Thread: Thicknesser dilema

I recently put thru a 300mm wide length of Brushbox thru my little Jet. It struggled, but handled it. I consistently put thru hardwood and it asks for more. MWE is the jet distributor in Sydney.

Thanks Pat. This is a hard one! Saw Major woodworking thicknessers they had a portable and a stand alone, will give them another look>

Merckx

It is all to do with load. I have an entry level 12" thicknesser (timbecon) similar to bottom of the line Carbatec and Hare and Forbes models which I think are pretty much rebadged to suit.

It will plane very old seasoned iron bark 150mm wide, but only half a mm at a time. Any more than this trips the motor on overload. Compare this to about 2mm at a time off radiata pine. This of course is with freshly sharpened blades and particularly with dense hardwoods they will dull quickly. You will hear the blade chatter as soon as they dull.

I am fortunate in having a sharpening machine so that in itself is not too much of a problem.

I have a cabinet making friend who has a 24" three phase thicknesser which I have seen him put two 150mm dry stringbark boards through taking nearly 4mm at a time. There is nothing like grunt.

I will run this timbecon model into the ground and then look at the carbatec CTJ 381. For me it is finished better and the infeed/outfeed tables are longer and more robust

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by merckx

Have been doing some net surfing and decided on Dewalt 735. At the shop the sales guy said it does not like hardwood!

He obviously has never used it then. The Dewalt is an excellent little thicknesser that goes through hardwood like butter.

I have the Hafco T 381 it takes all hardwoods dry in 3m lengths up to full width which is realy about 375mm. Hardwood that is second hand or very dry does give them a work out and I try and take it steady with that sort of work. I would have thought the Dewalt would handle it but thats just a guess. I have a Dewalt circular saw that has a lot (almost too much) of grunt.

i have just been through the same dilemma myself i was saving for one of the bigger cast top machines .
but after more thought and the fact that i want a few other machines also in the very near future i thought is it worth spending around 1500 bucks on a machine that will not be used to the max all that often on bigger hardwood sections .
if i save for the bigger machine it will take longer to acquire and will delay purchase of other machines that i want .
with a little care the smaller machine will do just about every thing i need just take it steady with light cuts .
i have a landcruiser ute and there have been times when i wish i had my old acco tip truck that i had years ago but for the amount of use it got it was better off sold .
point is that if you are not going to use all that grunt is it worth having for the 2 or 3 times a year that you will need it .
i opted for the 500 dollar h&f bench top model which will do me until i win lotto and it means i am closer to being able to buy a table saw and a few other things i need.

G'day, I purchased a Hafco T380 back in the early '80's and it has never failed me.
I welded up a steel frame with castors attached to move it around the workshop. I have 2 sets of knives for it, 1 carbide edged and another of high speed steel. (always have a sharp set on stand by). Imho, I think it has been very good value for money (cost about $1000 back then) Planes hardwood very well but dry hardwood it does pay to reduce the cut somewhat., but gives a great finish.

Cheers Billy

Thanks for the input everyone. One thing I liked about the Dewalt was the fact that the blades locate and dont need setting. Does the Hafco or the Ctec ones have this feature?

Hi Lignum,
Just went to your site, some nice stuff there. Is the Dewalt what you use in the shop?

You have to set the blades on the Hafco but its not an issue its so easy, like Billyt I have the two sets of blades and its never down out of action for than 20 min, mine already had a set of wheels under it when I bought it on ebay, $800 near enough to brand new about 5 years ago.

Originally Posted by merckx

Hi Lignum,
Just went to your site, some nice stuff there. Is the Dewalt what you use in the shop?

Thanks.

Im actually into my 5th year solid using my trusty 12” Jet. It has had literally thousands upon thousands of meters of Aussie hardwoods through it and hasn’t missed a beat. Its now close to needing the motor arbour re-lathed to get the slight dip when the brushes hit it, straightened, but at around 200 bucks it will be like new again.

All the good 12” machines are terrific. Apart from Jet and Dewalt, Makita is another that produces a pearler and the Delta is also great.

Depends on what type of work you intend for it, if you're using already dressed timber that is very close to the size you want, then you won't need to take much off and demand much from the machine.

I use only reclaimed timber so the thicknesser is my first go to machine. As i need to see what's under the skin before it gets worked on, it takes several passes before all the bumps and lumps are gone and i can say yes or no to using it.

So the more prep you need to do, the more demand you will have on the machine and your time. I always work out what capacity of tool I need, then go one up as you'll always find you want more capacity at some stage.

Try to get a machine that has locks on the adjustment, my old 16" cast base Bevel has four pillars that it slides up and down on, they can be locked with a screw cam type system, this works really well at stopping snipe and saves timber. Good luck with it

Cheers WIGdj,
Have just committed to a jet under and over, as space is an issue. Will post if I have done the right thing one I have put some miles on it.

Well done, time to make some noise. Hope you've got a decent dust extractor as they are messy sods.
Cheers
Dan