screw the table is even more out of wack. I just cant get my head around how and what is the best way to get the outfeed table paralel and level to the cutter block.

* Should I get the outfeed table height parallel to the spiral cutters from front to back first so I have 4/5mm movement of stock on front and back. Or should I try and get the outfeed and infeed tables coplaner first and then do the outfeed table to the spiral cutters.
* The infeed table is already set to 0mm cut and there doesnt seem to be any option to move the marker once calibrated so if i keep raising the outfeed to get the right movement on stock am I rite in saying that then I will have to raise the infeed table to be coplaner to the outfeed which will then put the cut marker off on the infeed table.

Ill link some pictures below but would just like to see peoples thoughts on this. Its a right pain in the arse of a job but will persist untill its done because I want to make sure I have the best results possible. Thanks

https://ibb.co/CzJ1xNL
https://ibb.co/DzLkY4P
https://ibb.co/WHhZLHz

 

[johnnyb]

we have the 310 version. your right it's a bit shonky! the outfeed has to be set to the cutters.. full stop. as the cutters are fixed. then the infeed set to the outfeed re co planer. none of which is at all easy tbh.
the mushroom stops and cam are extremely difficult to set. tightening the cam should not affect the position of the table with respect to tilting higher and lower when its tightened.
our outfeed works our infeed needs to be really tight to tilt the table up at the back to bring everything co planer.
it's worked fine and planed straight for about 6 months now tbh. but precision engineering it isnt but that applies to the fence as well. I love the long tall fence but the clamp and adjustment are poor. the thicknesser works really well though.

 

[johnnyb]

btw peel off the cut marker and stick it back in the correct place. one other thing be extremely careful of the cutters hitting the tables when things are all over the shop. spin the blades by hand before hitting the power button... everytime.
the cutter block and the knives can go on the skew with each other a bit but that doesnt affect the outfeed alignment but it can bring the cutters close to the tables. look from above to check the centre line of the cutters is parallel with the edge of the table.ie from above the gaps are parallel

 

[Rob Cheetham]

the mushroom stops and cam are extremely difficult to set. tightening the cam should not affect the position of the table with respect to tilting higher and lower when its tightened.

Thanks for the reply. Ill take your advice. Ill get the outfeed table parallel to the cutters/block first then do infeed table coplaner to the outfeed table. Plus make sure im not getting the blades too close to the table.

Just one question though. What do you mean by the cam. Is that the handle to raise and lower the table or is that something else? Sorry just not 100% on all the terminology with these machines as im just hobbyest really lol.

Also didnt think about just peeling of marker and re sticking in back. Thanks for that

 

[johnnyb]

the cam is on the end of the lever that locks the beds. just remember in an ideal world tightening the levers shouldnt affect the position of the table. altering the table consists of altering the hinge side first then altering the mushrooms. it's a difficult time consuming job that axminster should be made to do everytime they send one out and everytime it goes out of whack. they would then make it much easier to do. instead they force hobbyists who may have never touched a machine before to undertake mind boggling adjustments to get the thing to work as advertised.

 

[Rob Cheetham]

the cam is on the end of the lever that locks the beds. just remember in an ideal world tightening the levers shouldnt affect the position of the table. altering the table consists of altering the hinge side first then altering the mushrooms. it's a difficult time consuming job that axminster should be made to do everytime they send one out and everytime it goes out of whack. they would then make it much easier to do. instead they force hobbyists who may have never touched a machine before to undertake mind boggling adjustments to get the thing to work as advertised.

I didnt even realise you can adjust the locking levers. Will have to have a look. I watched the axminster video and saw that you can adjust from the back aswell by removing a few panels. Though on the woodgrafters video he does everything from the front mushroom adjusters. I will remove the panels at the back to get to the back adjusters then work from them first then.

Yes I do agree with you. For such a price your paying you would want it either bang on out the box or at least some micro adjuster option to make calibrating the machine alot easier. I am a hobbyist put learning all the time

So overall, get the outfeed table parralel to the cutters with an even amount of movement on the front and back (about 4/5mm). Start with the back adjusters first. Once set then get the outfeed coplaner to the infeed. Knowing my look though ill get the first step done then when it comes to setting the outfeed to the infeed I will probably just screw up what I did in the first step lol.

Ive got a week off work coming up. Hopefully be enough time to get it right :lol: :lol: . Least you would think :lol: :lol:

 

[johnnyb]

also axminster have a setting guide if you ask them( a pdf). it's not easy though. I would firstly remove the cover at the back to see all the adjustment. use the correct spanners(ones an odd size 15mm maybe) as undersized chinese bolts will snap or round. maybe initially leave the rear adjusters. just work on the front ones.

 

[Rob Cheetham]

also axminster have a setting guide if you ask them( a pdf). it's not easy though. I would firstly remove the cover at the back to see all the adjustment. use the correct spanners(ones an odd size 15mm maybe) as undersized chinese bolts will snap or round. maybe initially leave the rear adjusters. just work on the front ones.

Thanks for that. Ill give them a ring monday and see if they have it to email me. Unless I get it sorted tomorrow which im planning on spending most of the day giving it my best shot lol. I think I know what you mean by the spanners. I saw on a vid they were using a 17 spanner for the locking nut on adjuster but 16 seemed to work better for me. My adjustable kept moving so just moved to set sized ones. Thanks for all the advice. Will see how I get on and report back how it goes and if I need any more help. Thanks again

 

[Rob Cheetham]

Well today didnt go so well. Still not even got the outfeed table parralel to the cutters from front to back. Tried just altering the front mushroom bolts first after getting the 5mm on the back. Altered just the one screw to bring up the front side nearest the cutters. Kept getting close but kept throwing of the back slightly. Thats when i moved to the back adjusters and just did the one adjuster on that side same as the front.

No matter what I did just couldnt get it right. Must of put 4 hours into it.

Should I be adjusting both mushroom screws and both back adjusters at the same time. I adjusted just the one nearest the cutters on front and back. On the woodgrafters video he does but on the axminster video he just adjusts the one. Mind you the axminster vid made it look as easy as 1+1. This is definetly not the case. If anything ive probably just messed it up even more.

Give it another go tomorrow and if no luck im contacting axminster

 

[MikeK]

This might be a case of mixing apples and oranges, but I had a huge problem aligning the infeed and outfeed tables on my Holzmann P/T. I finally discovered the reason is the manufacturer pinned the tables on one side to the table adjuster blocks. I could make adjustments on the other side with the two bolts, but nothing I did to the cam bolts had any effect on the tables. I even completely removed the locking bolt and the cam bolt on the infeed table, and it didn't budge.

Then I noticed the two drift pins that effectively locked the tables in place. I easily knocked out the pin nearest the cam bolt with a drift punch and I now had total adjustment of the infeed table. I left the other pin in place to serve as a pivot point because the slot for the smaller adjustment bolt was wide enough to allow a lot of travel. After working for hours trying to get the two tables coplanar, I was able to set the infeed table in about 15 minutes.

Here is a snip from the manual for the Axminster AC106PT, which looks nearly identical to my Holzmann P/T. I identified the drift pins.

I realize there is a difference between the AC106PT and the AT260SPT, but you might want to check closely to see if your P/T has similar pins that are preventing you from making the adjustments.

 

[Rob Cheetham]

I realize there is a difference between the AC106PT and the AT260SPT, but you might want to check closely to see if your P/T has similar pins that are preventing you from making the adjustments.

Thanks for the heads up. I will have a look when next get chance but I dont think they will have them. I never had a problem with the tables not adjusting. They do adjust but just too much. There is no mircro adjustment option so once I get one part of the table right and adjust another part, it seems to throw the other part off again.

Ill hopefully get there before im dead and gone :lol:

 

[Petey83]

I'm taking delivery of my 260 from Axy tomorrow but I went for the traditional 3 knife block partly because of a conversation I had with their technical team who suggested they'd had a few issues with the spiral block version.

I wonder if it's down to the fact that the 2 machines are the same basic pattern which works well enough when you can adjust the knives but is a tad to crude for use with the spiral block.

 

[Rob Cheetham]

I'm taking delivery of my 260 from Axy tomorrow but I went for the traditional 3 knife block partly because of a conversation I had with their technical team who suggested they'd had a few issues with the spiral block version.

I wonder if it's down to the fact that the 2 machines are the same basic pattern which works well enough when you can adjust the knives but is a tad to crude for use with the spiral block.

Its a great machine and worked really well out the box just wasnt bang acorss the width of the table which is what im having trouble with getting right. I rang them yesterday and they sent me out a pdf file for the setup guide. This is the guide that there engineers follow. It doesent seem easy but I've printed it out and will follow this best I can when I next get a good amount of time to spend on it.

If you have any problems either ring them for the pdf or I can send it to you if you want.

No regrets getting the spiral as ive wanted one for a while. Its just the cutters are fixed and non adjustable so you have no choice but to adjust the outfeed if your not getting 3-5mm movement on the straight edge from the outfeed onto the cutters.

 

[NigelParry]

Hi Rob, I’m about to pull the trigger on getting one of these but have to admit to being a little concerned by your experience.

Any chance you can post the PDF here so I can see what I’m letting myself in for ?

Cheers

 

[JMaxTF]

Hi Rob, another ex Chad lad here!! Intrigued how you got on? We bought the 310 version in July and very very long story and about a billion hours of adjustment we are about to send back our 2nd Machine for a refund.

In all fairness the customer service has been excellent. They sent out an engineer initially who didn't understand the spiral cutter head and spent 2 days trying to improve performance (made me feel a little better if honest)!! After receiving the 2nd machine it just would not stay set. I'd coplaner both tables and after one pass of 50x300 timber the infeed would drop about 2mm - so frustrating! Never known anything like it.

Hope you got sorted!

 

[JAW911]

Its a great machine and worked really well out the box just wasnt bang acorss the width of the table which is what im having trouble with getting right. I rang them yesterday and they sent me out a pdf file for the setup guide. This is the guide that there engineers follow. It doesent seem easy but I've printed it out and will follow this best I can when I next get a good amount of time to spend on it.

If you have any problems either ring them for the pdf or I can send it to you if you want.

No regrets getting the spiral as ive wanted one for a while. Its just the cutters are fixed and non adjustable so you have no choice but to adjust the outfeed if your not getting 3-5mm movement on the straight edge from the outfeed onto the cutters.

How did you end up? Did you ever get the planer planar?! I have a 260PT which needs re-setting but having read your comments I am not rushing into it. I will contact Axminster to ask for a copy of their engineers' .pdf and have a read but it would be good to hear how you got on in the end (I appreciate it was two and a half years ago!) but I expect it's still fresh in your mind!

 

[Rob Cheetham]

How did you end up? Did you ever get the planer planar?! I have a 260PT which needs re-setting but having read your comments I am not rushing into it. I will contact Axminster to ask for a copy of their engineers' .pdf and have a read but it would be good to hear how you got on in the end (I appreciate it was two and a half years ago!) but I expect it's still fresh in your mind!

Hi. I got it in the end yes. It's a great machine but by god the setting procedure could be easier. I think I lost some hair in the process lol. I left it the best I could get in the end as I have built my own workshop and now building benches. The pt is still in my garage as I can't get it into the workshop atm as I need to lay a path to the workshop and build a mobile base to get it onto to make it easy to roll out the garage and into my new workshop. With it being hard to move otherwise I don't want to be moving too much by the tables if any at all. I believe the newer version though has built in carry handles for a two man move operation.

I would defo reccomend asking axminster for the engineers pdf. With that and alot of patience you will get it. Though I would reccomend if possible get it on a mobile base and where you want it before you start setting it. Good luck and let us know how you get on. I'd love to hear if you find any easier techniques for future reference. Cheers

 

[JAW911]

Thank you - that makes me feel more positive about tackling it.
I made a mobile base for it out of oak using Peter Parfitt’s plans (New Brit Workshop on YT). He sent me the plans and it is excellent - I couldn’t be without it - I spin the PT everytime I go from planer to thicknesser. Not sure if you can ‘private message’ on this forum but if you can then send me your email address and I will send you the plans and photos of mine if it will help.

 

[Spectric]

To get the tables level and co planer you do need a decent straight edge, your end results will only be as good as the straight edge you use. I purchased the Veritas one from Fine tools on @MikeK 's recomendation and it makes things easier along with some feeler gauges. You can now get it from

https://www.axminstertools.com/veritas-aluminium-straight-edge-1-270mm-50-474735

 

[Rob Cheetham]

Thank you - that makes me feel more positive about tackling it.
I made a mobile base for it out of oak using Peter Parfitt’s plans (New Brit Workshop on YT). He sent me the plans and it is excellent - I couldn’t be without it - I spin the PT everytime I go from planer to thicknesser. Not sure if you can ‘private message’ on this forum but if you can then send me your email address and I will send you the plans and photos of mine if it will help.

Hi. I sent you a pm with my email. That's very kind off you. Let us know how you get on. Cheers

Rob