Axminster CT150 Planer

[Mike.C]

Hi All,

Thanks for your replys.

I must say that the few times i have dealt with Rutlands i have never had any problems with them, but there again there are a lot of people who have not got a good word to say about them.

I will let you know how things go when its delivered.

Regards

Mike.C

 

[Mike.C]

Hi All,

I received the 150DL the other day and i have to agree with Alf, the £30 delivery charge is worth every penny, not only did the driver drop it right where i wanted it but he had to push the 130kg a extra 100 yards because some ***** had blocked our driveway.

Isn't it a big beast. I had not seen it before and although i knew it was 1700mm you do not really take it in until you see it in the flesh. I am glad that i bought a set of wheels so that i can move it about if i ever have to, because trying to drag that about would put a strain on parts of the body we should not be talking about on a family site such as this.

By the way Noely there as a pot of touch up paint already included in the box.

I will reserve judgement until i have lived with the planer for a short while, but i have to say that so far i am very impressed with it.

Is it worth me doing a review because Sawdustally has already done one?

Well i am going out to my workshop to have a little play with my new toy.

Regards

Mike

 

[johnjin]

Hi Mike
As far as I am concerned yes please do a review.
The more reviews on a product from different people the better.
Anyway very pleased for you that it has arrived and hope you have a great first weekend with it

John

 

[Noel]

Yes Mike, do a review. The more the merrier.

Rgds

Noel

 

[Philly]

The review on Sawdustalley is by yours truly
regards,
Philly

 

[llangatwgnedd]

Yeah
do a review because you might pick up a good/bad point that one reviewer might have missed

 

[Mike.C]

Hi All,

Ok i will give it a few weeks and then i will do a review.

Noely, you are right the Powermatic 54A manual (US version) is hell of a lot better then the Jet one included with my planer.
There is one thing in the Powermatic manual i am not to sure of though. Have you seen the part on sharpening? Apparently in the US they use a oilstone and a block of wood to hone/sharpen the blades. They clamp the block of wood across the infeed table, this is there to stop the kickback of the oilstone. They then turn the planer on and while keeping there fingers clear of the blades they run the stone back and forth across the table until the blades are sharp.
Now i admit i do not know much about sharpening and every planer/thicknesser i have owned (Elektra Beckum etc) has had disposable blades, but surely this is dangerous and cannot be right? Is this how we sharpen our blades in the UK?
The strange thing is if you look at the warnings they give near the start of the manual they talk about the 3 inch rule, where they tell you not to allow your hand to come within 3 inches of the blades.
But what do i know this may be the way everyone does their blades.

Apart from that the manual has helped me a great deal and i can only thank you for telling me about it.

Regards

Mike

 

[Aragorn]

Mike I saw that too! Very scary! Only in America!
I won't be trying that technique on my Jet. I'll stick with removing the blades and sharpening them on the Tormek.

 

[Noel]

Yes Mike, I saw that bit about in situ, motor on, sharpening.
"To joint the knives" - in theory it sounds good. Level infeed and outfeed table and then hone the knives and making them level etc. To be honest I'm not sure I'd do it, kinda scary and anyway, why does it mention that there may be one knife higher that the other two. Think I'll go and ask an expert in the states. Will report back.
Philly, Aragon, any views.

Rgds

Noel

 

[Aragorn]

...why does it mention that there may be one knife higher that the other two... Philly, Aragon, any views.

Would only be if you've set them differently, but I don't know how accurately we're talking here! When you adjust the blade height for three blades "by hand" I suppose it's likely that they're all very slightly different.
BTW the DeWalt thicknesser has the easiest blade change I've come across. A couple of magnetic gizmos hold the blade at the right height and you just lock off the bolts. I wish every planer/thicknesser was so quick, simple and accurate.

 

[johnjin]

Hi

Surely that could be a problem with carbide blades Aragorn.

John

 

[Mike.C]

Hi All,

Aragorn, i forget the manufacturers name but Rutlands sells what sounds like the same blade setting system that Dewalt have on their thicknesser. I understand that the gizmo comes with 2 magnet type adjusters and you put one at each end of the blade. You then dial in the setting that you want and drop the blade in. This lets you repeat the same setting for 2, 3, or 4 blade planer/thicknessers. I think they cost something like £30 or £40.

I am still having nightmares about sharpening planer blades.

Regards

Mike

 

[Aragorn]

Hi John
Forgive my ignorance about the carbide, but why is it a problem?
(Not that I have any carbide blades... Yet!)

Mike
I have the magnetic things from Rutlands but they rely on being able to attach the gizmo to the cutterhead block. This was fine with my old HMS260 where I could remove the outfeed table to access enough of the cutterblock, but the Jet doesn't provide enough access unfortunately.
To be honest though, they are quite fiddly and I never found setting the blades with them to be any quicker or accurate than the usual way

 

[Noel]

Found this sometime ago with regard to setting jointer knives:
Finding highest knife and setting outfeed table. I have yet to see a
jointer from the factory with all knives within a few thou of each other.
This makes for one knife doing all the work and a really scalloped looking
cut. Most jointers come with truly crappy wrenches, toss them, get a decent
wrench. I set my knives by hand with a known flat aluminium 12" speed
square. (I adhered 220 grit paper to my jointer bed and lapped the wide
edge perfectly flat.)You will also need to have your shop really quite, no
radio on, no kids screaming and a good ear. First I find the highest
knife. Lower the infeed table all the way to get it out of the way. I lay
the square 90% on the out feed table so it just hang over the knives on the
cutter head. Rotate the cutter head to find which knife moves the square the
most. Raise the outfeed table in real small increments until the square no
longer moves while you roll the cutter head back and fourth by hand. You
should hear the HSS blade scrape on the aluminium, but the square should not
move. If all of your knives are high, do the reverse lowering the table
until at the same level as the highest knife.


Setting individual knives to outfeed table. I have only set knives on
jointers with jack screws, so those of you without them, sorry, I cannot
help you. Slightly loosen off the nuts around the pressure screws on the
next knife. With the allan key in the jack screw, rotate the cutter head
back and fourth, turn the allen key clockwise, until you hear the slight
scraping sound. If the aluminum square moves, the knife is too high, back
the jack screw off and tap the knife back down with a block of wood and try
again. When one side is at the correct height, remove the allan key. Get a
scrap of hard wood, place it from the infeed table over the knife, but so
you can see the bolt to tighten that side down. Lean on the scrap of wood,
tighten the bolt down. Without leaning on the scrap block of wood you will
get bolt creep, and the knife will raise up. This bolt creep can drive a
person totally insane when setting knives. When you have done both edges of
the knife, tighten down the center bolts. Don't reef on the bolts, you will
strip them. Test to see that you were successful by again rolling the
cutter head and listening at both the front and back edge of the knife, you
should hear a scrape, but the aluminium square should not move. If you blew
it, try again. Do this to both other knives, and even the first one if one
side was higher than the other. The first time I did this, it took me three
hours to set my knives, but I wasn't restricting bolt creep by leaning on a
block of wood on the knife either, I took more frustration for me to figure
that trick out. I can now set three knives by hand in under 15 minutes. You
too can learn how to do this.

Rgds

Noel

 

[Noel]

Well, here's the US view on the rather iffy practice of running a stone across the jointer knives with the motor on:
1)
While this practice is done, it is normally done AFTER newly sharpened
blades are installed, not to sharpen them, but to joint and dress them so
that both(or all) blades are cutting at exactly the same height. When it is
done, the blades are set at .0005" to .001"...that would be .012mm to .025mm
then using a fine, hard stone on the outfeed table and the cutter head
running, SLOWLY easing the stone over the blades at one end and gently
sliding the stone over the head until you do not feel the blades touching
AND NO MORE! Otherwise you'll actually stone the outfeed table down and that
isn't a good thing.

If you close your eyes and visualize this operation, I'm sure you'll see the
hazards to your fingers are pretty obvious.

Altho it is something that I do, I cannot, in good conscience, suggest to
anyone that hasn't done it, to try. Just a little white lie to myself so
that if something DOES happen to someone trying to learn it, I can tell
myself that I TOLD him not to do it.

2)
I honed the blades on my 54a just as the instructions
suggest. it works fine as long as you are super careful.
those blades are whirling around at a pretty good clip!

"Safe" is a relative term. I was apprehensive about doing
it, but I took my time and made sure the blades weren't
going to hit the stone too deeply. I set the tables so that
the blades barely grazed the sharpening stone. They ended
up very sharp, and of course even with the table.

Personally, I'm still not sure about this practice although I shall have another look at it when re-sharpening time comes. Just the thought of putting a 6" stone near the revolving blades is a little daunting......Maybe build some some kind of holding device for the stone so that fingers are well away from the cutter head.

Rgds

Noel

 

[trevtheturner]

Thanks for your info., Noely - have filed that for future use.

Don't fancy the US method too much, though - sounds a bit fraught to me!

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[johnjin]

Sorry Aragorn.
I guess I misread your post and assumed that you meant put the magnet on the blades but I now think you meant to put the magnet on the block and push the blades to them.
Sorry I got confused

John

 

[Aragorn]

OK John - I'm permanently confused!

 

[johnjin]

Ok lets try again.
You cannot stick a magnet on carbide.
And I thought you were saying to put the magnet on the blades.
I said that could be a problem on carbide { meaning they wont stick as the blades are carbide not metal. )
Now if you are still as confused as I am, and with my explanation that is quite likely, I think that we ought to forget this conversation.

All the best

John

 

[Aragorn]

Thanks for clearing that up John.
The Dewalt blade setting jig and the Rutlands one do rely on a magnet holding the blade in position. They also attach to the cutterblock magnetically. So, as you say, they won't work if the blade is not magnetic.

With the Dewally, there is no other way to set the blade height, so that rules out using carbide blades with this thicknesser.