Latest Sedgwick CP Construction quick review

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deema

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When Sedgwick brought out their latest version of their well built planner thicknessers I was personally very concerned that it appeared from the photos that they had lost some of the cast iron construction that made them so good. It’s taken a long time to see one of their new machines in person and have a bit of a look see as to how it’s built. Today Sideways and I visited a local company / organisation that is working to promote locally sourced timber from wind / disease / nuisance fallen tress. They air dry and kiln their own lumber with a wide variety of unusual and different species available.

They had recently bought a Sedgwick CP Planer Thicknesser, which is the largest machine Sedgwick make. It has a 400mm or 16” cutting width. I personally have the older version of this machine, so had the opportnity to make a quick inspection to compare what differences had been made to the newer version of the machine.

I was delighted to find that the solid cast iron construction remains. The upper side castings have been turned around, what was the inside of the machine is now the outside. The exposed cast iron ribbing is now covered with plate steel. Why they have done this is a mystery, the only benefit I can see is that it gives a smoother paint surface.
53D0243D-BAE0-4649-8EE7-5DCC383D530C.jpeg
The mechanism to raise and lower the thicknesser table apoears to remain the same.

6ECC86EC-AF80-47D9-BD5C-67CBDF53F97A.jpeg

It has the same two motor configuration with a drive rollers for the thicknesser again going through a gear box to reduce speed and increase torque.

The lower fabricated frame that the cast iron box sits upon looks to be a nice improvement from the original.

The outfeed table for the surfacer originally sat on 4 bolts that allowed the table to be aligned with the infeed table. This was fiddly to do, but really only needed to be done once. A new system has been introduced for the new machine. This uses two wedges that are pushed together by a bolt. I’m sure this will make setup much quicker and easier along the width of the table. However, there did not appear to be a system other than by shims to alter the alignment of the table along its length.

45175C43-A27B-4489-9B44-45DC0BC7A786.jpeg

There may be a system for doing this, but it wasn’t obvious what it could be.

The thicknesser handle remains in same location and has not been brought to the end of the machine which I believe is the case with the MB.

So, after a quick look around the new version of the machine, I was delighted to find that Sedgwick have remained true to their core principles building robust machines.


I have still to look at the latest version of the MB (12” machine) which hopefully follows the same ethos.
 
When Sedgwick brought out their latest version of their well built planner thicknessers I was personally very concerned that it appeared from the photos that they had lost some of the cast iron construction that made them so good. It’s taken a long time to see one of their new machines in person and have a bit of a look see as to how it’s built. Today Sideways and I visited a local company / organisation that is working to promote locally sourced timber from wind / disease / nuisance fallen tress. They air dry and kiln their own lumber with a wide variety of unusual and different species available.

They had recently bought a Sedgwick CP Planer Thicknesser, which is the largest machine Sedgwick make. It has a 400mm or 16” cutting width. I personally have the older version of this machine, so had the opportnity to make a quick inspection to compare what differences had been made to the newer version of the machine.

I was delighted to find that the solid cast iron construction remains. The upper side castings have been turned around, what was the inside of the machine is now the outside. The exposed cast iron ribbing is now covered with plate steel. Why they have done this is a mystery, the only benefit I can see is that it gives a smoother paint surface.
View attachment 143003
The mechanism to raise and lower the thicknesser table apoears to remain the same.

View attachment 143004
It has the same two motor configuration with a drive rollers for the thicknesser again going through a gear box to reduce speed and increase torque.

The lower fabricated frame that the cast iron box sits upon looks to be a nice improvement from the original.

The outfeed table for the surfacer originally sat on 4 bolts that allowed the table to be aligned with the infeed table. This was fiddly to do, but really only needed to be done once. A new system has been introduced for the new machine. This uses two wedges that are pushed together by a bolt. I’m sure this will make setup much quicker and easier along the width of the table. However, there did not appear to be a system other than by shims to alter the alignment of the table along its length.

View attachment 143002
There may be a system for doing this, but it wasn’t obvious what it could be.

The thicknesser handle remains in same location and has not been brought to the end of the machine which I believe is the case with the MB.

So, after a quick look around the new version of the machine, I was delighted to find that Sedgwick have remained true to their core principles building robust machines.


I have still to look at the latest version of the MB (12” machine) which hopefully follows the same ethos.
There’s so little information about the new CP and nothing about the spiral block now available, I bought one earlier this year and was a little worried due to the lack of info. Turns out it’s an excellent machine and the spiral block is also very good, it’s also used on Robland machines which is reassuring. Love the little torque screwdriver they provide for changing the blades… on the subject of blades I’m still on the first edge of the inserts and it’s done quite a lot of work since it arrived 😆
 

Attachments

  • 88C6CFCC-4842-49FB-B708-84836D7FBEC2.jpeg
    88C6CFCC-4842-49FB-B708-84836D7FBEC2.jpeg
    4.2 MB
@D.Stephenson looks a lovely machine you have got yourself.
The machine we looked at also had the spiral block, which produced a beautiful finish on the woods we looked at that had been processed.

Sedgwick are IMO to put it very politely not very good at marketing. They make excellent machines, have a good price point for the quality of machines they make. They don’t make many unfortunately. I did make approaches to buy the company about six years ago but they were not interested.

I had added a big caveat when I’d suggested Sedgwick PTs to people since they updated them. If they had lost the cast iron construction that makes them so good they would be no different to most other smaller machine manufacturers. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, and I will again be recommending the CP to people as a superb machine.
 
I have only had 2 planer thicknesers, a small Scheppach and a FS 30 bought in the 90's. At one stage I had both of them at the same time. The finish produced by the significantly cheaper Scheppach was always much better than the Minimax. The Scheppach had a rubber feed roller which hardly ever needed cleaning and if if gummed up would still feed smoothly. The FS 30 on the other hand has a steel roller. If the roller has even a few small chips stuck to it it will grab the board resulting in the board stopping and a groove where the cutter dug in. The roller needs constant cleaning, even after only a few boards if resinous, but resin is not the problem, happens with all hardwoods too. It is also far more difficult to finish to a specific size as the teeth on the roller dig in quite a lot and this make it difficult to take a shallow pass of approx. Less than .3mm. I have tried playing over the years with the pressure but I have never been happy with the results. Initially I didn't realise what was happening and the board would judder through leaving a very rough surface. The spare parts, at least here in Italy are also very expensive.
I cannot reccommend the FS30 although I know it is considered a good machine. The thicknessing table was also not paralel with the cutter head when I bought it.
I was told there was no option of a rubber roller for my old model.
 
PGRBFF
had the same probs on a very old large Wadkin P/T......the serrated rollers were badly pitted with miss use n rust....
I was woking a lot of Oak at the time.....
so took it apart and had the roller turned down and rubber covered.....bit more complicated than that tho....
the roller gets a sandwich of two different rubbers, I'm guessing hardness....anyway the last one is rough machined then baked in an oven to cure it....then machined to finish size.....the finish rubber can be had in dif colours, I chose white....
The people who do this very specialised job also do rollers for the cotton printing industry.....
Have a look around, I would say Italy would be a good place over the UK.....Milan comes to mind.....
When I was looking there was only 2 firms giving this service in the UK....Scotland and just outside London....
Diff to say how long ago it was but guessing 15-20 years......
best money I ever spent.....
had to sell all my Wadkin equip to move here....

Deema
out of interest do they get all their castings from within the UK....?
Do they do machining in house.....?
just interested....Ta.....
 

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