Planing/Thicknessing Options

chillyspoon · 26-03-2020 4:29pm #1

Cletus made me think of this little list.. focusing purely on the entry level end of the market.

Toaster Style thicknessers (can surface plane using a simple jig):
https://www.jjacksontools.com/en/thicknesser-1100w-317mm
Triton TPT125 - €400

https://www.whraitt.ie/p/cw_12_thicknesser
Charnwood €385

Planer Thicknessers:

https://jebbtools.ie/products/planer-and-thicknesser-sip-8-inch-by-8-inch-1500w
SIP 8 x 8'' 2HP Planer Thicknesser (1500w)

https://www.whraitt.ie/p/cw_8x5_planer_thickness_
Charnwood €348.50

ScrewFix in the UK have the little Titan planer/thicknesser, which I've seen a few folks get good results with online, although obviously we're rock bottom in terms of build quality and QA. The Irish site doesn't have it listed however.

Surfacing Planing only:
https://www.iedepot.ie/wood-planer-ireland/
SIP 6" Planer €249.00

Can anyone think of any others in the entry level set?

Sparks · 29-03-2020 9:36pm

Went with a second-hand Dewalt 733 myself. I joint by hand (for the size and amount of stuff I work on, it doesn't make sense to do it any other way and to be honest, it's usually faster anyway), so the thicknesser just, well, thicknesses. And the 734 with the locking head is almost totally snipe-free and very accurate. Since it's mostly supplanted by the 735, you can find them second-hand on the UK market for decent prices (I paid £340 for mine two years ago).

Calahonda52 · 05-04-2020 12:23pm

I have had 6 different ones over the years, have none now, my last was sheppach 2600 floor mounted from the yellow, quality range.
The one before that was a big cast iron Dominion
You really need to start with the requirement/application, especially the length of stuff you work with:
you will need room for intake and out take if doing long stuff and a bench mounted one will be unstable for long stuff
then you need to consider the dimensional accuracy required.

Stanirish · 05-04-2020 1:04pm

Whichever one you buy, make sure and have an extractor - if not, shaving will get stuck on the block, and cause lines on your timber - u need away of getting the shavings sucked out as quick as possiable - even a henry hoover will help !!

chillyspoon wrote: »

Cletus made me think of this little list.. focusing purely on the entry level end of the market.

Toaster Style thicknessers (can surface plane using a simple jig):
https://www.jjacksontools.com/en/thicknesser-1100w-317mm
Triton TPT125 - €400

https://www.whraitt.ie/p/cw_12_thicknesser
Charnwood €385

Planer Thicknessers:

https://jebbtools.ie/products/planer-and-thicknesser-sip-8-inch-by-8-inch-1500w
SIP 8 x 8'' 2HP Planer Thicknesser (1500w)

https://www.whraitt.ie/p/cw_8x5_planer_thickness_
Charnwood €348.50

ScrewFix in the UK have the little Titan planer/thicknesser, which I've seen a few folks get good results with online, although obviously we're rock bottom in terms of build quality and QA. The Irish site doesn't have it listed however.

Surfacing Planing only:
https://www.iedepot.ie/wood-planer-ireland/
SIP 6" Planer €249.00

Can anyone think of any others in the entry level set?

chillyspoon · 05-04-2020 6:14pm

Stanirish wrote: »

Whichever one you buy, make sure and have an extractor - if not, shaving will get stuck on the block, and cause lines on your timber - u need away of getting the shavings sucked out as quick as possiable - even a henry hoover will help !!

Amen to that - I use a twin motor extractor through a cyclone for my planer/thicknesser, and it's a good additional point to remember for someone looking at the budget options list I posted above.

You really do need to have a plan for extraction before you go stretching your budget to purchase a particular machine, leave nothing in the kitty for extraction and end up waste deep in shavings a couple of hours later

.. that might be ok depending on the buyer's plan but if not, then you've got to get a cheaper machine and some means of extraction. A good level of extraction is possible on a budget, which got discussed on another thread at some point not to long ago and I wrote a little comparison last year between the well known entry level Oneida Dust Deputy cyclone and a cheapo one of comparable size from Banggood: https://www.chillyspoon.com/blog/2019/8/11/adding-a-cheap-dust-cyclone, which is relevant to the discussion. Dust Commander is a compelling cyclone option too.

One of those cyclone options + a basic but strong vacuum (e.g. Parkside's 1400w and 1500w wet and dry vacs are amazingly capable for the price) and you can get really good results in the budget workshop. The cyclone is just as important though due to the low storage capacity of any shop vac.

brane.nikic87 · 06-04-2020 9:30am

I have a 8x5 charnwood planer thicknesser and it is a very nice machine for my needs. I still need to tune infeed/outfeed tables as I was waiting to get dial indicator and the fence has to be changed.
As for the extraction I used old empty bottle from mineral spirits, cut the bottom and put it over CW 100mm extraction port and sealed with some duct tape. On the other end I have a 1500W Einhell Wet&Dry Vac and I have just cut the top of the same bottle to stick vacuum hose inside and seal it again with some duck tape. It is working very fine. The only thing that I need to do is to empty 30L container very often

cletus · 09-04-2020 11:16am

Lidl have, for the first time in my memory, a planer thicknesser for €199

https://www.lidl.ie/en/p/diy-deals/1500w-planer-thicknesser/p40367

I know that quite a few of the tools that both Lidl and Aldi tool bodies are readily recognisable as other brands (Einhell springs to mind). Anyone recognise the thicknesser above from another brand?

Sparks · 09-04-2020 11:28am

That looks a lot like the Charnwood one: https://www.charnwood.net/products/product/p8-x-5-bench-top-planer-thicknesser-w588/category_pathway-119
But that also looks a lot like the Sheppach one: https://www.kendaltools.co.uk/product/scheppach-hms2000-8-x-5-planer-thicknesser-with-deluxe-fence/
And a dozen other manufacturers have very similar looking machines.
The oldest one I know of that looks like that was the Kity 636 but there might be older ones. Little new under the sun.
You'd have to actually open it up and get into it to see the differences, a lot of companies now buy the castings from the same place and the innards are the difference between the machines (and they can make quite a difference).

magicbastarder · 09-04-2020 11:46am

Probably a scheppach, they've made stuff for them before. The cheapo bandsaw I bought a year or two back even mentioned scheppach several times in the manual.

BackInTown · 09-04-2020 11:52am

magicbastarder wrote: »

Probably a scheppach, they've made stuff for them before. The cheapo bandsaw I bought a year or two back even mentioned scheppach several times in the manual.

Yep on the Lidl site/link it says Scheppach

cletus · 09-04-2020 11:54am

BackInTown wrote: »

Yep on the Lidl site/link it says Scheppach

It does, you're right. Completely missed it. Thanks

cletus · 09-04-2020 12:57pm

A bit of searching over a cup of tea, and it looks like it might be the Scheppach HMS 170

https://youtu.be/uP-yNFYoHJM

Here's a video of unboxing and first use, for anyone who is interested

GreeBo · 09-04-2020 1:06pm

I have what I believe is an old sheppach 260 planer/thicknesses for sale if anyone is interested.

I'll have to confirm the model as it's buried in my parents garage at the moment, but it's a solid, yellow sheppach, probably 15+ years old.

There might even be the sheppach dust extractor around too, but I vaguely remember that being sold. There is definitely a matching table saw, but the band saw is deffo gone!

My dad took a fancy to having a garage of expensive, matching yellow equipment at one stage!

chillyspoon · 09-04-2020 1:35pm

GreeBo wrote: »

I have what I believe is an old sheppach 260 planer/thicknesses for sale if anyone is interested.

I'll have to confirm the model as it's buried in my parents garage at the moment, but it's a solid, yellow sheppach, probably 15+ years old.

There might even be the sheppach dust extractor around too, but I vaguely remember that being sold. There is definitely a matching table saw, but the band saw is deffo gone!

My dad took a fancy to having a garage of expensive, matching yellow equipment at one stage!

That's a major step up in quality over the modern "blue" stuff; possibly even still made in europe and might actually be a Kity under the skin depending when it was manufactured, as they acquired Kity in the early 2000s IIRC.

I might be interested in the table saw after restrictions lift, depending on which model it is (I can't put in one of the big ones because of floor load) but might be able to take it if it's one of the less popular small cabinets.

cletus · 09-04-2020 1:39pm

GreeBo wrote: »

I have what I believe is an old sheppach 260 planer/thicknesses for sale if anyone is interested.

I'll have to confirm the model as it's buried in my parents garage at the moment, but it's a solid, yellow sheppach, probably 15+ years old.

There might even be the sheppach dust extractor around too, but I vaguely remember that being sold. There is definitely a matching table saw, but the band saw is deffo gone!

My dad took a fancy to having a garage of expensive, matching yellow equipment at one stage!

PM sent greebo

Halycon · 16-04-2020 9:19am

There is a Scheppach P/T clone for €200 in Lidl today https://www.lidl.ie/en/p/diy-deals/1500w-planer-thicknesser/p40367

Seems like a steal. Don't know if I can justify a trip in lockdown though

mobfromcork · 16-04-2020 9:48am

It's a Scheppach HMS 850 in case anyone is thinking of getting it

GreeBo · 16-04-2020 1:15pm

chillyspoon wrote: »

That's a major step up in quality over the modern "blue" stuff; possibly even still made in europe and might actually be a Kity under the skin depending when it was manufactured, as they acquired Kity in the early 2000s IIRC.

I might be interested in the table saw after restrictions lift, depending on which model it is (I can't put in one of the big ones because of floor load) but might be able to take it if it's one of the less popular small cabinets.

Was made in 1986 so could well be a Kity and I'm fairly confident its European made!

Its not that heavy at all.

Think this is it
2207161.1441286761__.jpg

Band saw is HBS 32 vario

Planer/Thicknesser seems to be a Prima HM2 Kombi similar to below, but mine has a built in axel/wheel
$_86.JPG

They are all on COVID lockdown so I'm getting those details from memory!
When life gets back to normal I'll throw them on adverts or somewhere and post a link in a thread here (or reply to anyone who sent a PM!)

BackInTown · 18-04-2020 8:03am

I couldn’t resist the Lidl planer/thicknesser when in there yesterday. Went in for mushrooms and some bread...

The park side bandsaw which I bought secondhand, as cheap as it is, made a lot more projects feasible for me and I’m hoping this will do the same.

Ive nothing to compare it with so little basis for assessment/review, but I’ll post my first experiences in the near future (which I hope will be something like noisy and messy but gets the job done

)

dathi · 18-04-2020 11:53am

GreeBo wrote: »

Was made in 1986

Think this is it

!)

its a tku site saw built in germany

iamtony · 18-04-2020 1:59pm

BackInTown wrote: »

I couldn’t resist the Lidl planer/thicknesser when in there yesterday. Went in for mushrooms and some bread...

The park side bandsaw which I bought secondhand, as cheap as it is, made a lot more projects feasible for me and I’m hoping this will do the same.

Ive nothing to compare it with so little basis for assessment/review, but I’ll post my first experiences in the near future (which I hope will be something like noisy and messy but gets the job done )

Did they have many? I want to get one, just seen it today on the site. I don't want to go and join the social distancing ques to find they only had one per store or something.

BackInTown · 18-04-2020 2:01pm

iamtony wrote: »

Did they have many? I want to get one, just seen it today on the site. I don't want to go and join the social distancing ques to find they only had one per store or something.

I went to Blanchardstown and there were three on the floor. No idea if that would be the case in other stores.

iamtony · 18-04-2020 2:46pm

BackInTown wrote: »

I went to Blanchardstown and there were three on the floor. No idea if that would be the case in other stores.

OK thanks. Id like to leave it till a day that wasn't Saturday but I don't know now.

NTC · 18-04-2020 2:49pm

iamtony wrote: »

OK thanks. Id like to leave it till a day that wasn't Saturday but I don't know now.

I was in my store, Oranmore Co. Galway, and I saw one guy coming out with one, one guy with one in his basket and I got the third one. That was at 8am on Thursday morning.

Corkey123 · 25-04-2020 9:58pm

NTC wrote: »

I was in my store, Oranmore Co. Galway, and I saw one guy coming out with one, one guy with one in his basket and I got the third one. That was at 8am on Thursday morning.

Any update on your purchase?

Did it meet with your expectations?

NTC · 26-04-2020 10:33am

Corkey123 wrote: »

Any update on your purchase?

Did it meet with your expectations?

Still in the box, dame this dummy weather!

Hope to try it out today or tomorrow.

NTC · 26-04-2020 10:33am

Corkey123 wrote: »

Any update on your purchase?

Did it meet with your expectations?

Still in the box, dame this dummy weather!

Hope to try it out today or tomorrow.

mobfromcork · 28-04-2020 7:59am

Just took mine out of the box last night too and put it together but haven't tried it out yet, later on this afternoon hopefully. I have a good few oak, some elm and lots of maple floorboards that are tongued, grooved and have relief cuts on the underside of them. Hoping to use the thicknesser to take smooth out the underside to start and maybe remove the tongue and groove where I don't need to join them side by side.
I've never used one before - usually just hand plane them off - so won't have anything to compare it to as such but will post back when I use it.

Calahonda52 · 29-04-2020 6:18pm

Mine is still in the car, I got the last one at 08:05 in nenagh.
be interested in seeing what is does., trying to figure out how to jimmy up some sort of chip collection, the output on the thicj=knesser was awesome on my sheppach.

BackInTown · 29-04-2020 8:34pm

I’ve had two runs with it now. On the first run with the planer I had to work quite hard to convince the extraction hood to engage the safety catch. A bit of a trim of mould flashing required but it’s working now. Thicknesser is really easy to use.

I reduced some steamed beech pieces from 19 to 13mm pretty quickly and cleanly. Light hand plane needed though I assume that’s normal.

Need to read some more about using these machines well. Also any opinions on stock blades and if one would achieve better results with different blades would be interesting to hear.

It’s bloody noisy. Again I assume that’s normal. But not sure how the neighbours will feel about it.

Calahonda52 · 29-04-2020 9:33pm

BackInTown wrote: »

I’ve had two runs with it now. On the first run with the planer I had to work quite hard to convince the extraction hood to engage the safety catch. A bit of a trim of mould flashing required but it’s working now. Thicknesser is really easy to use.

I reduced some steamed beech pieces from 19 to 13mm pretty quickly and cleanly. Light hand plane needed though I assume that’s normal.

Need to read some more about using these machines well. Also any opinions on stock blades and if one would achieve better results with different blades would be interesting to hear.

It’s bloody noisy. Again I assume that’s normal. But not sure how the neighbours will feel about it.

So the machine won't run without the extraction hood in place?

BackInTown · 29-04-2020 9:58pm

Calahonda52 wrote: »

So the machine won't run without the extraction hood in place?

Yes exactly. The black plastic hood/manifold needs to push down on the metal piece indicated in image to release the safety. In planer mode it engages the same switch from the underside.

iamtony · 29-04-2020 10:52pm

BackInTown wrote: »

It’s bloody noisy. Again I assume that’s normal. But not sure how the neighbours will feel about it.

Soundsike my cheep tablesaw. I would dream of using it without ear protection and I'd say the neighbours think I rebuild jet engines for a living.

Calahonda52 · 30-04-2020 8:59am

BackInTown wrote: »

Yes exactly. The black plastic hood/manifold needs to push down on the metal piece indicated in image to release the safety. In planer mode it engages the same switch from the underside.

Thanks, is there much work involved in setting it up?

BackInTown · 30-04-2020 10:43am

No, not much to it really, just put on the, guard, the feet and the fence.
Pretty straightforward.

kadman · 06-05-2020 10:56pm

BackInTown wrote: »

I’ve had two runs with it now. On the first run with the planer I had to work quite hard to convince the extraction hood to engage the safety catch. A bit of a trim of mould flashing required but it’s working now. Thicknesser is really easy to use.

I reduced some steamed beech pieces from 19 to 13mm pretty quickly and cleanly. Light hand plane needed though I assume that’s normal.

Need to read some more about using these machines well. Also any opinions on stock blades and if one would achieve better results with different blades would be interesting to hear.

It’s bloody noisy. Again I assume that’s normal. But not sure how the neighbours will feel about it.

Something not right here if you need to lightly hand plane the material after

BackInTown · 07-05-2020 1:04pm

kadman wrote: »

Something not right here if you need to lightly hand plane the material after

Thanks for this - so would you expect a handplane like finish from a machined piece? I find I still clean up PAO bought in but this was a little worse than that. Any suggestions? I’ve been googling sharpening planer blades...

Calahonda52 · 07-05-2020 1:07pm

BackInTown wrote: »

Thanks for this - so would you expect a handplane like finish from a machined piece? I find I still clean up PAO bought in but this was a little worse than that. Any suggestions? I’ve been googling sharpening planer blades...

what exactly is the problem with the finish?

Have you tried reversing the direction of putting the piece into the thicknesses as it may be a grain issue.
Are the rollers marking it?

kadman · 08-05-2020 8:48am

BackInTown wrote: »

Thanks for this - so would you expect a handplane like finish from a machined piece? I find I still clean up PAO bought in but this was a little worse than that. Any suggestions? I’ve been googling sharpening planer blades...

I would expect an excellent finish from a new machine, new.blades, sharpened properly.

Whether its hardwood, or softwood.

With consideration to the following. Proper feed speed, as Cal has pointed out, proper grain direction, and minimal takeoff on the final cut.

With the smaller type thicknessers, its a case of more passes through the machine, as opposed to depth of cut. Less cut, more passes.

And on a decent piece of red deal you should have a slightly silky feel to the finish, and a slight sheen on the surface. This is what you are aiming for.

Post a few pics with light reflection on your timber surface to show the finish..

It should be ready for sanding from a thicknesser. Or do you finish from the plane and no sanding at all??

BackInTown · 08-05-2020 9:46am

Thanks fellas. I’m going to have a go at sharpening and then dimensioning some softwood today. I’ll take some pictures along the way and report back.

Calahonda52 · 08-05-2020 10:49am

Sharpening, unless you are really careful, may result in one blade doing more of the work.
You may need to se-set the blades?
What length are the pieces.
Are they well supported on the outfield

kadman · 08-05-2020 10:52am

Now is the opportunity to check the blade setting, before removal from the machine

BackInTown · 09-05-2020 5:02pm

Hello all.

Thanks for all the advice and comments so far. Much better results achieved yesterday.

I think my issue was poor extraction / chip build up pock marking the surface of the beech I used on the first pass, possibly combined with taking too large a cut.

Today the finish was pretty clean bar a bit of snipe on the in-feed end. So happy now with the machine bar the noise. . It's so loud that I'm rushing through using it so as to not be upsetting the neighbours - not ideal for a suburban shed. I'll definitely be considering soundproofing if I ever get around to building a better shed.

Oak - images are supposed to be embedded but not working so including links
oZTANvV

Pine (pallet)
2DvDYTH

I didn't sharpen or set blades. I'd imagine that would further improve things if done well.

Thanks all

kadman · 09-05-2020 5:46pm

Good stuff.

Keep a light lift of the material on the outfeed, at the end of the run,

this will eliminate 95% of any snipe.

If you are still getting snipe after this, if its minimal its not worth worrying about.

If its still there, its down to blade or feed roller setting. You may or may not be able to improve this on a small diy machine

mobfromcork · 09-05-2020 11:33pm

I tried mine out the other day as well. Did some short lengths of maple and oak on the thicknesser and then used the planer to flatten the edges. They are unused floorboards so was removing the grooves at the bottom.
Similar to BackinTown the only issue I ran into seemed to be chips building up as I didn't have a vacuum hooked up. The finish was ok on mine overall - made a little chopping board for a friend by laminating strips of the maple together
I tried a bit of pine as well and it few through far more easily. I have a DIY sawdust cyclone set up (badly) that I need to make an adapter for to fit the thicknesser. It produces a fair bit of waste.
I've never owned one before so nothing to compare it to but seems to be ok for DIY use. It does make a fairly heavy racket when thicknessing.

Calahonda52 · 10-05-2020 9:55am

kadman wrote: »

Good stuff.

Keep a light lift of the material on the outfeed, at the end of the run,

this will eliminate 95% of any snipe.

If you are still getting snipe after this, if its minimal its not worth worrying about.

If its still there, its down to blade or feed roller setting. You may or may not be able to improve this on a small diy machine

The other way of dealing with snipe is just allow for it in the measurements, especially if cheapish timber

kadman · 10-05-2020 10:20am

My own DeWalt DW 733 thicknesser has very very negligible snipe even if left unattended,

and virtually no snipe if the material is slightly braised at the end of the cut on the ourfeed.

Position of the blades in the cutter block have more to do with snipe than sharpness of the blades.Imho.

Blades set too high in the block give more snipe. Blades on a new machine should be properly set,

but check them with a setting jig supplied with the machine.

Planing/Thicknessing Options

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