The Xcalibur PT250 Planer Thicknesser

[PeteG]

I called Roy at Woodford Tooling yesterday to see if he had any planer thicknessers in stock as there weren't any on the new site, and the prices on the old site are out of date. Roy said he had the PT250 and sent me an email with an image including the price, after which I arranged to go over this morning to see the one on display. Cutting it all short, I bought one, and I was back in the car just after twelve. At 1.30 the delivery van turned up What was very noticeable was the size of the crate, it was quite a bit smaller than the one that the AW106 arrived in, it was then I realised that the base was separate. Not a problem, once we had it in the shed I set about unpacking. First impressions are that it is a very well finished machine with some very similar characteristics in a ppearance. Both beds are cast iron, with an aluminum fence. I'm not going to waffle on, but I'll take lots of photographs and I'll add captions as I go along.

[ My apologies, I didn't put the price in! The PT250 is £565.00 including Vat, but excluding delivery. The delivery charge was £40.00 being in Greater Manchester, but you'll need to check depending up on your area ]









Now this is the bit where I'm a little stuck. I have the base of the machine on the moveable base, but I'm waiting for some help to arrive getting the top part married up, more to follow, hopefully in a few hours

 

[Alexam]

That looks good Pete. I'm very envious and have been looking for a P/T for a while, but a lower price range.

I'm interested in seeing more as you get it up and running with a review. Nice photos, what's your camera?

Alex

 

[PeteG]

Hello Alex. I thought it was going to be the New Year before I sorted another P/T out. The credit I had with Axminster for the AW106, I used on Saturday for a Domino DF500. I'd planned to save up for the Jet or may be the Record PT107, but both of these machines would mean an upgrade in my electrics. Not a huge thing granted. Then yesterday, I was looking at a few models at Screwfix, the Woodstar PT85, Titan TTB579PLN and the Scheppach HMS 2000, all between £150 and £280. I was tempted, and thought either one of these would be OK for a few months, at least I'd be able to use some real timber with the Domino as well as MDF or plywood. By chance I looked at Woodford Tooling's old site and saw their P/T's, the 10" being advertised for £349.00 Ex Vat, I seriously thought the new prices would be in line with others, £750 plus. When Roy said they were £565.00 including Vat, it had to be. To be honest, did I really need to spend £1300.00 on the Jet, probably not for my needs as it won't be used on a daily basis. Although Roy said that he'd rate this machine for light trade use [ Furniture ], so it should last for a few years to come.

The camera is a Nikon D90 which I bought several years back, and I used the two strobes which I mentioned in this thread speedlight-kit-t82638.html

 

[PeteG]

A few more piccies. I called my cousin to see if he would give me a hand getting the top part on to the base, but he couldn't make it until late on, but I'm not far off now. I need to spend a bit longer cleaning it though. But here we go.

The main parts are now all together and I can move it around which makes life a bit easier.



A bit obvious, but a shot with the back cover removed.



If the Jet digital display fits, it'll be a lot easier to fit than it was on the AW106, as the wheel to raise the thicknessing bed on the Xcalibur is on the left of the cabinet, and with the motor being on the left, the two bolts on the inside are easier to get out. Only a small thing I know, but worth a mention.



The fence parts ready to be assembled. At this point I couldn't find number 2 flash gun, then I realised I'd left it inside the base after taking the above shot. So I had to remove the back cover again to get it out



The assembled fence, sadly the bolts to hold the bracket down were missing so I couldn't square the fence up, but if it's the same as the one Roy had on display, it'll be rock solid.



I put everything in place to give you an idea of the complete machine. I'm quite busy tomorrow and Thursday so it'll be a couple of days before I can finish cleaning it, and I need to check the beds, and sort
the bolts out for the fence. I haven't switched it on yet, I'll will try that tomorrow.

 

[Wizard9999]

Pete

Nice post, nice pictures and it looks a nice P/T. I'll be very interested to hear how you find it when you get to use it.

As an aside I find Woodford a frustrating outfit. I wish they could actually have a website that listed all the products they sell. I know from Ebay they sell an Xcalibur bandsaw, hadn't realised they also did a P/T, but even now I don' know how would I go about getting specification, prices, etc. Woodford seem to have the exclusive rights to Xcalibur in the UK, so I would have thought Xcalibur would want them to do the best job they could of helping people decide to buy them. Living in the south I'm afraid it is not an option to just drop into Woodford to see what they have on offer.

Terry.

 

[PeteG]

Pete

Nice post, nice pictures and it looks a nice P/T. I'll be very interested to hear how you find it when you get to use it.

As an aside I find Woodford a frustrating outfit. I wish they could actually have a website that listed all the products they sell. I know from Ebay they sell an Xcalibur bandsaw, hadn't realised they also did a P/T, but even now I do how would I go about getting specification, prices, etc. Woodford seem to have the exclusive rights to Xcalibur in the UK, so I would have thought Xcalibur would want them to do the best job they could of helping people decide to buy them. Living in the south I'm afraid it is not an option to just drop into Woodford to see what they have on offer.

Terry.

Hello Terry. I need to spend a bit more time with her, but so far so good, and for the money I don't think you can fault it. I know people like cast iron, but the fence on the Axi AW106 was quite heavy, although I suppose it depends on how many times you have to remove it, as long as the aluminum fence on the Xcalibur stays square and true there shouldn't be a problem.
I know what you mean about Woodford! Last year I'd been saving up for one the table saws, I think it was about £450.00, it was only after phoning Roy for the first time, I found out I'd been looking at the old site, and the new saws where around £800.00. That's when I bought the Axi TS200.

PS: I forgot to mention, Woodford had a very nice heavy duty wheeled base for £40.00 but I only had enough money left to cover the delivery or else I'd bought one.

 

[Stuart]

It looks very good and solid, a good buy.
I see what you mean about the Woodford web site, it is such a shame, they should invest some time and money or take it down as it does them no credit as it is.

 

[PeteG]

It looks very good and solid, a good buy.
I see what you mean about the Woodford web site, it is such a shame, they should invest some time and money or take it down as it does them no credit as it is.

Hello Simon It is a very solid machine, except the fence which I'm about to cover! Although I think this may end in tears by the end of today to be honest, if it does, I'll update later...

 

[PeteG]

I'd planned to get some proper work done yesterday but it wasn't to be. Whith the all the excitement of cleaning it and taking piccies I didn't notice a nasty little gouge in the out feed table, I emailed Roy who replaced the machine yesterday.



So, here is an image of the replacement



A couple more close up shots and I'll move on to the fence.





The fence was/is a real pig to get square, especially if like me, this is your first planer thicknesser and you don't know what you're doing! I actually wasted a lot of time yesterday and at the end of the day I hadn't really achieved a great deal, other than having a clean machine. If I got the fence square on the in feed table, it wasn't square near the blade or on the out feed table and vice versa.

This is the fence, "C" folds flat against "B" and the whole thing slides in to the bracket "A". Tightening the "A" knob locks "B" in to place but allows "C" to run freely underneath.



After a lot of adjusting I settled for squaring the fence over the in feed table close to the blade.



As soon as you tried to make any adjustments using the two levers on the back of the fence, it would pull the whole fence out. I've put a red background in to help make it a little more noticeable.





Thinking I was good to go and eager to get the first piece of timber planed, I switched her on. I was expecting it to sound quite loud, surprisingly it wasn't and the machine sounded really sweet.
[ Dust/chip extraction needs to be sorted out yet ] I put a piece of shop bought PAR 3" x 2" through the planer, not really aware how much setting up was yet to be done.

After a few passes, I ended up with a piece of timber with nice angles, left image, although the planed area was nice and smooth. I checked the in feed table and it was tilting from front to back, towards the fence. I loosened the locking handle that holds the in feed table down and it came back up in to position. Although it wasn't and still isn't level to the out feed table. The in feed table tilts from left to right. Hope this is making sense! I then put another piece of timber through, face and edge, and thought I had two flat sides that were square to each other, so I changed over to thicknessing mode. After a few passes with depth adjustment in between I now had a piece of 25mm thick timber. I then did the same for the remaining edge, and ended up with a piece of 60 x 25 mm. I then checked them again for squareness, which they weren't [ Right image ].







I'm a bit lost for words now. I spoke to Roy this morning to find out how I adjust the in feed table and set the fence, as there must be a way of doing it. A couple of phone calls later and whilst I've been updating the thread, Roy has just called to say he is sending the driver to collect the machine and give me a refund... :shock:

 

[Wizard9999]

Pete

Fascinating saga. Very interested as I liked the sound of this P/T (initially). Does your last comment mean that they do not intend to get you another machine?

Terry.

 

[PeteG]

Pete

Fascinating saga. Very interested as I liked the sound of this P/T (initially). Does your last comment mean that they do not intend to get you another machine?

Terry.

Hello Terry It's gone mate and I've been given a refund! Driver left about 20 minutes ago. I called Roy this morning for some help/advice on if there was a trick or two on getting the fence square, and to find out how you adjusted the in feed table, as mentioned above there was a slope from left to right, so you were pushing the wood up hill towards the blade so to speak. He sounded a bit agitated so I told him I hadn't phoned up for an argument, and that I'd spent most of yesterday cleaning and playing with it, and I that I loved my machine. I just needed a little help setting it up. I also made an offer, that if he fancied sending one of his engineers out, I'd offer my services as a product photographer free of charge [ And by that I didn't mean the snaps I'd been taking as part of this thread ] He said his engineers were to busy elsewhere, as far as he knew you couldn't adjust the tables other than front to back, and then he said something which basically meant this was doing his head in, and it would be better to send the driver out to collect the machine and refund me. I told him that wasn't what I wanted as I believed it was a great machine that just needed setting up but, if that's what you want I'm in all day. So it's gone.

 

[Wizard9999]

Pete

Fascinating saga. Very interested as I liked the sound of this P/T (initially). Does your last comment mean that they do not intend to get you another machine?

Terry.

Hello Terry It's gone mate and I've been given a refund! Driver left about 20 minutes ago. I called Roy this morning for some help/advice on if there was a trick or two on getting the fence square, and to find out how you adjusted the in feed table, as mentioned above there was a slope from left to right, so you were pushing the wood up hill towards the blade so to speak. He sounded a bit agitated so I told him I hadn't phoned up for an argument, and that I'd spent most of yesterday cleaning and playing with it, and I that I loved my machine. I just needed a little help setting it up. I also made an offer, that if he fancied sending one of his engineers out, I'd offer my services as a product photographer free of charge [ And by that I didn't mean the snaps I'd been taking as part of this thread ] He said his engineers were to busy elsewhere, as far as he knew you couldn't adjust the tables other than front to back, and then he said something which basically meant this was doing his head in, and it would be better to send the driver out to collect the machine and refund me. I told him that wasn't what I wanted as I believed it was a great machine that just needed setting up but, if that's what you want I'm in all day. So it's gone.

Well I'm gobsmacked.

I can only assume that retail is an insignificant part of their business, otherwise they wouldn't have one. Given the number of glowing recommendations I have read I have set my heart on the Xcalibur (now Harvey?) table saw, but whilst the product sounds great your experience of Woodford (to the best of my knowledge the only source for them in the UK) is making me think twice.

What experience do others have of Woodford? Is there anyone else in the UK who can supply Xcalibur machines?

And Pete, what's the plan now re a P/T?

Terry.

 

[PeteG]

I'm still a little gobsmacked Terry, been trying to think if at some point I'd upset the guy. When I emailed about the gouge in the first machine he said come right over and pick one you're happy with and the driver will follow you back. I wasn't expecting things to happen that quick but they did, and yesterday afternoon I had the replacement. When I called this morning, I was after a little help as previously mentioned, nothing more. Perhaps I caught Roy on a bad day, who knows! I thought after calling I'd have the information I needed to set it up, as I'd planned to sort some rough sawn timber out and then spend some time with the Domino at weekend. When it became obvious during the phone call that Roy would prefer to give me a refund, I thought sod it, go on.

To answer your question about a replacement, I have no idea mate. Over the past month I've had three delivered and now I don't have any makes you think, and it's now making me think if I actually want one.
The answer is, I really don't know. I've even thought of buying separates, but in reality I don't have the funds. I think it comes down to the Record PT260 or looking for something in the used market.