looking for a planer

[alan wells]

hi all

been toying for a long time now with the age old problem of whether to buy a planer/thicknesser or to have seperates.

i finally made my mind up this week that i'll go down the seperates route and while i'm on holiday next week-in Dorset about 12miles from the Axminster shop i'll pop in and treat myself to the CT150 planer, happy with the price until i checked online today to find it had gone up by neally £70,now making it a very expensive bit of kit, i know somebody posted a warning that Axminster were putting some of their prices up but it just didn't register with me to check..

what i'm struggling to find is any similar alternatives to the CT150 other than the small bench top machines, does anybody know any other suppliers the do similar machines

thanks in advance

 

[Chems]

Check on ebay, the Axminster Thicknesser was on ebay the other day second hand looked barely used for £150.

 

[alan wells]

i missed out on the axminster planer on eabay by 60p the other night, had to go out, set my highest price and pow, missed it

 

[bjm]

Have a look at this.

Brian

 

[alan wells]

thanks for that Brian,
i thought Fox did one but spent all day looking to no avail, Rutlands used to do this machine but it's no longer on their website,
any idea what it's like

al

 

[Digit]

Saw one at a recent show Alan, seemed a decent piece of kit.

Roy.

 

[p111dom]

Looks very similar to mine only it has the US style guard. Most people on this forum and elsewhere don't seem to like this kind of guard but it has many advantages that I can see. I wish mine had one. If you do buy it could you give me the part codes to order this guard seperately?

 

[p111dom]

Should add that I fine mine pretty good. I'm still getting used to only being able to plane stock 6 inches wide but it's pretty accurate. The blades are a bit of a pain to change and like every planer or p/t I've seen it's a little tricky to set the fence 90 degrees to the table as when you tighten it, it moves very slightly. There's also no way I can see of adjusting the angle of the outfeed table to adjust it parallel to the infeed table. It's fine on mine at the moment but it would be nice to be able to adjust this if for what ever reason it went out of whack.

 

[Digit]

Which end/side of the out feed table is low Dom?

Roy.

 

[p111dom]

Neither in my case but I don't mean low as you can wind both in and out feed tabled up and down. It's kind of hard to explain. I mean if the machine was on a perfectly level floor with a spirit level on the infeed table showing the bubble in the middle, if you moved the spirit level to the out feed table and the bubble was no longer in the centre there's no adjustment to correct this. On the Record, Metabo, Sip clone 260 P/T's there are grub screws on the outfeed table which allow you to adjust this axis. The problem on that machine is that these screws tend to either vibrate loose or get knocked when you remove the outfeed table for thicknessing so you're always having to check the tops which is why I never rated that machine for planing. On my joiner this seting is fine but if the machine were say lifted and moved by the end of one of the beds and this wasn't the case any more, you cannot adjust it back.

 

[bjm]

Alan

I have the Axminster version and I suspect there will be little difference. I think I read somewhere that it will ship with the traditional guard rather than the one shown - give them a call first. My only comment on these planers is that setting up the motor tension is a real PITA. For the price it is a good piece of kit but I do sometimes wish I had gone for an 8" model!

Brian

 

[Digit]

I understood that Dom. I've used quite a number of planers over the years and it's not an uncommon problem.
If the tables are not parallel across the width there is a tendency to produce 'propellers'.
With age, we all know about that, there is a tendency for one end of the in feed table to drop in my experience.
Correcting that is not easy. The simplest solution is to 'shim' the out feed table to get it level with the in feed as the out feed is moved less frequently so the shims don't move or wear.

Roy.

 

[p111dom]

Glad you got the jist of that Digit. Would have been easier to explain with pictures but hey hum. I have been thinking about removing the outfeedtable and drilling/machining a hole either side at the bottom all the way through to the dovetails at the bottom. Tap it and insert a bolt to give the sort of adjustment I'm talking about. Don't want to do it right now as the beds are fine but I just know that the day I really need it to be working perfectly I'll find it out of whack and it will be out of action for a week or so while I get this done.

bjm - can't think why you would have this sort of problem. I presume by motor tension you mean belt tension between the motor and the cutter head? On mine the motor is mounted in the base on a sloping sheet of metal. I just loosen the four bolt attaching the motor to this plate, slide the motor up and remove the belt. Pop a new one one and let gravity do the rest. The belt is tensioned enough from just the weight of the motor then all I do is tighten the bolts back up. They are a little tricky to reach as on mine you have to reach inside the dust extraction port but with a socket and ratchet it's not been a problem.

 

[bjm]

Dom

Mine is the same but I found the belt that was supplied was probably the wrong length and I had to extend the slots just to get it on. I now have everything aligned but it was more fiddly than I expected. I found it was easier to set the alignment up without the belt in place and then loosen the nuts holding the jointer onto the base and tilt it up to slip the belt on.

Brian