sip 01344 planer thicknesser

[Avery]

sorry for a boring post but im really interested in peoples experience with this tool. Generally i hate cheap tools, my workshop has a nice SCM planer . This SIP 01344 is for an outdoor build offsite and my friend is selling it for 300 quid, i have a few days to decide to buy it or not. Ive heard they are pretty bad and also unrepairable as parts are now obsolete. I just cant decide on it. A bad tool is as bad as no tool in my opinion and 300 quids a lot for something that may be garbage and not do its job. The outdoor job is in portugal (its a long drive) so no turning back once ive made the decision. Has anyone had one of these and loved , hated it? Thanks . Confused

 

[MARK.B.]

Had one of those from new and over a period of around ten years, and that machine just kept on going,it was not keen on being maxed out when thicknessing but you get what you pay for and i believe i had my money's worth out of it and then some. Few years ago it was just sat in the corner gathering dust so i gave it to my mate who has it in one of his barns and uses it often.The one thing i disliked was that it would scream like a Banshee under load.

 

[RichardG]

It’s a fairly generic design still sold by Metabo and Record so there may be the opportunity for spares down that route? I have the Metabo version and it works well enough but you need to take small cuts. The blade alignment needs to be done carefully, reference off the planer top using a length of timber to see how far it moves rather than use the jig they provide. My fence could be better, you need to check it every time you take it off just to be 100% sure it’s still 90 degrees. Swapping between modes is ok but you need to take the outfeed table off which is a bit of a pain finding somewhere to put it. Having said all this mine produces square well finished timber so it does the job it was designed for.

 

[Avery]

Thank You for your answers. Ive decided to buy it today. Hopefully Its not on its last legs as ebay doesnt work in portugal . Thanks for the record and metabo lead, if anything breaks like it often does on a too; thats been sat ill start with them for spares. Thank you

 

[Avery]

sorry can i bother you again? Ive heard about the alignment pain. I have a tersa block in the workshop so life is easy. So you set the blades manually measuring off the top of the table top. Not sure what you mean legnth of wood . Wouldnt you use a ruler or something straight and set the blades to touch that. Im sure there is some you tyube video on it somewhere and it will make sense once i see it all. The reviews are not great. broken cogs on the tensioner, blades that move out of alignment that sort of thing but like all tools it probably depends how you treat it. im pretty careful. Like i say things are impossible to source in portugal and no ebay hence the concern.
heres the house im building