Elektra Beckum HC260 - Should I buy? Advice Please...

[deanflyer]

Hi,

I posted a little while ago about buying a P/T. Im on a bit of a budget, and i've found someone who has a HC260 for sale locally. I think it is the older version as it is painted green (saw a post where someone said this used to be the EB colour before they were blue?).

Anyway - Its hardly been used and has been stored for a few years, has about 30 minutes use! Is £300 reasonable, or do you think I can do better for the money?

Thanks,

Dean

 

[deanflyer]

bump....

 

[Harbo]

I have a HC260K (Metabo) which I am very happy with.
They cost about £500? new so wether the £300 is fair depends upon condition etc. Some models had sharpenable blades,others had replaceable so factor that in.

Rod

 

[deanflyer]

The guy selling it has 2 sets of unused planer blades with it as well, so probably replaceable??

Anyhow - I was going to buy the Axminster AW106PT2 as it seemed a good bet although it was over my budget, until this HC260 came along.

Dean

 

[philb]

I've had that model for nearly eight years now with no trouble whatsoever and I paid about £600 way back then.
the blades are disposable currently £19.95 from axminster ( just bought some ) and are double edged.
These machines create mountains of chippings so if you haven't got an extractor I would suggest that may be you next purchase

 

[deanflyer]

So how long do the blades last?

First project is a LARGE deck, about 250ft sq. ft so will be P/T quite a bit of wood. Then I get to build my workshop so my other half gets her dining room back.

Cheers,

Dean

 

[philb]

depends on when you hit your first nail!!!

 

[tim]

Dean

I have one of these (also for sale shortly) and its a good machine - I'll probably be asking around the smae figure for mine.

Just a word of caution re it and your projects: It (like the others in its class) has shortish beds so if you are planning on using it to plane and thickness long planks for a deck then you might find it a struggle. Are you planning on using hardwood for the deck - it may be just as cost effective to buy presurfaced timber for the deck. If you are using softwood then unless you are going to preserve it all after you've thicknessed it, you'll plane all the preservative away.

IMO its a very good machine for most furniture applications but its not great at big, long, heavy lumps of timber because its not that heavy a mchine so can tip (or slide if you are pushing) and the beds are too short to flatten very long bits.

For your budget though its probably as good a machine as you can get unless you get very luck on a cast iron lump.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Tim