Thread: I bought a thicknesser direct from China!

Originally Posted by qwertyu

haha we may be thinking of the same person. He tried to sell me his sander for $20,000

Name starts with an N and ends with a K.

Originally Posted by Bohdan

There is an Aust made slab flattener that works like a router. It uses (IIRC) an 8" cutter and then the cutter is replaced with a sanding disc to finish it off.

Have seen it demoed at the WWW show.

The Wood Whiz! A mate of mine has one, it's a hell of a thing.

Wood Wizz Machinery

Another option is a Slabmaster. I'm led to believe that they're significantly less expensive than the Wood Wizz. SlabMaster | YAS Engineering

interesting - any idea approx how much? what does the slab master use to surface it? is it a router bit?

back on topic
if one were to buy 2 or more of these, any idea if there is much of a saving on import taxes? Eg double the price of the goods, but if import taxes are only 1.5x more there is some saving right?

Originally Posted by qwertyu

what does the slab master use to surface it? is it a router bit?

Well if you call this - SlabMaster Cutter Plate and Tips | YAS Engineering - a router bit, then yes. Seriously though I think the biggest 'router bit' you can get in the conventional terms is 50mm diameter. There are other larger diameter 'bits' available, but they all feature replaceable cutting tips and a price to match.

No idea on prices, just going on what the owner of a Slabmaster told me.

For direct importing most of your on costs are going to be calculated on the FOB cost or volume of the freight, so although there will be a bit to be saved it probably won't be as much as you hoped.

I know a few people slab flattening with a CNC. Once it's running you can do other tasks resulting in better use of time. Very accurate, too. Then Felder have their Wide belt sanders that have a spiral cutter head first followed by a few large belts. It gets passed through, thickness planed and sanded in a single pass. Done!