planer thicknesser choice.

[sunnybob]

ok, I cant put this off any longer. I have to buy a bench top planer thicknesser to get my small wooden planks and beams flat and level. My hands cant take hours of routing and sanding any more.

I really like the look (on paper and you tube, I havent actually seen one) of the makita 2012nb.
Mainly because it claims to be the quietest, and also has the least snipe.

Any one going to nay say this? or point me to the best machine the world has ever seen?

And NO, I cant buy a two ton used factory model. This has to be light enough to travel by plane from london with my luggage, so 32kg is an absolute max all up weight.

 

[monkeybiter]

I think that's just a thicknesser, if the piccies I found are the right one.

 

[sunnybob]

My ignorance at work again.

But because I use quite small pieces of wood, I can stand them up and use it as a jointer as well.

 

[marcros]

be careful of your terms, or you will end up in a mix.

jointer (USA) = planer (UK). This cuts from the bottom to establish a level datum
planer (USA) = thicknesser (UK). This cuts from the top, and follows the contours of the datum face. It that is not flat, you will end up with a board of constant thickness, but still not flat.

sometimes you can get away without planing. but not in the way that you describe.

It is worth looking for thicknesser sled- that is one way of using the thicknesser to replace both machines.

 

[custard]

No problems with one of those. For years I had a workshop in a single garage in London and turned out loads of good quality solid timber furniture using only a bandsaw and a "lunchbox" thicknesser like you're considering. I had a DeWalt, I think from memory it was the predecessor to the current DW733.

All the reputable brands are pretty good, but none of them is brilliant at dust extraction. The key to it all is to get really slick at knife changes and sharpening, if you always make sure you're using sharp knives the results are first class. When I meet someone moaning about their thicknesser it's inevitably because they're running the knives way, way past their sharpening date, usually because they aren't really confident about accurately changing knives in double quick time.

One thing to be aware of, all thicknessers have a minimum safe length for workpieces, often about 300mm or 400mm, the workpiece must span the gap between the infeed and outfeed rollers.

 

[sunnybob]

I've been using a router on a sled for some time now. Its not a good enough finish and takes hours and is very noisy and wasteful.

I wasted 3 hours yesterday alone trying to flatten enough wood to make a garden table condiment tray, and ended up scrapping the lot.
I can rip the planks on the bandsaw, but need a powered way to achieve a decent finish on the surfaces.
From you tube and adverts, the makita 2012NB does what I want. The question is has anyone got one or used one and does it perform as advertised?

Custard, just seen your post. Thats very helpful. I have seen the dust hood for the makita. How stupid is that, to make it an optional extra?
I am not afraid of mechanical work and knife adjustments and replacements dont scare me, I would just need to learn when to replace.

I can get round the smallness of parts by making a long sled for the little pieces to be glued to for finishing.

 

[custard]

I've just looked at the specs for the Makita, it looks a very nice piece of kit. One thing I did see though is that the feed speed looked a bit fast at 8.5 m/s. It's not a terrible problem, more something to be aware of, finish quality is highly correlated with feed speed, fast might mean productive for a shopfitter using softwoods, but slow is what a furniture maker wants with hardwoods. Bigger workshop thicknessers (often using three, four or even six knife blocks) will often have a slow speed option around 4-6 m/s, and a high speed option around 10-12 m/s.

I found a review for the Makita that moans about snipe. Could be a machine problem, more likely they've just set it up wrong. In the full review they managed to tune the snipe on the Makita down to very small levels.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/tool-gui ... laner.aspx

I've got a subscription to Fine Woodworking and in the full article on their test of lunchbox thicknessers the DeWalt 735 came out best overall and the Ryobi AP1301 came out best amongst the cheaper, economy machines (but had quite a severe snipe problem and was criticised for a poor cut depth setting mechanism).

One final point, gluing short workpieces to a board as you suggested won't solve the problem. If the workpiece fails to bridge the gap between the indeed and outfeed roller there's nothing to keep it moving along, so it just sits there, going no where under the cutterhead! You need to either butt a number of short workpieces together end to end, and glue them to a feed board. Or better still complete your thicknessing on a longer board before cross cutting.

Good luck

 

[shed9]

If you want a thicknesser and envisage using it for planing, why not look at a combined unit. I think Record do a fairly decent small combined unit for sub £600.

As for the Makita, I've never seen one in the flesh myself however most of the lunchbox style units seem to be very similar in design with a bunch of them being clearly re-brands of the same unit. I've known a few people use the cheap Jet one (JWP12) with good results and it has a fairly decent 1800w motor.

 

[No skills]

I've been looking at the Triton on and off for a couple of months, which is a fair chunk cheaper than the dewalt or makita. Obviously there could well be a big difference in quality but for my occasionally use it might suffice, haven't found anyone that's brought one yet to ask.

 

[Argus]

I may have overlooked it, but there's been no mention of chips-clearance so far

I don't have a benchtop machine..... mine's a bit bigger (Kity 636, over 20 years old), but still a hobby-size; one thing that many planers and thicknessers need is to clear their chips.

Whether it's dumped on the deck (mess), thrown in the air (dangerous mess) or stays in the machine, (worse of all), you'll need to consider some form of collection. My old Kity. for example, will not work without a powered extract attached to the integral guard-extractor, unless you completely remove said blade-guard (madness); 6 feet of board and the throat chokes.... end of cutting.

Just something that you may need to factor into your thinking, unless you already have it in place.

With my chippings I keep the farmer next door very happy at lambing-time.

Good luck.

 

[sunnybob]

Custard, again thanks for the info. I know I'm going into this blind, but my current system just isnt good enough. Things MUST change.

Feed rate hadnt occured to me, but I am capable (if neccessary) of slowing it either mechanically or electrically, once I see how it works.
The fact that I bring it back to cyprus negates any and all warranties on equipment (return it for replacement is an economical nonsense) so i am content to adapt and modify as I see fit. I got worried about the snipe in that report, untill I realised he was talking about fractions of an inch.

So far, I have been cutting the (for want of a better word) small boards to size, and then trying to get a uniform thickness on the smaller pieces to save time and effort. I can easily make a longer board of uniform thickness and then cut pieces to size, Most of the stuff I make uses between 6mm and 10mm thickness. I must reduce time spent on this, and also to a certain extent noise. I dont have very close neighbours, but because of the heat here, everyone lives outdoors for half the year and noise travels a long way. A router whining away on and off for an hour at a time has to more annoying than a thicknesser working for 30 seconds or thereabouts. At least thats what my wife tells me. Something that concerned me in that review was he said the makita ran at 95db, when the spec says 82. But then again, that review was so old that it has almost certainly been improved since then.

I am amazed how long these machines have been made, reviews going back over 16 years, but no one admits to ever owning one.

Shed9 seems to have missed the 32kgs weight limit on my original post.

Noskills, i'm certainly not as rich as my address might make it seem, but I wont be buying on price alone. made that mistake too many times in my life.

Argus, yes dust and chip extraction are catered for. I run a clean workshop (lol)

 

[Roughcut]

Is there not somewhere in Cyprus that you could source a Planer Thicknesser Bob?

 

[hammer n nails]

Must be a supplier in Nicosia

 

[sunnybob]

Makita cyprus does not stock the 2012. But that apart, there is very little choice here because Cypriots dont have hobbies. They work at two or even three jobs, untill they die. I worked here for 6 years before i retired, my Cypriot workmates just could not fathom me wanting to stop working. Two I worked with every day were both 73, and were dreading being made to retire. So I can buy industrial sized stuff, but not hobby sized.
And of course, because its a small island, the few importers can name their own prices.
I have a mains Makita jigsaw, bought from the UK. The same model was on sale here, with 30% off. It was still TWICE the UK price.

Even paying for the extra suitcase at BA prices saves me a lot of money each time I fly back from the UK.

 

[shed9]

Shed9 seems to have missed the 32kgs weight limit on my original post.

Yes and no, you state you want both functions of planer and thicknesser but only want to get a thicknesser, hence my comment on buying a machine fit for that purpose.

The Jet I suggested is 30kg.

Just trying to help is all, no need to dismiss it so readily :|

 

[sunnybob]

not dismissed. I mentioned in my second post that my ignorance of terminology was self evident.
I googled record planer thicknesser, and came up with a 80 kg item on wheels. If there is a smaller one, I would appreciate the link.

 

[shed9]

not dismissed. I mentioned in my second post that my ignorance of terminology was self evident.
I googled record planer thicknesser, and came up with a 80 kg item on wheels. If there is a smaller one, I would appreciate the link.

Fair enough, wasn't sure on how the advise was taken, given the initial response.

I take it Axminster don't ship to Cypress, hence the luggage comment. I'm not aware of combined units around 30kg or less other than the small compact devices. These are typically from low end brands such as Clarke, Woodstar, etc however Mafell do a unit in their AD160 (at 17kg). I suspect however this is re-branded unit.

 

[sunnybob]

axminster do ship to me, despite the fact that I am their own personal nightmare. That seperate story is explained in this thread;
the-computers-have-taken-over-official-t94430.html if you want to find out why I am reluctant to try again.

But even though they are extremely good (despite their carriers worst intentions), my luggage costs are only half of their shipping, so I always bring back with me whenever possible.

This is why the makita is top of my "probable" list. I can just about get it in on the weight limit. I have often part dismantled stuff and spread it through a couple cases to make the cut off.

But I really would like a personal review or get a hands on test when I am next in the UK in july.

 

[monkeybiter]

I don't know if this one has been mentioned
http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb579pln-204mm-planer-thicknesser-230v/15774
I think at 32Kg it's at your weight limit. There are several re-badged versions with this being the cheapest, Clas Ohlson do a separately available improved fence. It's got some very good reviews, including on this forum. The noise level may be a problem though.

 

[sunnybob]

I keep reading reviews about lots of makes, but it comes back to two things for me. Apart from the makita, the noise levels are mentioned every time. extreme and painful noise levels. Cant have that. Makita confidently boasts of being the quietest.
The other is the snipe. Just read a triton review that said he likes the machine, but loses an inch either end of the wood. Cant be doing with that either.
Again, makita claim very small fractions of an inch snipe each time.
I'd like to save a couple hundred quid, but not with those downsides attached.

I really need to have a go with one of these makita's.