Planer thicknesser .... which one which brand.

[Charly]

Haha.
Cheers for your advise though.

 

[heimlaga]

Well.... if money is short then a traditional gibbed two kife or four knife head should be good enough. It is good enough for me for that very reason.
If you invest in two sets of good quality HSS knives you can send one set off the be sharpened while using the other set. I have found that my new HSS knives from Edessö stay sharp at least three times as long as the old Stridsberg carbon steel knives I had for my prevuious planer/thicknesser.
When we get rich we can upgrade to Tersa!

However there are some old head designs known as clamshell heads and square heads which we both should steer clear off. They are outdated and dangerous and at least in Finland no insurance would cover an accident involving either of those old cutterhead types.

The main adwantage of a bigger machine is that you can plane and thickness wider glueups in one go. That saves valuable time. A stair step for a curving staircase may be rather wide for instance.

 

[Charly]

That is the reason I want a wider machine but I guess I have a jointer plane anyway.

When I get rich I'm a really looking at these spiral cutters. They look pretty efficient and I like the concept.

I'm gonna keep looking and see what I can find.

 

[memzey]

The MB’s capacity is 12” (310mm) BTW if you are looking for something more than 260mm.

 

[Charly]

Yeah I've seen a few on internet on second hand machine website. Looks pretty good actually. Bit only one I found are 3 phases. And that another problem for me I need to double check but I have only 240 in New workshop. So have to keep looking.

 

[heimlaga]

Pretty much every planer/thicknesserr in this size and quality is three phase.

However if you cannot get three phase electricity from the pole it may be possible to install some sort of phase converter.

 

[johnnyb]

Remember accuracy is much more important than size. Start tackling heavy work and power becomes more of an issue. I believe I can tackle most jobs with an accurate machine. It just takes much longer to hog off the waste. If every machine did exactly what it promised life would be easy. The craft is knowing how to get the best out of all your machines. But below a Certain quality they just won't work. No matter how well set up and operated.

 

[memzey]

Remember accuracy is much more important than size. Start tackling heavy work and power becomes more of an issue. I believe I can tackle most jobs with an accurate machine. It just takes much longer to hog off the waste. If every machine did exactly what it promised life would be easy. The craft is knowing how to get the best out of all your machines. But below a Certain quality they just won't work. No matter how well set up and operated.

That’s basically what I like so much about the Sedgwick, it just does what it’s supposed to do with zero fuss. Big timbers, small timbers, half a mill or two mill. No bother time after time. Every 6 months or so I check the fence is still square - complete waste of time. Nothing short of nuclear war is knocking that thing out of true (just as well seeing as it weighs a bloody ton).

 

[johnnyb]

I disagree about knife changes. Mine seem to develop tracks extremely quickly. In weeks. Not months. Perhaps my knives are poor!

 

[Charly]

I have found 2 beauties.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/planers/sedgw ... 1278215469

sedgwick-mb-planer-thicknesser-3-phase-jet-vortex-cone-extraction-/1273772833

Now regarding my 3 phase situation does any of you is using a converter ? Prices are off the roof for these bad boys. But I found this

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/pc-60-5 ... converter/

Which looks pretty interesting.

 

[MikeJhn]

The beauty on gumtree does not have a fence?

Mike

 

[deema]

The Sedgwick as already stated does not appear to have the fence and is also missing the guard. It looks to me to have been ‘restored’ and given a nice shiny coat of Hammerite. I have seen recently (last 4 months) Sedgwick MB 3 phase machine complete and in good condition that are green sell for as little as £500 on eBay / not sell!

If it were me I would wait for a really good machine to come up, and at the moment I think prices seem to have been depressed since about mid October, so you should be able to bag a bargain.

 

[Charly]

Ok. Thanks r advice. I guess I'll wait a Bit longer no rush anyway.
One does not have fence indeed. And second has chip on table.

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

I would change the motor rather than use a static phase converter. The motor only runs at 2/3 the power with a PC, there might be a problem with bogging down. A new motor is likely a cheaper option, though price in a new NVR starter too, the one for the 3 phase is unlikely to have the current handling of a single phase motor.

Mike.

 

[Charly]

Even if you get a converter that covers the horse power needed by motor ?
I did read that static converter weren't the best though so I want to agree with you even though I don't like it.
I'm still looking for the chance of a single phase but you never know.

Wouldn't changing engine on an old PT not too much trouble though ?

 

[memzey]

That model has two motors though so swapping out “a motor” needs to read as swapping out “the motors”. I have no experience of phase converters but I do wonder how relevant the risk of bogging down would be on a planer thicknesser once the big heavy cutter head is up to speed? On a table saw ripping 2” oak - certainly but a PT? I’m not so sure although I have zero experience to back that up.

 

[ndbrown]

If its a Sedgwick PT255 /PT260 style planer, replacing a 3-phase motor with a single phase motor is not a completely straightforward job. The original Brook-Crompton single phase motors had a particular arrangement for the start/run capacitors and you have to be careful about the choice of replacement motors.
See topic here if interested in this route: sedgwick-pt255-strip-down-and-rebuild-t66864.html
Nigel