Dog
Established Member
As this is my first experience of using this type of tool and the fact that my budget wouldn't stretch far I went for it. After carefully removing the planer from its box and getting covered in grease, they appear to think that more is better so if you get one of these machines new then wear gloves to get it out of the box :wink: Box contents: Two push 'sticks/handles' made from heavy plastic with rubber bases. A spare drive belt and a set of bushes. A very basic instruction manual which covers everything other than what you actually want to know. A crude, back fence with its adjustment fixtures screwed on the wrong way up. Three knobs with the wrong thread of bolt welded into them, one to fit the blade guard (it didn't fit the thread) and two others that hold the back fence to its supports (these didn't fit either). So three items that were probably designed for a totally different machine but not to fit this one. I had some spare threaded knobs lying around so that was quickly sorted. Anyway, after cleaning off the sum total of the worlds grease supplies from the table, under the table, all the accessories mentioned, the back fence and finally me it was time to try the machine.
I tried to connect my dust extraction unit to the rear extraction socket but it didn't fit. It appears that NuTool have decided to fit a non standard size of outlet which required a little bit of 'customising' on my part to rig up a means of extracting the dust/shavings successfully. I used a 92.5 degree rainwater downpipe fitting, strapped to the outlet with self-amalgamating rubber tape. The extractor pipe then fitted :roll:
The machine appeared to be easy to set-up. The table height adjustment knob was easy to turn but solid in its movements, nothing loose there. Lining up an almost invisible line cut into the edge of the table with the 'stuck-on' milimetre guide, now trying to peel off because of its coating in the grease, was easy enough. I set the depth of cut to 1 mil, or so I thought. Next I squared up the back fence and made sure it was held firmly in place. The motor speed adjustment knob is made of black plastic with A,B,C,D,E marked on it, also in black plastic, making it a little hard to read. A=8000 rpm which was recommended to plane softwood upto 40mm width. I used some 38mmx38mm rough sawn Spruce to try the machine out. Remember the depth set at 1mm ? You do ? Oh good Dust extractor fired up, blade guard in place, everything checked, machine fired up. Nice smooth motor, no sound that shouldn't be there. I pushed the stock using the push 'sticks/handles' over the blades and then off with machine and the DE. The result of the first plane was very good, nice and smooth but the actual depth that had been removed was in fact 3mm. I had started with 38mm stock and finished with 35mm stock. So playing with the settings is going to be needed. The odd thing about that is the max planing depth is only 2.5mm ?
As I say this is the first time I have used a machine like this but for my purpose lite DIY, minus the set-up problems and incorrect knobs, I'm very happy with it :wink:
I tried to connect my dust extraction unit to the rear extraction socket but it didn't fit. It appears that NuTool have decided to fit a non standard size of outlet which required a little bit of 'customising' on my part to rig up a means of extracting the dust/shavings successfully. I used a 92.5 degree rainwater downpipe fitting, strapped to the outlet with self-amalgamating rubber tape. The extractor pipe then fitted :roll:
The machine appeared to be easy to set-up. The table height adjustment knob was easy to turn but solid in its movements, nothing loose there. Lining up an almost invisible line cut into the edge of the table with the 'stuck-on' milimetre guide, now trying to peel off because of its coating in the grease, was easy enough. I set the depth of cut to 1 mil, or so I thought. Next I squared up the back fence and made sure it was held firmly in place. The motor speed adjustment knob is made of black plastic with A,B,C,D,E marked on it, also in black plastic, making it a little hard to read. A=8000 rpm which was recommended to plane softwood upto 40mm width. I used some 38mmx38mm rough sawn Spruce to try the machine out. Remember the depth set at 1mm ? You do ? Oh good
Dust extractor fired up, blade guard in place, everything checked, machine fired up. Nice smooth motor, no sound that shouldn't be there. I pushed the stock using the push 'sticks/handles' over the blades and then off with machine and the DE. The result of the first plane was very good, nice and smooth but the actual depth that had been removed was in fact 3mm. I had started with 38mm stock and finished with 35mm stock. So playing with the settings is going to be needed. The odd thing about that is the max planing depth is only 2.5mm ?As I say this is the first time I have used a machine like this but for my purpose lite DIY, minus the set-up problems and incorrect knobs, I'm very happy with it :wink:
