Thread: First Thicknesser Dilemmas

Speaking as someone who doesn't have a thickie, but at some point would love to own one, I'd go for a spiral head, in a heartbeat, on noise alone. Everyone says a spiral head is so much quieter. But here's the catch - the Sherwood is not a true spiral cutter, it's just an offset flat cutter. Check the pics at https://www.timbecon.com.au/october-...ad-thicknesser to see the cutters appear to be square to the timber, and contrast it to the "helical head" in https://www.carbatec.com.au/thicknes...cal-cutterhead which is the ducks guts in cutter heads.

Good luck picking !

Australian Wood Review did a shootout a year or so ago on the Dewalt against the H&F and Carbatec equivalents; these other two machines are advertised as “spiral heads” but in reality are really just an interupted segmented head. The H&F was the lightest, the Dewalt gave the best finish and the Carbatec was the most robust. I bought the Carbatec and have been very happy with it.

The Dewalt gave the best results even though it uses straight knives. It has two feed speeds so cranky timbers can be cleaned up with very light cuts at low speed. The downsides? Straight knives mean resharpening. Any nicks in the blades will show up on the finsihed surface and setting knives in a cutter head so all are equal is a PITA. Additionally, the infeed and outfeed tables were bloody optional extras!

You can retrofit a Shellix style helical head to this machine, a couple of forum members have done this and reported that basically it turns the machine into an industrial quality tool.

Oh, forget the inbuilt dust extraction on the Sherwood, it won’t be effective. The biggest fan that be driven from the spare power left in the motor isn’t big enough to clear the chips. Like it or not you’re going to have to either buy an extractor to clear the chips or only ever work outside in the garden.

The blades on the Dewalt aren’t really designed to be re sharpened, but they are double sided. They are a snack to replace as they basicaly “clip” into place before tightening down, so you can’t adjust the height. For this reason, sharpening would be a Pita as you would have to remove exactly the same amount off each blade.
The cost of a helical head is almost the same as the thicknesser itself but the three blades give an excellent finish. They are NOISY!!

We have the carbatec “spiral head” thicknesser at our Men’s Shed. The concept of quiet is definitely relative.
This is the noisiest machine in the shop, although presumably less noisy thanthe straight blade thicknessers.

We replaced the HSS blades with carbide (from SJ Tools, a member of this forum) which helped. Our machine is hooked up to a shop vacuum which sits on the trolley underneath the thicknesser. Seems to be fine for our use, although we empty the bin a couple of times per day. I’d be wary of any chip extraction that os not powerful enough as the cutters can clog, heat builds up quickly and the cutters lose their sharpness.

As a suggestion, I’d recommend that whatever machine you buy you look at putting an UHMW sheet on the lower surface to help the timber slide through smoothly.

Brian

I had the Dewalt and it was a great beginners thickie. It served me well for many years before I upgraded to a 20”.

The Dewalt is very very loud and with a chip catcher will make a big mess of the back yard. They seem to hold their value pretty well too

The Dewalt is a brilliant machine I'd still have it if I didn't upgrade to a larger machine, I installed the Byrd spiral cutter head in mine and apart from making it quieter the finish product was perfect.

I'd go for the Dewalt machine, you'll be surprised how impressive it is and just how loud it is!

The DeWalt 735 does a great job but I sold mine because the noise level was intolerable.

I toyed with the idea of installing a Byrd helical cutter but decided it would still be too noisy as most of the noise is generated by the motor and drive system
I have measured 105dBA on the 735 when thicknessing - loud enough to wake the dead

If you can afford it buy a machine with helical head and a solid chassis with an induction motor. It will be cheaper in the long run.

I have an electra beckum 10" jointer thicknesser. I recently sold a benchtop 13" dro thicknesser.

My advice is simple.

Buy a spiral head with carbide inserts. I did not know there were non carbide spiral head thicknessers until I read above.

You don't need extraction. I've tried everything on mine and have never been happy, so I just let it shoot them all over the driveway now and sweep up after. If you must a shop vac will suck up the chips nicely.

This machine is by far the loudest in my shop now. I will buy a spiral head for it when I have the money. Not just quieter but less tear out also.

The spiral heads improve the machines no end.

Another option might be to buy second hand and get a carbide spiral head for it. From what I've heard unless you are doing massive production runs you will never need to sharpen or reset it ever.

2c.

Originally Posted by warmtone

most of the noise is generated by the motor and drive system....If you can afford it buy a machine with helical head and a solid chassis with an induction motor.

This

ALL the lunchbox thicknessers are going to be loud, helical head or not.

When we did the head swap on the big SCM at work, it cut a full 10 dB(A) off the noise; both running free and under load.

Thanks for the input so far.

Honestly i could afford to buy whatever machine i wanted but for the amount it will be used i'm not spending more than what the Dewalt will cost (approx $1200).

I will always wear ear muffs when using so noise isn't a big issue for me..nor is weight as i will build a stand on wheels for it..

A few things have got me in two minds now as i was under the impression the blower on the Dewalt would be sufficient to blow all the shavings and chips into whatever i hooked onto it. (dust bag or hose into bin)?? I want the least amount of mess possible..

So by the above comments i should just get the Dewalt 735 as there is nothing else close to it for the price..am i right? Or would the Carbatec 13" be a better option for $300 less?

Thanks

You may want to head to the dust extraction part of the forum to get an idea why a dust extractor is in your best interest to consider. These things create dust along with the chips and that dust is bad for your health. Cheers Cal

If you are still going to use it outside, as you said in Post 1, just attach the chip chute. The guy I bought mine from did exactly that - shot the chips into a pile in the garden.
i have mine hooked to an extraction system with a 100mm pipe ( can’t go bigger as that’s the size of the powered chip chute) but I check the internal section for chips if thicknessing very stringy timber as it can block.
I just use hearing protection and shut the shed door and the shed external noise isn’t that bad.
Mines on a trolley so I can store it in a corner when not in use as I have a small shed.

if your running it outside, I hope you have friendly neighbours

Originally Posted by Cal

You may want to head to the dust extraction part of the forum to get an idea why a dust extractor is in your best interest to consider. These things create dust along with the chips and that dust is bad for your health. Cheers Cal

Ye ok i’ll check it out but I’ve done a fair bit of work with MDF so wearing a proper dust mask is a must so when im using the machine it wouldn’t bother me to wear one..

Im really starting to lean towards the Dewalt now..

Originally Posted by NUTSACK

Ye ok i’ll check it out but I’ve done a fair bit of work with MDF so wearing a proper dust mask is a must so when im using the machine it wouldn’t bother me to wear one..

Im really starting to lean towards the Dewalt now..

The dewalt will serve you well.