Jointer advice required

[Penny]

Has anyone come across one of these before? It's being advertised at £125.00 and called a Axminster Perform 6" Planer Thicknesser Jointer.

Now, I could do with one of these - especially for a project I have coming up (Pallet wood flooring). I am brassick and £125 is pretty much the most I can afford.

Is it worth getting? Will it do what it says? Is there a better option for the money?

 

[lurker]

I have one near identical but branded differently. Someone gave it to me. I have hardly used it in 5 years. To be honest with a table saw and a hand plane I can prep the wood faster than it takes to set the nasty snipey thing up.

Mine was well worth what it cost me :lol: .........but not by much!

 

[Penny]

I don't have a table saw. I have hundreds of boards from pallets to plane to the same thickness. I'd get really tired arms!

 

[blackrodd]

I think you'll find it's a jointer only, and not a thicknesser, This is for straightening you're timber before thicknessing.
Here's a link to one reviewed, that looks similar,--

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/reviews/per ... op-jointer
See what others say, but for me, it's too much for a s/hand overhand (jointer) planer, it's very light duty and made as such, Had it been a planer and thicknesser, then not bad money for a reasonable and tidy example.
Regards Rodders

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

It is a thicknesses you'll need, that is a surface planer. But even if you did need one of these, I doubt it is any good, there is only so cheap you can go!

Mike

 

[blackrodd]

I don't have a table saw. I have hundreds of boards from pallets to plane to the same thickness. I'd get really tired arms!

Possibly for better advice, Can you say what you will be making or doing with these boards?
We may just save those arms of yours!
Regards Rodders.

 

[Penny]

This is the plan:

 

[Bodgers]

The Titan from Screwfix includes the thicknesser, has 8" width and is accepted to be one of the better Chinese thicknesser planer clones and weighs in at about £140-150. Probably worth the extra few £'s.

One thing that might be worth investing in is a cheap metal detector, because you will end up destroying the blades pretty quickly if you hit anything you didn't remove from the pallet wood.

 

[blackrodd]

I would rather hope that the pics shown are just general and not how you're pallets are stored.
In case you don't realise, Pallets stored in those muddy conditions are not a good idea.
There will be so many stones and loads of grit, you'll spend more time sharpening cutters than any thing else.
You need a source of clean pallets and when separated from the base's not to be stacked or contact the floor in any way and get gritty or stones embedded, examine the ends too.
A quick check with a metal detector, as mentioned, is a good idea and sometimes, any dirty areas need a rub with a decent wire brush, not a cheap one that sheds its own wire bristles.
Regards Rodders

 

[RobinBHM]

Neat idea for recycling!

I would have thought pallets would be really hard to take apart as they are usually made with annular ring shank nails, they are a pipper to break up yet alone take apart for reuse.

We accumulate lots of bearers from timber deliveries -some of them seem to be made from quite useable hardwood.

When we receive sheet materials they often have a cover board at the bottom for forklift protection -it always makes me think sheet material suppliers must have thousands of cover boards. They are quite often usable boards, sometime with just a few scratches or a crack.

 

[No skills]

Defo wire brush the boards before you put them near any machines, there will be all sorts of junk embedded in the surface.

One thing I have done in the past with reclaim timber is to purchase a very cheap hand held power plane (and a pack of the cheapest blades I could find) and use that for the first pass on the surface of the timber. If you have missed anything nasty on the check and clean up stage you will only damage a cheap set of easily replaced blades rather than taking a chunk out of a more expensive and harder to replace thicknesser blade. Eventually the cheap planers die (or hit a 5mm bolt like my last one ) but the odd £40 on a cheap planer v stacks of cheap timber usually works out.

Reclaimed timber can certainly be cheap (free!) but it comes with its own hidden costs in terms of preparation (time and blades etc).

Also don't forget this pallet wood wont be that dry compared to dryed/prepared timber, might be some shrinkage over time.

FWIW