Wixey thicknesser gauge

[colinc]

Hi,

I know that it has been mentioned here before, but if anyone else is using a thicknesser I can heartily recommend this:

http://www.wixey.com/planer/index.html

it is designed for the De-Walt etc type of portable machine where the bed is fixed and the cutter moves but was adapted to fit my Scheppach similarly to this:

http://www.wixey.com/planer/fit/scheppach01_01.html

I paid £41 for mine via ebay (or www.allendale-group.co.uk ) in the UK but probably cheaper in the USA.

I fitted it saturday and spent a couple of hours yesterday doing the first work with it - machining sitka spruce for a friend's aircraft project.

I was hesitant to trust it at first, but now I know that it is reliable I am able to dial in the thickness I want and the wood is coming out measuring to within +/- 0.05mm on my expensive digital calipers. Previously, I was spending ages measuring and tweaking the planer setting to get the accuracy I wanted.

The Wixey stuff seems a cut above the general range of cheap chinese made calipers etc., that I have never found to be of an acceptable accuracy. They do a range of various linear and angular measuring devices that look useful.
regards

Colin

 

[JonnyD]

looks interesting. Has anyone used one of these for a while and can comment on long term accuracy and hoe often it needs calibrating?

cheers

jon

 

[GraemeD]

I've had one for a couple of years and it still seems spot on. They do go through batteries....I have a feeling they take power all the time even when nominally switched off, presumably to maintain the zero setting....but so long as you keep a spare ready, it's not a huge deal.

I fitted mine to my Delta thicknesser, which was a bit of a challenge....needed a bit of head scratching, but was fine once I'd worked out a plan. The problem is they are universal fit, and come with universal hardware.....you then need to suss out how it maps onto your particular machine. Once you've done that it's really simple.

I'd definitely recommend it highly. As Colin said, it gets you super accurately thicknessed results....you'll never end up with over-thicknessed stock ever again!

All the best
Graeme