PeteG
Established Member
The van from Grahams [GMS] in Chester arrived yesterday afternoon with my PT260 kit. The driver didn't have a trolley but thankfully the PT260 isn't so heavy that we couldn't carry it between us.
I've taken lots of images, so many in fact that I deleted a few by mistake! So, here in pictures, is the PT260X planer thicknesser with the CX2000 chip extractor.
I ordered the DX100X easy fit cuff which Grahams very kindly included in the cost, and If anyone is looking to purchase this kit it does make life a lot easier.
Box open showing the fence on top with the wheel kit on the right.
After removing the fence I took the wheel kit out and bolted the wheels on and then put everything to one side.
This now left the PT260 body. It would have been possible to lift it out of the box if it wasn't for the polystyrene base, but as the instructions tell you to put the machine on it's side to add the legs, I tilted the box on it's end and just eased the body out.
I've placed it face down, the instructions say to remove the green plastic cap on the back before laying down, but as the back cover is plastic, I went the other way. Don't think it makes a difference.
Now the legs in place it can stand up on it's own. Lifting it wasn't a problem and the legs are very sturdy, so there's no fear of them bending when the machine is just on two legs whilst you tilt it.
Two bolts secure the switch unit, and there's one long bolt that secures the thicknessing table height handle.
I then gave the cast iron thicknessing table a good clean and finished it with Briwax.
On with the in feed table. There's a couple of metal plates that are removed first and the adjustment handle fits in to a threaded hole, [Seen in the above image with red grease round it] then the plates go back on. Part of the dust extraction unit has also been attached, which is the black plastic cover on the left.
Tables, fence, and wheels fitted, we're pretty much ready to go!
The fence goes on very easy, there's one bolt head that fit's under the support bracket after which you tighten up with the right hand yellow handle. There's only two other bolts to tighten up, which secures the alloy face plate to the bracket.
Although there are clear markings on the back, I found the 90 to be just a little out, but setting the fence to 90 degrees was a complete doddle and took only a few seconds.
The supporting bracket for the fence isn't central to the alloy face of the fence which you can see in the above image, and whilst you can adjust where the allow face plate goes over the in feed table side, you have to check the fence isn't going to catch on the blade.
Power supply, this pushes in to the on/off switch on the front.
One of the dust extraction covers in place. You have to lower the thicknessing bed to slip this in, and then raise the bed to secure. This also connects with the Micro Switch in side, the machine won't come on otherwise. [ Hope that makes sense]
In feed table adjustment markings. Not sure what this is all about, those lines are 3mm apart!
Part Two...The CX2000 Chip Extractor.
A few nuts and bolt and this should be together in no time.
The side frames push in to the brackets on the base, then turn the locking collars, and it's done.
There's four bolts on the motor housing that go through the top of the side frames, with four large plastic knobs to hold everything in place. Would have been nice if the Record Power badge wasn't up side down
The bags aren't attached by anything as such, you just push them and they fit all snug as a bug in a rug. There's even a little window in the bottom bag so you can watch it fill up.
I nice touch is the collapsible hose. I turned if off for this shot, not sure why, but I've got saggy bags in this shot
And here's a picture of the happy couple.
Now for the interesting bit, planing and thicknessing some rough sawn. A length of pine which I think was 44 x 20 or 22 mm, sadly I forgot to measure it first.
I set the in feed table to around 1 mm, and gave the timber three passes.
Now with the planed face up against the fence, I planed one edge. Before and after images below.
Swopping over to use the thicknesser isn't quite as quick as having a gull wing table, but it's only a couple of minutes before you're up and running. Lower the thicknessing table to remove the 2 nd part of the extractor hood, release two levers to remove the out feed table, flip the 1st part of the extractor hood over, pop the 2nd part of the extractor hood, and lock it down with the blade guard.
I set thinknessing depth to 18mm but the timber didn't want to go in and I didn't want to push it too hard, so I changed the depth to 19mm, put the timber through and measured the result. 18.89mm.
Next was the opposing edge. I wanted to set thickness to 43mm, but as you can see from the above image there's a nice screw head on the 40mm mark so it was just a case of counting down from 30. Once the timber went through I checked for square, and all four sides were lovely and square to each other
My first piece of rough sawn timber was now flat, square, straight and usable. Hopefully!
Here's a few extra images to show how well the chip extraction worked.
After planing two sides and with the fence removed, there were just a few small shavings on the table, the bottom image showing floor shavings from using the thicknesser. No doubt there may be a few in there from using the planer.
All the rest are safe and sound where they should be, in the bag. You can also see how the bottom bag fit's.
The PT260 seems to be a cracking little machine. I really like how easy it was to set the fence to 90 degrees, and I like how the blade guard moves up and down instead of being on an arm from the out feed table. I'm going to see if it's possible to retro fit a digital display for thicknessing, shouldn't be an impossible task. The in feed table marker could do with being a little more accurate, but I suppose fitting a tape measure wouldn't be a problem. Change over isn't super fast, but then I'm not in a rush either! Chip extraction is very good, and I'm very happy to have bought the CX2000 at the same time, other wise the floor would be a right mess. Just a note on noise. The extractor was surprisingly quite, to the point that once the P/T was and working, you couldn't really tell the extractor was on. The collapsible hose is a nice touch, and with the easy fit cuff attached it'll be easy to swop the extractor over on to other machines.
I'll be putting a bit more rough sawn through tomorrow, my mum wants a small clothes rail making for baby clothes that she knits/makes. I'll also have to be a bit more organised in the shed now as there's less room to move about, but that's not a complaint
PS: My apologies I should have mentioned. I didn't set the blades as the chap at Grahams said they should be factory set and ready to go, so I may have just had a little luck that everything worked out. I also forgot to photograph the blade checking device that was supplied, but it's just a small thin piece of shaped metal, took me a few minutes to work out what it was.
I've taken lots of images, so many in fact that I deleted a few by mistake! So, here in pictures, is the PT260X planer thicknesser with the CX2000 chip extractor.
I ordered the DX100X easy fit cuff which Grahams very kindly included in the cost, and If anyone is looking to purchase this kit it does make life a lot easier.
Box open showing the fence on top with the wheel kit on the right.
After removing the fence I took the wheel kit out and bolted the wheels on and then put everything to one side.
This now left the PT260 body. It would have been possible to lift it out of the box if it wasn't for the polystyrene base, but as the instructions tell you to put the machine on it's side to add the legs, I tilted the box on it's end and just eased the body out.
I've placed it face down, the instructions say to remove the green plastic cap on the back before laying down, but as the back cover is plastic, I went the other way. Don't think it makes a difference.
Now the legs in place it can stand up on it's own. Lifting it wasn't a problem and the legs are very sturdy, so there's no fear of them bending when the machine is just on two legs whilst you tilt it.
Two bolts secure the switch unit, and there's one long bolt that secures the thicknessing table height handle.
I then gave the cast iron thicknessing table a good clean and finished it with Briwax.
On with the in feed table. There's a couple of metal plates that are removed first and the adjustment handle fits in to a threaded hole, [Seen in the above image with red grease round it] then the plates go back on. Part of the dust extraction unit has also been attached, which is the black plastic cover on the left.
Tables, fence, and wheels fitted, we're pretty much ready to go!
The fence goes on very easy, there's one bolt head that fit's under the support bracket after which you tighten up with the right hand yellow handle. There's only two other bolts to tighten up, which secures the alloy face plate to the bracket.
Although there are clear markings on the back, I found the 90 to be just a little out, but setting the fence to 90 degrees was a complete doddle and took only a few seconds.
The supporting bracket for the fence isn't central to the alloy face of the fence which you can see in the above image, and whilst you can adjust where the allow face plate goes over the in feed table side, you have to check the fence isn't going to catch on the blade.
Power supply, this pushes in to the on/off switch on the front.
One of the dust extraction covers in place. You have to lower the thicknessing bed to slip this in, and then raise the bed to secure. This also connects with the Micro Switch in side, the machine won't come on otherwise. [ Hope that makes sense]
In feed table adjustment markings. Not sure what this is all about, those lines are 3mm apart!
Part Two...The CX2000 Chip Extractor.
A few nuts and bolt and this should be together in no time.
The side frames push in to the brackets on the base, then turn the locking collars, and it's done.
There's four bolts on the motor housing that go through the top of the side frames, with four large plastic knobs to hold everything in place. Would have been nice if the Record Power badge wasn't up side down
The bags aren't attached by anything as such, you just push them and they fit all snug as a bug in a rug. There's even a little window in the bottom bag so you can watch it fill up.
I nice touch is the collapsible hose. I turned if off for this shot, not sure why, but I've got saggy bags in this shot
And here's a picture of the happy couple.
Now for the interesting bit, planing and thicknessing some rough sawn. A length of pine which I think was 44 x 20 or 22 mm, sadly I forgot to measure it first.
I set the in feed table to around 1 mm, and gave the timber three passes.
Now with the planed face up against the fence, I planed one edge. Before and after images below.
Swopping over to use the thicknesser isn't quite as quick as having a gull wing table, but it's only a couple of minutes before you're up and running. Lower the thicknessing table to remove the 2 nd part of the extractor hood, release two levers to remove the out feed table, flip the 1st part of the extractor hood over, pop the 2nd part of the extractor hood, and lock it down with the blade guard.
I set thinknessing depth to 18mm but the timber didn't want to go in and I didn't want to push it too hard, so I changed the depth to 19mm, put the timber through and measured the result. 18.89mm.
Next was the opposing edge. I wanted to set thickness to 43mm, but as you can see from the above image there's a nice screw head on the 40mm mark so it was just a case of counting down from 30. Once the timber went through I checked for square, and all four sides were lovely and square to each other
My first piece of rough sawn timber was now flat, square, straight and usable. Hopefully!
Here's a few extra images to show how well the chip extraction worked.
After planing two sides and with the fence removed, there were just a few small shavings on the table, the bottom image showing floor shavings from using the thicknesser. No doubt there may be a few in there from using the planer.
All the rest are safe and sound where they should be, in the bag. You can also see how the bottom bag fit's.
The PT260 seems to be a cracking little machine. I really like how easy it was to set the fence to 90 degrees, and I like how the blade guard moves up and down instead of being on an arm from the out feed table. I'm going to see if it's possible to retro fit a digital display for thicknessing, shouldn't be an impossible task. The in feed table marker could do with being a little more accurate, but I suppose fitting a tape measure wouldn't be a problem. Change over isn't super fast, but then I'm not in a rush either! Chip extraction is very good, and I'm very happy to have bought the CX2000 at the same time, other wise the floor would be a right mess. Just a note on noise. The extractor was surprisingly quite, to the point that once the P/T was and working, you couldn't really tell the extractor was on. The collapsible hose is a nice touch, and with the easy fit cuff attached it'll be easy to swop the extractor over on to other machines.
I'll be putting a bit more rough sawn through tomorrow, my mum wants a small clothes rail making for baby clothes that she knits/makes. I'll also have to be a bit more organised in the shed now as there's less room to move about, but that's not a complaint
PS: My apologies I should have mentioned. I didn't set the blades as the chap at Grahams said they should be factory set and ready to go, so I may have just had a little luck that everything worked out. I also forgot to photograph the blade checking device that was supplied, but it's just a small thin piece of shaped metal, took me a few minutes to work out what it was.
