Titan Planer Thicknesser Review (Another "almost, but not quite" from screwfix)

[BearTricks]

I bought one of these a month or so ago against the recommendation of some on this forum.

I think I probably got one of the only ones that was okay out of the box. After a bit of fettling and a fence upgrade I’d managed to plane and thickness a workbench worth of old hard yellow pine absolutely perfectly and I’ve been singing it’s praises ever since.

The fence is now bolted to the side which permanently fixes the infeed table, which doesn’t lock (despite having a locking lever) at 1mm cutting depth. I’ll probably drill some more holes so I can set it at half a mil if I need to.

The dust extraction is useless and frustratingly required to get the thing to start.

So I got my wood planed nicely. Sat on my sawhorses and ready for glue up. I’d actually glued it together in sections big enough to fit through the thicknesser already. My only problem being that each piece had a small raised line across it where the blade in the planer had been dented. I don’t know if it came like that or if I did it but I thought I’d just hand plane it off at the end which I almost did.

Instead, I though “nope this thing has served me well enough, I’ll change the blades and get a nice finish”.

So I bought some sharp new blades, followed a tutorial to change them and set about planing my wood. Looked good so I went to glue it up and once it was too set to pry apart I realised the wood was nowhere close to being straight. I had no idea what had gone wrong so I spent a day yesterday trying to figure out if I’d bent one of the tables or dinged the cutting block.

I finally figured out that the tool used to set the blade in the block was way off. It doesn’t put the blade in straight and as a result I ended up with timber that was worse than when I got it, and being old pine that’s been holding a house up for the past 100 years, it was pretty bad.

I’m now stuck with a glued up mess and will probably have to go back to hand planing to fix it, and/or cut it apart with the track saw, and put it through the planer again.

I think I’m done buying Screwfix own brand. While they have a few diamonds in the rough the quality control is absolutely terrible. I probably should have listened to the forum but I was swayed by a few good reviews and the rose coloured glasses went on as soon as I got it working well.

If anyone finds this thread looking for a recommendation on this tool I’m going to say don’t bother. It was so close but a pretty big quality control issue means all my time spent running out to the workshop in between work meetings for weeks has been completely wasted.

 

[sams93]

I have one of these titan planer thicknessers. So far touch wood its actually been pretty good. I only use it occasionally, but have used on oak, iroko, chestnut, douglas fir so far. I think these tools are very hit and miss - as you experienced a lot of them seem to come wonky or badly adjusted out of the box - which obviously isnt good. I bought mine even after reading all of the reviews, with the idea that as screwfix are very good at accepting returns if it was rubbish I would just return it, i havent needed to.

I think I have been lucky with my one, the fence could do with an upgrade as it is a bit flimsy, (I have seen a variety of attempts by different people but I might start just by bolting a piece of ply to it).

I am interested to hear you say the extraction was rubbish - I havent experienced that with mine, the extraction has always been ok (not perfect but ok) - i did have to run it last week without the extraction as I am waiting for a replacement hose, and i was shocked at how much flew out of it without the extraction on!

Also you say that there is a lock for the infeed table? I havent come across this yet where did you spot that?


I will caveat all of this by saying I am a DIY user, and that for me the fact that it was so cheap makes it very attractive to me and the idea that i might have to return to get an accurate one was something i had accepted before buying it.

 

[DoubleDutch1962]

I just got one of these as well.... Well actually: I got 3! I read many reviews here and in other places and @sams93 hits the nail on the head: hit and miss.

#1 - the knife drum was crooked so that went back
#2 - the infeed table was slanted and too low - that went back as well
#3 - perfect!

I kept persevering as for £190, I could not find anything else and I know some people had a unit that worked and after 3 attempts: mine does the same. I've used it on Pine, Walnut and Beech and the results are great so far, for a unit of this price. I'm actually very happy. Let's hope it stays like that but it has 2 year warranty so if it gives up: it will go back as well.

 

[whostolebenfrog]

I kept persevering as for £190, I could not find anything else and I know some people had a unit that worked and after 3 attempts: mine does the same. I've used it on Pine, Walnut and Beech and the results are great so far, for a unit of this price. I'm actually very happy. Let's hope it stays like that but it has 2 year warranty so if it gives up: it will go back as well.

Good job screwfix are easy about replacements!

I've been happy with mine too. I remade the fence using some plywood which helped quite a bit. The extraction is usable, does the job mostly. It's a bit annoying to switch between modes. For me it was this or nothing and I've used it enough to be happy with the purchase.

 

[Spectric]

It is all to easy to be swayed on price if you are not careful, I made the same mistake with a chop saw for metal. Only a one off job so don't want to spend good money and buy the Makita so brought a much cheaper Titan version. It was really shiete out of the box so brought a new decent brand blade which just made it into a faster cutting shiete saw so it went back. Instead hired a makita for the weekend which just cut without any issues.

 

[DoubleDutch1962]

Understood and that's why I did not just look at the price. There are many reviews/videos from people who got on with it well (enough) but the manufacturing issues were clear as well so I just persevered. As @whostolebenfrog says: it was this or nothing as at the stage I'm at: I can't justify anything much more expensive.

 

[Fergie 307]

I just got one of these as well.... Well actually: I got 3! I read many reviews here and in other places and @sams93 hits the nail on the head: hit and miss.

#1 - the knife drum was crooked so that went back
#2 - the infeed table was slanted and too low - that went back as well
#3 - perfect!

I kept persevering as for £190, I could not find anything else and I know some people had a unit that worked and after 3 attempts: mine does the same. I've used it on Pine, Walnut and Beech and the results are great so far, for a unit of this price. I'm actually very happy. Let's hope it stays like that but it has 2 year warranty so if it gives up: it will go back as well.

I bought an Erbauer one some years ago, and had similar problems. First one the infeed table was wonky, turned out to be because the very flimsy casting was actually cracked at one of the mounting points.
Back to Screwfix and replaced. The second one had a similar problem, just with the crack in a different place. Having had a look at the general construction of the thing I wasn't impressed, so back it went for a refund.
I then bought a second hand Kity 636, complete with stand. The drum bearings were shot so got it for not a lot more than I had paid for the Erbauer one.
Changing the bearings was entertaining, had to cut the pulley off in the end as it just would not let go.
Took the opportunity to upgrade to a multi groove belt instead of the original crowned pulleys and flat belt. Multi grooved pulley from an old Jeep power steering pump for the motor, exactly the same diameter as the original Kity motor pulley. Just turned down the original motor pulley to make a hub for the Jeep pulley, then a custom made multi groove pulley for the drum.
I am fortunate to have a decent metal working lathe, so making the parts was easy.
The result is an excellent machine, with really good extraction. Yes it's much bigger, which is an issue if you haven't much room, but vastly superior in every way.