Do I fix an old cast iron top bench planer or buy new one?

[Oddaccent]

Hiya - I need some help. I bought the WP150 from someone on Gumtree and as I took it apart to give it a clean, I discovered the in-feed table was lower on one side caused by two cracks in the table support underneath.

I've emailed Axminster to see what they can do, but I'm wondering if it's worth the effort of repairing.

I've been looking at new bench planers, but they all seem to have cheap aluminium tables.

Is there a benchtop planer you would recommend or should I put the money into fixing the one I have?

Thanks,

Court

 

[MikeG.]

Fix that one.

Or salvage the parts and make your own.

 

[Trevanion]

If you can find someone who can weld aluminium alloy you could get it repaired but you've got to factor that against whether the machine is worth investing the money in to repair it and will it break again etc...

 

[Oddaccent]

Thanks guys. Do you know of any decent benchtop planers that I can buy new? I paid £60 for this and can get a refund of the guy who sold it to me. But if it costs £100 to get perfect, maybe it's still worth it?

 

[SkinnyB]

Just going by the picture could you add a steel plate to the topped or bottom secured by drilling and tapping the casting?

 

[Orraloon]

If you can find someone to weld that at a reasonable cost. I will let you work that out compared to a new machine. The crack was likely due to it being lifted up by the tables so if it gets fixed try and avoid that in future.
While not as good as welding, SkinnB's suggestion should also work. You could do it yourself. Even if you have to buy a cheap set of thread taps its only a few quid.
Regards
John

 

[Oddaccent]

Thank you all so much. This is the first time I've posted here and it is fantastic to get such helpful responses. I am going to try a couple of local metalworks factories near here and see what they can do first off and see what they will charge. If they can fix it or make a new support then I think it should all be sorted. I much prefer keeping things going.

 

[MikeJhn]

If you know someone with a mig welder using a combination of different metal wire and gas this can be repaired, i.e. Argon gas and silver wire can weld cast iron successfully, so I am sure there is a solution for most metals.

 

[Oddaccent]

Hi everyone. Thanks for all your replies. In a great turn of events a lovely man in his 80s was clearing his workshop and gave me the exact same model planer in perfect condition and a friend of my wife's is keen to have a go at fixing the other. So I'm passing it along to him.