I have one. The reason you cant find much is that its now been superseded by the SD31 which is identical in every way except it now has an aluminium extrusion for a fence instead of the cast iron and it has an integrated digital counter on the thicknessing bed.
Personally, I wanted the cast iron fence so I guess the "upgrade" is to save money so they can make more profit.
I looked long and hard before I bought mine and for the money they were best in class. The individual features that caused me to buy mine were 6 in particular:
- it has the longest table of all its competition, 1.4m from memory and when you're planing long stock that's critical. I was making oak doors from sawn stock at the time so needed those long tables and had specifically come from a smaller machine that I found the limitation in short tables.
- 3 knife cutter block for super smooth finish
- Cast iron tables and fence (I like cast iron for obvious reasons)
- 12" table width
- thicknesser designed with central column assembly which I prefer over the four cornered design
- The changeover from planing to thicknessing is just a lift of the hinged outfeed. It's childs play. Again I had come from a cheaper machine where the change over was awkward and time consuming. The SD300 has the best changeover mechanism available in my view. Some think that the ideal is where both beds are raised to avoid the tables going non co planer. I've never experienced that with mine and given the amount of cast iron in the tables its not surprising.
I recommend you grab it with both arms quick. My experience has been very positive with the SD300. Mine's 3 years old now and rock solid in every way.
