Having previously been doing cabinetry using hand tools and power tools only, last year I bought some workshop machinery, and in two cases I bought older machines on ebay, sold in working order, namely a Wadkins AGS10 table saw (to be used mostly as a ripsaw) and a Startrite SD310 planer/thicknesser. I just did a fairly basic inspection and check over before I started using them.
I didn't get fantastically good results: consistency wasn't great, and pieces were often out of square, but I put this down to inexperienced technique (I hadn't used machinery before), and I settled down into using the machinery to cut oversize and then handplaning to final size, which worked ok, but wasn't what I'd hoped for.
It rapidly became clear that (after sharpening and alignment) the SD310 has some major issues, in particular the thicknesser table is out of parallel with the cutter head. That looks a big job to sort out, and I haven't started to think about that yet, and I daresay when I do I'll be asking for advice from this forum ...
Right now I thought I'd try and get the AGS10 sorted, and today I did what of course I should have done on day one and got out straight edges and feeler gauges to see what my cast iron was like: it's terrible! Not sure whether through wear or sag, or a mixture of the two, the main table is cupped with a big dip in the middle. At 0.3mm it's at its worst just before the insert, which I guess is the point of maximum wear.
It'd be interesting to know if this is normal but mostly what I need is advice on where to go from here.
1) I daresay I could try and lap the table myself but given how tedious it is to lap even the flat side of a handplane iron (I buy the Veritas ones ready lapped) my heart sinks at even contemplating that. In the end I'm in my workshop to make furniture and don't want to spend months grinding a piece of cast iron by hand.
2) I could try and find a metalwork shop with tools to grind it flat; don't know if that will be easy or not but it's a possibility.
3) Not sure if Wadkin will be able to supply a new main table: they don't list them as spare parts on their website, but I've emailed them. But if they do have them I don't expect them to be cheap and I'm now wondering what sort of flatness to expect with a new table.
I don't want to spend money on the AGS10 unless I will be able to get it into shape as a high accuracy machine.
4) It may be that the best thing to do is to regard this year as a learning experience: I now at least know the basics of how to use the machines and what to look for; so maybe I should sell the AGS10 and buy a new machine. What do you guys see as the price point at which you get a machine capable of high accuracy and consistency? The standard names I see a lot are Scheppach, Charnwood, Axminster, iTech, etc, but I don’t know what price point in their ranges gets to what I want. I also see Sedgwick TA315 advertised quite a lot, but looks pricy. Laguna Fusion series gets great reviews in US, don’t know what people here think.
In terms of features I reckon I’d want good quality stock guides (eg Jessem) and overhead crown guard, but of course these can be added
Thanks!
Josh
I didn't get fantastically good results: consistency wasn't great, and pieces were often out of square, but I put this down to inexperienced technique (I hadn't used machinery before), and I settled down into using the machinery to cut oversize and then handplaning to final size, which worked ok, but wasn't what I'd hoped for.
It rapidly became clear that (after sharpening and alignment) the SD310 has some major issues, in particular the thicknesser table is out of parallel with the cutter head. That looks a big job to sort out, and I haven't started to think about that yet, and I daresay when I do I'll be asking for advice from this forum ...
Right now I thought I'd try and get the AGS10 sorted, and today I did what of course I should have done on day one and got out straight edges and feeler gauges to see what my cast iron was like: it's terrible! Not sure whether through wear or sag, or a mixture of the two, the main table is cupped with a big dip in the middle. At 0.3mm it's at its worst just before the insert, which I guess is the point of maximum wear.
It'd be interesting to know if this is normal but mostly what I need is advice on where to go from here.
1) I daresay I could try and lap the table myself but given how tedious it is to lap even the flat side of a handplane iron (I buy the Veritas ones ready lapped) my heart sinks at even contemplating that. In the end I'm in my workshop to make furniture and don't want to spend months grinding a piece of cast iron by hand.
2) I could try and find a metalwork shop with tools to grind it flat; don't know if that will be easy or not but it's a possibility.
3) Not sure if Wadkin will be able to supply a new main table: they don't list them as spare parts on their website, but I've emailed them. But if they do have them I don't expect them to be cheap and I'm now wondering what sort of flatness to expect with a new table.
I don't want to spend money on the AGS10 unless I will be able to get it into shape as a high accuracy machine.
4) It may be that the best thing to do is to regard this year as a learning experience: I now at least know the basics of how to use the machines and what to look for; so maybe I should sell the AGS10 and buy a new machine. What do you guys see as the price point at which you get a machine capable of high accuracy and consistency? The standard names I see a lot are Scheppach, Charnwood, Axminster, iTech, etc, but I don’t know what price point in their ranges gets to what I want. I also see Sedgwick TA315 advertised quite a lot, but looks pricy. Laguna Fusion series gets great reviews in US, don’t know what people here think.
In terms of features I reckon I’d want good quality stock guides (eg Jessem) and overhead crown guard, but of course these can be added
Thanks!
Josh
