Planer/Thicknesser on a budget

[eribaMotters]

Your budget has gone up!

Colin

 

[El Barto]

Your budget has gone up!

Colin

Ha ha yes it has. Only under special circumstances though. Still trying to keep it to around £400, unless the Charnwood is too good an offer to pass up...!

 

[cutting42]

I’ve read a lot of good things about the DeWalt DW733. Is it worth looking out for a used one?

I have the DW733s which is the one you want as it is a planer thicknesser rather than the DW733 which is just a thicknesser so check for the "s"

I bought mine second hand from a UKW person who had sadly passed on and it has been brilliant. You can still get brand new blades and the quality of cut is excellent.

I paid around £250 but it was a long time ago, I would say anything under £400 would be worth it.

One here for £300 currently
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dewalt-DW733 ... SwBjdZ~uPM
A tattier one here for £100
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DeWALT-12328 ... SwHNxaAclX

 

[Graham Orm]

Evening all. I'm looking to get a planer/thicknesser. I don't have much to spend, a few hundred quid really, what should I be looking for?

Would something like this be any good? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elektra-Beck ... 1438.l2649

I don't have any kind of dust extraction, will that be a problem? Any advice most welcome!

Thanks.

No extraction? Get some wellies.

 

[Bob Graham]

Thanks for that. I’ll have a look at the extractor too...

I tried to use an ordinary shop vac with a 63mm hose and it just can't keep up with the amount of chippings produced. To help contain the mess I wedged one of those cheap plastic storage boxes (600 x 450 x 450mm rough guess) under the exit port so that the chips were ejected straight into that. It's about 95% effective at containing the mess but my T/P is bench tyle. Hope that helps. I've just bought a SIP dust / chip extractor but haven't unboxed it yet.

 

[El Barto]

I’ve read a lot of good things about the DeWalt DW733. Is it worth looking out for a used one?

I have the DW733s which is the one you want as it is a planer thicknesser rather than the DW733 which is just a thicknesser so check for the "s"

I bought mine second hand from a UKW person who had sadly passed on and it has been brilliant. You can still get brand new blades and the quality of cut is excellent.

I paid around £250 but it was a long time ago, I would say anything under £400 would be worth it.

One here for £300 currently
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dewalt-DW733 ... SwBjdZ~uPM
A tattier one here for £100
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DeWALT-12328 ... SwHNxaAclX

That's great, thank you! Hadn't heard of that DeWalt before. Definitely going to do a bit of reading...

 

[El Barto]

Its not assembled and needs a lot of work, but if I did not have a PT already and was in the market for one I would buy that at £220.00 bargain if it works and is complete.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Are parts still available for it? And what kind of work does it need?

El Barto, asking that question indicates that Matt's assumption is probably correct and you don't know the amount of work needed in which case I agree with Matt, don't touch it if you don't know what you are doing, just getting the cutting block parallel with the thicknessing bed will be bad enough let alone the two planing beds, but if you know someone who does know about these things, then it still could be worth a look.

Mike

Sound advice thanks Mike.

 

[El Barto]

Apologies to keep dragging this thread back up but does anyone have any experience with the Scheppach HMS260? Found one for £400 with iron beds and well looked after, wondering whether it's worth it.

 

[custard]

Barto, almost every time I've been in a hobbyist's workshop and there's been a need to use the P/T the owner will look embarrassed and mutter about needing to change the knives. Sure enough if you use it the workpiece bounces and rattles over the knives because they're so blunt, or you have to push so hard to overcome the resistance that it's dangerous.

Why do the majority of hobbyists run their knives long past the replacement date? The short answer is that on most cheaper machines it's a faff to change knives, they're not using the machine often enough to get proficient at knife changes, so it's a job that just keeps getting postponed.

A key question about any machine is "how easy are knife changes?" If it's a complete pain then you'll either have to be superhumanly diligent to keep the P/T maintained, or it'll just end up as an expensive shelf to park your coffee!

 

[El Barto]

Barto, almost every time I've been in a hobbyist's workshop and there's been a need to use the P/T the owner will look embarrassed and mutter about needing to change the knives. Sure enough if you use it the workpiece bounces and rattles over the knives because they're so blunt, or you have to push so hard to overcome the resistance that it's dangerous.

Why do the majority of hobbyists run their knives long past the replacement date? The short answer is that on most cheaper machines it's a faff to change knives, they're not using the machine often enough to get proficient at knife changes, so it's a job that just keeps getting postponed.

A key question about any machine is "how easy are knife changes?" If it's a complete pain then you'll either have to be superhumanly diligent to keep the P/T maintained, or it'll just end up as an expensive shelf to park your coffee!

That's an interesting take on it Custard. But then how does one know how easy it is to change knives unless you've tried a bunch of machines? Is it just a case of experience? And at what price point does changing knives start to become easier? So many questions!

:? :?

I'm not sure I have the luxury of finding out the answers to all these questions but the more I learn the more I'm leaning towards saving up a bit and buying an older 12" machine. But that probably comes with its own pitfalls and caveats too... ha ha.

 

[MattRoberts]

I'm pretty sure the Scheppach is the same machine as the record power pt260 and the electra beckum. I have the record power version. It's a great machine, but it is a faff to change the blades.

Unfortunately, it doesn't get much easier to change blades unless you get a planer that uses the tersa block system, or you get a helical cutter block - both very expensive options.

The XX260 range is a great machine to start off with if you're not looking to spend a ton of money

 

[MikeJhn]

Perhaps I'm a bit OCD, but I quite enjoy setting the blades on my PT, I get immense satisfaction from getting them set exactly as I want them, especially when I run the first piece through and it has no snipe.

Mike

 

[MattRoberts]

Perhaps I'm a bit OCD, but I quite enjoy setting the blades on my PT, I get immense satisfaction from getting them set exactly as I want them, especially when I run the first piece through and it has no snipe.

Mike

Great - mind popping over to the UK and setting mine?

 

[moosepig]

I'm in the market for a small-but-good-quality PT at the moment and have been looking at the same stuff as El Barto on Gumtree and the 'bay.

I was puzzled that the Metabo HC260 appears to be over £100 cheaper new than the Record Power PT260 despite at first appearance being the same machine (apart from the included wheel kit on the RP).

One thing I discovered is that the Metabo 260, as sold by FFX, comes with disposable knives, and will not take HSS or carbide replacements unless you buy a conversion kit (part 0911030845) which is another £50. The PT260 comes with HSS knives as standard, no conversion kit needed. Also the weights appear to be so different as to suggest something else majorly different - 71kg for the Metabo; 80kg for the Record Power. Who knows what those differences are.

Forum user pollys13 has had all sorts of trouble getting her Metabo up and running, thread here: continuing-problems-setting-planer-knife-height-t107469.html
That sort of customer service would put me off the Metabo even if it were an identical machine. I gather that Record Power have a decent customer service reputation.

An excellent nearly-new PT260 came up recently on Gumtree - shame it's in Co. Antrim!

Best deal on a new PT260 at the moment appears to be Scott+Sargeant, and go to Horsham and collect it yourself (delivery charges are anything from £40 to £70 depending on where you look but it's free to collect from S+S).

Hope this is useful.

 

[El Barto]

I'm in the market for a small-but-good-quality PT at the moment and have been looking at the same stuff as El Barto on Gumtree and the 'bay.

I was puzzled that the Metabo HC260 appears to be over £100 cheaper new than the Record Power PT260 despite at first appearance being the same machine (apart from the included wheel kit on the RP).

One thing I discovered is that the Metabo 260, as sold by FFX, comes with disposable knives, and will not take HSS or carbide replacements unless you buy a conversion kit (part 0911030845) which is another £50. The PT260 comes with HSS knives as standard, no conversion kit needed. Also the weights appear to be so different as to suggest something else majorly different - 71kg for the Metabo; 80kg for the Record Power. Who knows what those differences are.

Forum user pollys13 has had all sorts of trouble getting her Metabo up and running, thread here: continuing-problems-setting-planer-knife-height-t107469.html
That sort of customer service would put me off the Metabo even if it were an identical machine. I gather that Record Power have a decent customer service reputation.

An excellent nearly-new PT260 came up recently on Gumtree - shame it's in Co. Antrim!

Best deal on a new PT260 at the moment appears to be Scott+Sargeant, and go to Horsham and collect it yourself (delivery charges are anything from £40 to £70 depending on where you look but it's free to collect from S+S).

Hope this is useful.

That's useful stuff, thanks for the info. I find it odd how all these machines are essentially the same but with only slight differences. You'd think that each would be identical with only the make and colours any different. Like the knife differences between the Metabo and Record, for instance. Weird.

I do think though that I'd get frustrated with a 10" P/T sooner or later though so I think I'm going to hold out for something larger.

 

[El Barto]

Still on the hunt for a PT. Would this be a cool project or just a massive waste of time and money? It looks ok except for the motor...

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2379383800

 

[memzey]

I don’t know about that machine in particular but I note that he’s not showing clear pictures of the damage he describes in the text. Always a bad sign for me. I’d ask for clear photos before deciding if I were interested or not.

 

[MattRoberts]

Still on the hunt for a PT. Would this be a cool project or just a massive waste of time and money? It looks ok except for the motor...

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2379383800

Could be either, but it's more likely by far to be the latter...

 

[Ring]

I Have the Electra Bekum hc260 setting the blades was a tricky but enjoyable and the results where surprisingly good for a so called budget machine, Last year I changed to Esta-Bruck blade set up and it is night and day takes no more than 5 mins to change blades round and they are very accurate a small bit of fettling to the machine and it was up and running highly recommend the system to anyone that is struggling to set their blades. It http://www.advancedmachinery.co.uk/mach ... system-382

 

[galleywood]

Ring

Did you have to purchase any items, apart from the blades on the link you provided.
What fettling was involved.
Thanks