Hi all
Just thought I would share my experiences on the subject of planer/thicknessers. If I had the space and still had three phase then it would have been so simple, a nice old fashioned iron beast from the days when machinery was made to last and to high standards but not to be as I moved North and left all behind. Now like so many I was faced with a lot of rebadged lightweight machinery or the more expensive stuff that would cost as much as an iron beast but not built as good. So being an engineer I took the long winded logical approach and did all my homework only to go round in circles for some time as I tried to get some finalist, which would have been Jet had they still been around or the Startrite SD31 because of the easy table lift. Dismissed the SD31 due to limatations in space and finaly went with a Record PT107 mainly because the 5 year warranty and it seemed reasonably well built when compared to others in the tin can line up from somewhere in Asia.
Biggest concern with the Record was the need to mess around and remove the fence in order to lift the tables for thicknessing and sure enough this was instantly in my face. Loosen arm to raise the guard out of the way to slide fence out and then reverse again later, what a pain and something that needed addressing. Reading other post on this site there had been ideas and suggestions but I thought about what it is I would be using the planer for and asked myself if I needed to edge joint timber on the front end of the cutter drum. The answer was no, not really if I could make lifting the tables easier. Result is I have removed two inches from the fence guide so now I can just slide the fence right forward and lift it out without loosening the bolt in the guard arm and I could push the whole machine further back to save precious space. On the subject of the guard, personally I would prefer the American swing type guard as that is more compact.
all the best Roy
Just thought I would share my experiences on the subject of planer/thicknessers. If I had the space and still had three phase then it would have been so simple, a nice old fashioned iron beast from the days when machinery was made to last and to high standards but not to be as I moved North and left all behind. Now like so many I was faced with a lot of rebadged lightweight machinery or the more expensive stuff that would cost as much as an iron beast but not built as good. So being an engineer I took the long winded logical approach and did all my homework only to go round in circles for some time as I tried to get some finalist, which would have been Jet had they still been around or the Startrite SD31 because of the easy table lift. Dismissed the SD31 due to limatations in space and finaly went with a Record PT107 mainly because the 5 year warranty and it seemed reasonably well built when compared to others in the tin can line up from somewhere in Asia.
Biggest concern with the Record was the need to mess around and remove the fence in order to lift the tables for thicknessing and sure enough this was instantly in my face. Loosen arm to raise the guard out of the way to slide fence out and then reverse again later, what a pain and something that needed addressing. Reading other post on this site there had been ideas and suggestions but I thought about what it is I would be using the planer for and asked myself if I needed to edge joint timber on the front end of the cutter drum. The answer was no, not really if I could make lifting the tables easier. Result is I have removed two inches from the fence guide so now I can just slide the fence right forward and lift it out without loosening the bolt in the guard arm and I could push the whole machine further back to save precious space. On the subject of the guard, personally I would prefer the American swing type guard as that is more compact.
all the best Roy
