Axminster v Record P/T (again)

[Normancb]

I’m thinking of replacing my Kity 535 planer thicknesser - it has served me well but I have jobs coming up which need wider planing capacity. At my budget/space/use level the choice seems to be the Record PT260 or the Axminster AWEPT106. They are obviously from the same stable and more or less the same price but there are some differences, notably the Axminster has more useful storage under it and uses a replaceable blade cutter head, whereas the Record is currently on offer with a mobile base. I’ve read past threads on the comparison but they are mostly several years old and things change. Does anyone with any recent experience of either machine have any comments?

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I owned the RP260 until 2 years ago when I upgraded to a Startrite. The planing quality was surprisingly good for a 2 cutter block, as was the thicknessing. Extraction worked fine and despite the lack of cast iron I was really quite impressed with its performance. It had no trouble at all with oak and I got on really well with it until......swap over to thicknessing. That was a bit of a pain in the wotsit to be honest. It takes about 3 minutes while you unscrew this and flange up that. Of course you can plan your work around it by doing things in batches and that's what I used to do. But every now and then, you'd just want to flip between the 2 and it became too much of a niggle for me so I switched to a design that just flipped up the outfeed and flipped over the waste shute, 20 seconds max.

So to summarise, despite the rather flimsy build quality (it is made to a budget after all), the quality was always surprisingly good. The stand allowed mobility which I also liked for flexibility. Knife changing was easy and the knives are reversible which is also nice. Change from plane mode to thickness mode......sucks.

 

[Normancb]

Thanks for that. Pretty much confirms what I had suspected. My use is fairly intermittent, so I guess I'll just have to put up wit the switch over problems.

Anyway, thank you for the response

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

YW

 

[WoodMangler]

...or the Axminster AWEPT106....

I have an AWEPT106 bought secondhand, and I'm very satisfied with it.

... whereas the Record is currently on offer with a mobile base...

I'm short on space in my workshop, so all my machine tools (except the lathe) are either on bought-in castors or home-made wheeled trolleys, the common factor being that they all drop the machine onto it's original feet for use. For the P/T I've fitted a set of Rutlands machine castors (http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+woodworking-workshop-equipment-machine-mobilty-castor-set-dakota+dkmmc) and it all works a treat.