SIP Planer problems

[Lowlife]

I bought a SIP 01543 - 6" Planer before Xmas, I needed a small benchtop planer for preparing small pieces of timber quickly, didn't want to spend a fortune, and this one looked like it would do the job. Unfortunately I've had a few problems with it.

The machine arrived OK after a couple of days, it was bought online from Ray Graham's Ltd in NI and was delivered direct from SIP on a drop ship arrangement. After unpacking it and setting it up I noticed one problem straight away, the infeed and outfeed tables were out of parallel to each other by a degree or so, the user manual doesn't have much advice on adjustments and nothing at all on this.

I decided to give it a try anyway and finished setting it up, when I switched it on for the first time there was a very loud noise and I got a faceful of shattered plastic! Luckily I was wearing glasses so I didn't get any in my eyes, I hadn't bothered to put goggles on as I wasn't actually machining anything, the one time I've been thankful for my failing short range eyesight!

So I phoned SIP's tech dept, the guy I spoke to was quite concerned about the shattered plastic business (it turned out to be the plastic moulding that surrounds the cutter, part of the extraction system), and was unable to advise on the table adjustment. He arranged for the machine to be collected and examined.

This morning a brand new replacement machine arrived out of the blue, I was beginning to wonder what was happening as it's been a few weeks since I sent it back and was about to phone them again. As soon as I unpacked it I could see this one had the same problem with the tables, a quick check with a straight edge confirmed they were approx 1.5 degrees out of parallel, if anything a bit worse than the previous one.

So it was back on to SIP's tech dept, the guy I spoke to basically said they were inexpensive machines and you got what you paid for, fair enough I suppose but I'd expect even a budget machine to be useable! He didn't think there was any point sending me another because, in his words "...it was unlikely to be up to the standard I required", so they've arranged to take it back and get me a refund from the retailer.

All in all not the greatest experience, they've been decent enough about returning both machines and replacing the original one, but the machine itself is something of a disappointment. OK I wasn't expecting the earth from such a small budget planer, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the machine to be safe and fit for purpose, which in the case of these two they certainly weren't.

One good thing to come out of this is that it's given me a boot up the backside, sitting under my workbench for several years has been an old cast iron planer, make unknown, that I bought cheaply on eBay. It came on a home-made wooden cabinet stand which I wasn't happy with and discarded, and it had no motor, I bought a new Clarke motor and switch for it at the time but never got around to doing anything with it. Now I'm finally going to drag it out and see exactly what it needs to get it working!

In the meantime I think I may invest in another hand plane for the collection, the QS No7 looks very nice, or maybe a good second-hand Stanley...

 

[Steve Maskery]

That's a salutary tale. OK you have your money back, but a lot of wasted time.
I'd say that 1.5deg is too much. My Kity was a tad out, but I could fettle it by filing the bearing bar on which the outfeed table rests. My mate Brian and I did it all in a few hours and by the end it sang like a canary.

If you tolerate the beds being out of alignment, your timber will never be flat, especially over longer lengths.

At least you have learned a lesson without it costing you lots of money. Thanks for sharing.
S

 

[Digit]

'You get what you pay for.' Yep! So if it's useless why do we have to pay for it I ask?
Good luck with the old one, CI for ever!

Roy.

 

[Chems]

I had one briefly, mine exploded when thicknessing some walnut, the cogs in the front housing all just snapped off as they were plastic. Sent it back and replaced it with the Axy bench top jointer. A better machine.

But you can't beat the cast iron stuff!

 

[Lowlife]

I'll darg the old one out at the weekend and post some photos on here, maybe someone will be able to ID it.

 

[powertools]

That's a salutary tale. OK you have your money back, but a lot of wasted time.
I'd say that 1.5deg is too much. My Kity was a tad out, but I could fettle it by filing the bearing bar on which the outfeed table rests. My mate Brian and I did it all in a few hours and by the end it sang like a canary.

If you tolerate the beds being out of alignment, your timber will never be flat, especially over longer lengths.

At least you have learned a lesson without it costing you lots of money. Thanks for sharing.
S

In effect what Steve is saying is that even a "quality" machine can be out of true but it is somehow worth 2 of them spending several hours putting it right.
I would have thought that it was worth you spending some time on a lower cost machine to produce the results you expect at a price you are happy to pay.

 

[Lowlife]

If I could have seen an easy way to correct it I might have done so, but I looked it over and couldn't see how to adjust it, filing bits off etc would have invalidated the warranty which I didn't really want to do, as I could still have ended up with an unusable machine and no way to get my money back.

After the shattered plastic incident I wasn't too confident about the machine anyway, but I thought I would at least give them a chance to sort it out, but two duff machines in a row with the exact same fault was enough I think.