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Thread: Wixey gauge on thicknesser
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20th June 2017, 09:38 PM #16
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21st June 2017, 04:48 PM #17
fitting the wixey to ctj680 thicky
Ok so here's the way I did it.
20170621_141058.jpeg
To successfully make the wixey work on any given thicknesser you first need to find a suitable place to mount it. It must be a flat spot parallel to the columns that the cutterhead rises and falls on and at least as long as the mounting bracket. You also need to be able to attach the readout head of the wixey to the cutterhead casting so that it moves up and down with the cutterhead. There is nowhere on this machine that will allow this.
If you cannot find a suitable spot then you need to get resourceful and make one. I found a spot on the infeed side which looked nice and flat on which I could possibly secure a piece of 2" angle iron.
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Now remember that this flat surface has to be parallel to the four columns, so in reality you just have to make sure it is parallel to one of them and the rest will look after themselves. I "eyeballed" the edges of the angle iron against the nearest column and I was pleased to find that all I had to do was round over the corner of the angle iron nearest the infeed table as the casting curved up at that point. Once that was done the angle iron sat nice and squarely on the casting and parallel to the column. Now to secure it into place.
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I marked the inside of the angle iron with my scriber and made a bracket to fit inside the angle iron (see bracket in next photo) and drilled and tapped a couple of holes to accept m6 bolts (I had m6 bolts and a set of metric taps and dies. You could use other suitable sizes depending on what you have in your workshop).
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And here is the bracket bolted on. Note the two holes in the front ready to attach the angle iron to.
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And there is the angle iron mounting bracket attached to the body of the thicky and parallel to the columns. Note the holes in the angle iron ready to mount the wixey mounting bracket. You want to be careful where you put those holes as accurate placement will save a lot of cursing and swearing further down.
Remember those holes and how critical their placement is, and read on to the next post. All will be revealed.I got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.
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21st June 2017, 05:36 PM #18
Ok remember those holes above? This is why they are important to have at the right height.
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See the flat platform on the bottom of the wixey mounting bracket? Also note the thin raised part of the casting of the thicknesser base right beside the infeed table? Well there is another raised part the same height on the other side of the infeed table and you want to get the horizontal platform on the bottom of the wixey mounting bracket and these two raised parts of the casting to be coplanar. (note: if you have a different model of thicknesser that does not look the same you may want to make the bottom of the mounting bracket level with the infeed table or something else.
Why is this important? The way you set the absolute scale on the wixey is to run a board through the thicknesser then place the board between the bottom horizontal platform and the spring-loaded ruler the readout head runs on. If you mount the wixey mounting bracket at the right height the board will be held on all three horizontal surfaces and will not be twisted in the gauge causing minor inaccuracies.
So I put a straightedge over the three parts I wanted coplanar, held the wixey marking bracket in place and marked the locations of the holes in the angle iron to match up with the holes in the wixey mounting bracket. It is not a lot harder to do this than to just drill them at random and the small extra effort will be repaid every time you use your thicknesser.
So with the wixey mounting bracket attached to the angle iron, and the gauge assembled, its now time to set the absolute scale - approximately. Within a couple of mm will be fine as I am building in an adjustment facility as you will discover as you read on.
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In the picture above there is a piece of Oregon pine that has been through the thicknesser, so that piece is the thickness that timber will come out with the cutterhead locked to its current height. placing the oregon on the horizontal surface at the bottom of the gauge (over the top of the other two supporting surfaces mentioned before) it has raised the zero mark on the scale above the bottom of the bracket by its thickness exactly. Therefore when we move the readout head to align exactly with zero on the scale we are setting it to "Absolute Zero".
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So with the readout head taped to zero mark on the ruler (not on the digital readout, we just need to be in the ballpark at this stage, remember I am building in an adjustment mechanism) we then need to design a way to rigidly join the readout head to the cutterhead casting so that it rides up and down on the scale as the cutter head is raised and lowered. There is a screw on the side of the readout head for attaching it in this way.
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Time to make a cardboard prototype. Cardboard is much easier to work than steel.
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Then once you have made all the mistakes on the cardboard one then duplicate it in steel, aluminium, brass if you feel so inclined. I just used an offcut of steel that just happened to be in the little shed.
Note that the hole in the thin end (that goes into the readout head of the wixey) is elongated - remember the fine adjustment facility I mentioned, well there it is.
Lets start a new post for the rest.I got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.
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21st June 2017, 06:07 PM #19
Next thing to do is to attach the plate we just made between the readout head and the cutterhead casting.
One thing I did not mention earlier, is that when you put the wixey mounting bracket onto the angle iron you need to make sure that the end of the readout head where the mounting bolt is located will finish up in line with the surface you will be mounting the back of the plate to the cutterhead casting. Hopefully nobody will start doing this without reading all the way through the instructions.
So I found the best way to do this accurately was to ensure that the readout head was still taped to the zero point as discussed above. Then I screwed the plate to the readout head, with the screw in the middle of the elongated hole to allow adjustment in both directions, and taped the plate with its top edge horizontal onto the cutterhead casting.
20170621_144125.jpg
Then I marked the holes with my scriber, centrepunched them, and drilled and tapped them.
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The plate was then screwed into place.
20170621_145902.jpeg 20170621_145909.jpeg
You may need to pack out the end of the plate and the readout head to make the readout head slide freely on the scale bar. I did.
All that is left to do now is to set the right height to put the piece of oregon back through it again and this time set absolute zero with the digital scale and the fine adjustment slot.
But before I do all the final minor adjustments I will pull it all apart, clean up any rough bits and paint it satin black so it matches in with all the other bits attached to he thicknesser body.
Once it is set up you have a choice of using absolute measurements or incremental methods so it will suit me and Fred.
I am happy to help out with any further info if anyone is doing a build-along.
Cheers
DougI got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.
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24th June 2017, 04:37 PM #20Woodworking mechanic
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Ordered the Wixey from the link Doug3030 put up- thanks Doug. It should be here week after next. In the meantime, I stripped the thicknesser I just bought secondhand and gave it a total clean and checked brushes etc. It needed a new mobile home instead of the plank of wood it was on. Machinery Warehouse universal stand ($32-couldn't make it for that price), some 18mm ply and 4 locking castors.
Hooked up the 100mm outlet to my 6" hose and it's ready to go Gave it a test run on some jarrah, some Merbau and some pine. Great finish!!
IMG_0715.jpg
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28th June 2017, 07:05 PM #21Woodworking mechanic
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Impressed on two fronts
Firstly, ordered the Wixey from England at 11pm on the 20/6 and expected delivery was 29/6 to 11/7. Arrived 11am today 28/7. Great service
Read through the instructions and watched a great YouTube video. The measurement base plate on the Wixey must be level or slightly higher than the tricky platen plate but no lower. There is a base rest adjustable screw that is be fitted on most thicknesser as they have a base for it to rest on. Instructions say that it isn't used on the Dewalt 735 because there is nothing for it to rest on.
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Being paranoid as I had only one go with the double sided tape to align and get the correct height, I added a temporary base plate, used the base screw and set the Wixey base 0.5mm above the platen height.
IMG_0741.jpg
The gauge has double sided tape to fasten it to the thicknesser and on the Dewalt, it is stuck to the measurement scale. Since it has no base rest screw on the Dewalt, you must screw and fasten it to the scale. They provide the screws and the drill bit.
On other units, because it has the base screw you only need the tape according to the instructions.
Remove the pointer and add a supplied bracket then fasten a rod between that bracket and the Wixey body.
IMG_0742.jpg
Set the planer to a known height (I set it to 19mm on the set dial) then set the Wixey body to that measurement on its physical scale, then tighten all the screws.
Calibration is relatively simple - plane a piece of timber, place it between the measurement rod and the measurement base plate, hold the cal. button until it read 0 then press the button again to set.
I planed to 19mm and used that. You must be careful the the timber is accurately placed between the rod and the base; any tipping and the measurement is wrong..
The second time I was impressed was with the accuracy of the Wixey.
After calibrating, I picked an offcut of timber which was just over 18mm thick. I wound the thicknesser so the front scale on the Dewalt indicated it would remove some about 1mm timber and the Wixey read 17.3mm
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Ran it it through the thicknesser and measured the timber with vernier calipers.
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Spot on
Very nice accessory for the price.
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30th June 2017, 07:42 PM #22
Hi Lappa.
Great to hear that you are happy with the Wixey.
I still believe it's a very worthwhile upgrade to any thicknesser that uses a scale rule. I'm still happy with mine after several years of use.
Steven.
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30th June 2017, 10:38 PM #23
Looks like everyone was putting wixeys on thicknessers last week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqrV...em-subs_digestI got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.
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2nd July 2017, 03:10 PM #24
I have the old Sherwood thicknesser with the readout built in. I noticed it's the only lunchbox model that ever had it and can't get it in the new ones. I must admit when I first got it I thought it was a bit of a gimmick but now I've come to rely on it every time I use my thicknesser, I don't know how I'd do without it now, my method of work as evolved around it. I just can't understand why they wouldn't make a model with it built in, I thought it was the way of the future then it just disappeared in the next model! No one makes them built in.
Now when I eventually upgrade I will have to spend more cash and time fitting a Wixey just to get back to where I was with my old one. Sometimes I think the design of thicknessers and other woodworking machines are going backwards. I'm reluctant to upgrade mine to a spiral cutter in case it's near the end of it's life. Either way I will be up for a lot more cash and time when it comes to an upgrade.
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