Thread: Looking for advice on jointer thicknesser combo

As far as noise goes if you get a spiral head your dust extractor may be louder than the machine.
Talking about dust extraction I hope you have a good one?

FWIW I have a ML390 10" combo planer thicknesser.
I've thought of upgrading to a bigger/better machine several times but I don't use it much and it suits the small stuff I makes in my very cramped shed so I can't really justify doing that at this stage.
I assume you know the advantages and disadvantages of these combo units?

Thanks BobL, i think i have a fairly good understanding of the advantages/disadvantages of the combo machines. I would prefer to have dedicated machines unfortunately space is my limiting factor. I have a single car garage. I have a reasonable size dust extractor so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I just did a google search for the ML390. Hadn't seen them before, how long have you been using it?

Stevo

Originally Posted by stevo81

Thanks BobL, i think i have a fairly good understanding of the advantages/disadvantages of the combo machines. I would prefer to have dedicated machines unfortunately space is my limiting factor. I have a single car garage. I have a reasonable size dust extractor so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I just did a google search for the ML390. Hadn't seen them before, how long have you been using it?

I've had mine since 2008. It's only done occasional work and I would class the finish as OK.
In that time the only thing that has broken is one of the handles for the fence.
The dust collection was poor until I recently modified use a 6" ducting as follows.

Transition1.jpg

The fence also had slight vertical bow and has been changed to this
Fence.jpg

I also modified the blade guard to this.

newguse.jpg

I have the Jet JPT310HH which has a true Byrd Helical head. The noise I hear at the woodshow demonstrations using soft woods, and the noise I get at home using hard woods is vastly different. With soft woods, I can bare to stand next to the machine without ear muffs on. With hardwoods, even soft stuff like Blackwood or Walnut, I wouldn't dare plane anything without earmuffs. The harder the material, the louder the noise gets. But of course it is still miles ahead of a benchtop thicknesser with a brush motor, but probably only equal to a big old cast iron dinosaur running a standard 2-4 knife head.

My machine has a 3hp induction motor, with thicknesser feed speed of 3.5m/min. It's an incredibly slow feed speed, but that is because the 3hp motor wouldn't do well at a reasonable feed at 7-12m/min. I was planing full width a couple of days ago at 304mm in Walnut and Myrtle. When planing with the grain, the motor handled 0.7mm passes without too much whining. When planing the end grain 0.3mm was too much, 0.25 was ok. I had to go from 37mm -> 33.5mm 0.25mm at a time. I did take much deeper cuts when jointing, but I can manage the feed speed myself when jointing. so if/when the motor begins to bog down, I can just back off on the feed speed. My cutters are extremely blunt at the moment which will be a major contributing factor, planing plywood is a bad idea but still easier than sanding it

In summary, I would be looking for
- 3hp, more is better, 10hp would be puuuuuurfect
- slow feed speed. This can probably be changed easily because "i think" the thicknesser feed wheels are driven by a simple two pulley system. Just change one of the pulleys bigger/smaller to halve the 7m/min feed speed.

A blunt spiral head will give a better cut than a blunt conventional head. A sharp spiral head vs sharp conventional head, I would take the conventional any day of the week.

I don't know if you've tried contacting Lee or Matt from iwoodlike (SCM Group) but their new Artisan combo thicknessers look like they might suit you. Both the 10" and 12" have helical cutter heads (note the 12" has a 3.6hp motor and requires 15A power). They're pretty good about arranging demos, but like most vendors a demo in a big industrial unit isn't comparable to the acoustics of a home garage.

The ML390 is now the ML392, a generic 10" taiwanese machine sold under many brands - Carbatec, Hare and Forbes, Oltre, Leda etc. All much of a muchness, as long as the tables are flat and square to the cutter head. Rarely are they well adjusted out of the box, which might explain the reluctance of vendors to demo them. It's a sad fact that hobbyists spend chump change compared to industrial users, and the low level of service you receive is a consequence of that.

Originally Posted by stevo81

Hi Fellow members

Im looking at replacing my noisy bench top thicknesser and would also like to have a jointer. I have been to 2 different carbatec stores, the iwoodlike show room and also spoken to timbecon over the phone. In my attempts at visiting show rooms i have not found anyone who can actually give me enough info to encourage me to lean toward a particular machine/brand etc nor do they even seem interested in getting a sale. In most cases the machines cant even be powered up to see the quality of cut or to compare how loud they are. Level of volume is a large consideration for me as my workshop is less then 4m from my neighbors kitchen window.

I'm not trying to pick on any of the sellers of this equipment i'm just a little shocked that they expect someone to hand over $4000 + of their hard earned money without a demo or even seeing the machine powered up.

Im hoping to get some info from fellow members here as to what machine they have, how well it performs etc. Im not too concerned about the cost a i have to save the $$ so if it takes a little longer to save to buy a better machine then ok with me. hoping to purchase something at the working with wood show next year.

Thanks in advance for any info

Stevo

Hi Stevo, what sort of money are you looking at spending I am selling my Hammer A3-41 straight blade 2007 model
Was only used for guitar making woods and is in mint condition if you are interested PM me.

Thanks everyone for the advice, its very much appreciated.

Stevo

Originally Posted by Kuffy

When planing the end grain 0.3mm was too much, 0.25 was ok. I had to go from 37mm -> 33.5mm 0.25mm at a time.

Should have brought it over, ours will take 1-2mm per pass in endgrain; 10hp and all to the head, none of this feed and cutter on the same motor rubbish

A sharp spiral head vs sharp conventional head, I would take the conventional any day of the week.

Nuh uh. We get a way better finish on the helical than we ever did on a fresh set of straight knives and that's aside from the noise and eliminating blocked filters from full width shavings.