P/T advice, Fox F22-568 or similar price 10x7

[MWood]

Hey people, long time reader first time poster.

Righto, so I've been into woodwork since leaving school and am fairly proficient at it. However until the last few years it had always been nothing more than a self funding hobby and as such my 'workshop' equipment reflected that. Noisy shop vac extractor, trend craft pro2 router table and matching router, small Clarke bandsaw, bench top drill press etc.
And until recently no table saw at all! I had always 'made do' with plunge router, router table and track saw!

I have recently picked up a new makita 2704 portable table saw (for a construction job)... yeah yeah so it's not a real workshop machine and the table was a 1/4" out of parallel over the length of the blade alone. But after some adjusting, and shimming up now it is only out of square by a thou using a mitre sled and measuring the angle between the 1st and 4th cut on a 12x12" piece of ply and the blade now runs true which is good enough for my requirements for now!

However now im up to my neck in commision work and using stock that is over sized for my current equiptment! So I need to start buying full sized shop equipment!
But I still can't justify spends above £1000 per machine, it can be either 3 phase or single phase as I have a 28kv 3phase genny in the shed!
I would be happy to buy second hand if it was an old quality indestructible machine such as a Wadkin, but would prefer it to be new otherwise so I get at least a couple of trouble free years out of it (hopefully by then the business is doing well and I can start to invest in some serious long term machinery... Inc a real table saw)

It's for cabinet making mainly, but I have been asked for kitchen units and worktops, sideboards, dining tables and wardrobes which im turning down!

At the moment the most needed machine is a planer thicknesser as buying timber in planed and thicknessed to my requirements is costing a big chunk of profit which I am absorbing otherwise I would not be competitive!

My local tool shop to which im a vip customer deals with Fox so the £1100 list price isnt what I would pay, it will be closer to £650-700! I wouldn't choose to be restricted to Fox machines but I likely will be due to availability and discount I can get on them!

I have read pretty good reviews of the F22-568 but wanted to know if their were any problems or issues with it and if other Fox machines were pretty decent too or are there any to avoid!

 

[MikeJhn]

The problems I have heard with Fox is the lack of after sales service, personally I would go with the Axminster machine: http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ho ... ser-101142 Axminster have a very good after sales service and no quibble returns policy.

Mike

Lots of different clones available: http://www.probois-machinoutils.com/deg ... 260nl.html

 

[Hot stuff]

Who are you dealing with for machinery up there?

 

[MWood]

The problems I have heard with Fox is the lack of after sales service, personally I would go with ... ... Axminster have a very good after sales service and no quibble returns policy.

Mike

Lots of different clones .... ...

As usual it's not the clone machine that's the problem but rather the company that adds the sticker, fair point!

I had never paid much notice to Axminster machines as I'm generally wary of own brand stuff!
Having said that I should be more open minded as I have almost exclusively Axminster lathe chucks and accessories and I consider them to be exceptionally good and a reasonable price! Funnily enough my lathe is the only workshop machine which was over sized for my requirements when bought and is probably the least used tool I have!

Perhaps I'm just blind but I can't seem to see what it's capacity is... I'm assuming by the model number it's 10"x6"
So now Im looking at the 107pt on the trade series and wondering about the tct cutter block over knives and how that £800 difference could also be the 310N band saw and 300BC extractor...
And with my past history of under sizing that I should bite the bullet and go with the trade series, or regret it in 6 months! If anything is making the 107 more attractive its just that full length fence!

Who are you dealing with for machinery up there?

Buchan Power Tools, Black house industrial estate, Peterhead...
Makita dealer/hardware store/hire shop/Aladdins cave, but he will get pretty much anything if you're not in a rush for it!

I'm not a local though, I'm from Nottingham.
Came up here 5 years back for work. Love living rural in a field, don't think I'd ever go back to a city now...

Kinda sucks that I can't get any decent hardwood or exotic hard wood anywhere!
Spruce, Pine and Fur I'm buried in up to the ears but a decent hardwood... like trying to find hen's teeth!!
Best I can find readily available is European Oak, BUT it's only in prefinished lengths for architrave (casing strips?.... can't remember the local term now, the bit you put round a door frame to cover the join between the plasterboard and the door frame)

And what's with Dwangs? So pretentious and Australian sounding, Noggin is a much more salt of the earth carpentry sounding term! And the other thing, why dont you skim plasterboard, you just tape the joints... How lazy is that.
I'd fired 3 plasterers before I realised that! Lmao!

 

[Paul200]

And the other thing, why dont you skim plasterboard, you just tape the joints... How lazy is that.
I'd fired 3 plasterers before I realised that! Lmao!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :roll: Me too mate! Me too!

 

[MWood]

Joiners up here do seem to get the sharp end of the stick:
We do our own work, we do basic plumbing (pipe runs, basic connections etc), we do the Plasterer's hump work (sheeting out etc,),
we do awkward Sparkie's work (whilst simultaneously following them round fixing where they have butchered studding, joists and plasterboard), and we don't stop at the roof trusses... Oh no! We put Sarking boards on and sheet it!

I think this says it all:

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

why fox?
the Metabo hc260 and their clones are much more compact machines, and has miles better quality. Ok you loose 1 inch on thicknessing but that's about it.
btw that price is nothing special, its £665 right on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOX-F22-568-1 ... xygj5ShPOE

 

[MikeJhn]

The Fox is a clone of the Sheppach and Bernado and an Axminster even and every other like machine, the price varies from supplier to supplier, do you want compact, sometimes bigger is better.

Mike

 

[MWood]

I don't have any real preference for Fox, other than the fact my (to my knowledge only) outlet up here does deal with them so would be easier for me to get my dusty little hands on. Yea, yea online sales etc but some people like to go into a shop and speak to someone in person, especially when complaining if there are bits missing, broken, fall off or is generally an expensive piece of junk compared with another similar priced machine!

I have seen pretty dire reviews of a few Fox machines, but this particular one seemed fairly promising.
Hense why i was asking about it, however with MikeJhn saying that he's heard bad things about 'after sales' i don't think i will be bothering with Fox! After all a workshop machine is a long term investment where after sales service is as important as the machine itself!

He also suggested Axminster as an alternative and after giving their site and reviews a really good going over, I am seriously giving their Trade series package some serious thought!
AW10BSB2 Saw Bench, AT107PT Planer Thicknesser (the one i have my eye on now), SBW3501B Bandsaw, ATDP16B Bench Pillar Drill, BDS-612 B&D Sander, T-2000CK-200H 2hp Cyclone Extractor.
I think that the sander and pillar drill may be a little weak, but they need to balance the books for that kind of price somewhere!
I'm not sure about the cyclone extractor either as that's a pretty big chunk of pennies for that alone... They replaced the double bag extractor at work for something similar not long ago and tbh apart from separating chips from dust there doesn't seem to be any great extracting improvement (they would probably get more suck for their buck buying a roll of gaffa tape and taping all the joints in the ducting)


As for space that is definitely not an issue... Yet!
I am away to pick up a 3 ph Vertical panel saw tomorrow, I believe to be around 3mx1.5m, but know for a fact is big enough for an 8x4 sheet. Not because its on my list but because its in good working order, never seen heavy use and it would be insanity not to buy it for the price!
There is aso a 3ph floor standing pillar drill thats been thrown in f.o.c because it needs a new motor, again for the sake of repair cost why wouldn't you!

 

[MikeJhn]

Axminster are not adverse to doing a deal if you want a workshop fit out, so you could chop and change a few things in that list.

Mike

 

[MWood]

Axminster are not adverse to doing a deal if you want a workshop fit out, so you could chop and change a few things in that list.
Mike

Funnily enough I phoned them about that on Friday. (I'll just mention that they were exceptionally helpful!)
Granted they are happy to arrange a deal on alternate machines but would be nowhere near as good value as the advertised package!

I think that the sander and pillar drill may be a little weak, but they need to balance the books for that kind of price somewhere!

I just want to correct myself...
Just now whilst totting up the single item prices for the sander and drill, as i was thinking 'keep the package for value and sell on the sander and drill still sealed' i thought they seemed ridiculously cheap to be in the package...
Well they were because i'd mixed them up with the ones from the Hobby package (AHDP13B Drill and AW130BD2 sander) by mistake!

So the 'correct' sander and drill are all good!