I will start with an apology. I'm completely biased in my views. I have owned a lift up table planer Thicknesser and could never get it to work properly. I was rather green when I bought it brand new. However, after limited success and being an engineer I started to look at both its attributes and failings. The planer must have beds that remain absolutely in line with each other and in line and parallel with the spindle. It they don't, your wasting your money. My now, standard test when advising others is to sit on the far extremity of each table and check with a straight edge if it moves relative to the other table if they dont DO NOT BUY IT. The concept of a lifting table and the principle of repeatable settings is very hard to achieve. The older machines and the Sedgwick machines do not lift up. They have good solid castings that keep everything exactly where it should be. Bent plate, with a few welded bits will not in most cases achieve this level of stability, but it s a lot cheaper to make. Steel plate is circa £470 a tonne at the moment, so a 25OkG machine made from it is circa £125 of raw material.
I took the manufacturer of my first machine to the small claims court claiming that it was not fit for purpose. After a long period and lots of work, I walked out having proved my case with a wad of cash.
If you cannot afford a Sedgwick or similar, wait, save up and buy a machine that will do the job properly. Fancy colours, gauges don't plane the wood straight. You need solid aligned tables with the spindle. This is best achieved with castings. See comments on Wadkin, Wilson, Robinson machined etc. and see how they are built.
