Another Thicknesser Thread (Maybe?)

[Mooncabbage]

Hey all! Been saving my pennies, and I can finally afford to buy some kind of machine, so I'd really appreciate some advice. Before everyone yells at me and tells me to use the search function, I already did, and I think I read just about every recent thread about thicknessers on this forum.

First, some background. I'm a relatively new woodworker, with a very tight budget. I work mostly with found or recycled timbers. I also have a very small basement shop, so I primarily work with hand tools. Every machine has to earn it's floor space. So far the only machine I have purchased is a cheap ryobi drill press from bunnies, and I'm honestly quite happy with it. It has it's limitations, but I can almost always work around them. So now I'm looking to pick up another machine, and I'm thinking a benchtop thicknesser is the way to go. I can cart it out when I need it, and put it away when I don't. As I understand, it can also be used with a sled as a jointer for very thick stock. Anything thinner I can almost certainly joint with hand planes. I'm still open to suggestions for other machines though, if anyone thinks I'm misguided.

What I'm looking for is something to take some of the hard work out of dimensioning the odds and sods timbers I find. I'm also currently building a roubo style workbench out of 3"x6" jarrah beams, which are a little irregular, so I'd really like a machine that could help me work with those. What I don't need, is something which produces a perfectly smooth finish. So long as the finished piece is close to accurately dimensioned, I can smooth with hand planes happily. Speed is also not really a concern.

I am in Perth, which makes some machines more difficult to aquire, and I have a hard budget of $500, which is unlikely to increase by any great sum.

With that in mind, would I be best off getting a new thicknesser (probably the Jet 12"), some kind of table saw, or a band saw?

All advice warmly received!

[crowie]

G'day "Mooncabbage",
Have a look at a Dewalt 735 Thicknesser [little over your $500 but top machine IMHO].
It comes with a 3 blade cutter, 2 speed, great chip exhaust, [infeed & outfeed tables available via Amazon]
and later you can upgrade it with a Byrd Spiral Cutter Head.....
Standard the Dewalt is heaps quieter than my old 2 blade machine,
BUT from all the research the Byrd Spiral Cutter Head makes it almost "no ear protection required" running.
Cheers, crowie

PS _ It'll be worth the wait for the extra money or maybe even a good secondhand machine for your budget.....

[Mooncabbage]

Thanks for the reply Crowie. Unfortunately 2nd hand of any quality is pretty rare in Perth, and I don't know anywhere here that sells the DeWalt. When I looked them up they seemed quite considerably over my budget, and as I said, my budget isn't likely to change. Actually my woodworking budget is about $50 a fortnight, so it's taken me quite a while even to raise the $500 :P And I reaaaaaaaaaally want to get on with my workbench, because my current workbench is just an old cabinet :P

It's hard to find much info on the Jet 12" thicknesser, apart from specs. Jet are a reputable brand, and not much more expensive than the Bunnies Ryobi etc. Given that I don't really care about the quality of cut, so much as durability and quality, how does that impact what I'm looking for?

[crowie]

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f275/dewalt-735-planer-thicknesser-dust-extractor-bag-183060

[derekcohen]

What you are really asking is, with $500 to spend, which machine would be more useful?

Personally, if working with Jarrah, I'd purchase a jointer before a thicknesser. However, I am not sure what you could get for $500 (second hand to maximise value) and it does need to be at least 8" wide. Why a jointer and not a thicknesser? Well, because it is always easier to thickness the second side (as you have a reference to work with) than flatten the first. Also, sometimes you just need a flat surface on one side (since the other is not seen).

This recommendation becomes even stronger when you have a bandsaw, since you can flatten one side with the jointer, thickness (resaw) with the bandsaw, and then smooth with handplanes.

To confuse matters more, I went for about 15 years before I purchased a thicknesser or jointer or bandsaw. I had a tablesaw and a router and handplanes. The router I can live without. The tablesaw is a boon when working with hard timber. What could you get for $500? Is this a better purchase than a jointer? You could get away with a circular saw and straight edge for now. Still, I'd rather have the tablesaw. It is a very versatile power tool (ripping, crosscutting, tenons, grooving, dados, etc) if you are not comfortable with handtools.

Jointer and bandsaw. Work on it.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mooncabbage]

Thanks Derek. Seems like you understood my quandary pretty well :P

I will have a look at jointers. Can anyone speak to the quality of the 10" Carba-tec bandsaw? Perhaps I could make do with that for now.

PS. Seems like what I can afford is 1 of:
Carbatec 10" Bandsaw
Jet 12" Thicknesser
Carbatec 6" Benchtop Jointer
Ryobi 1500W 254mm Corded Table Saw (Bunnies)

Which of these is going to make my stock preparing life easiest, in combination with handsaws and hand planes?

PPS. I actually have 3 circular saws, however they didn't work out so well. The two larger ones have had their bottom plates enamel finish removed, so it's like pushing a very very heavy thing up hill, and the other one just doesn't have the depth of cut to deal with thick timbers. Hence my resorting to another machine.

[silentC]

I reckon that if you are happy to flatten boards with a hand plane, you will get the most use out of a bandsaw, which will allow you to roughly dimension boards, amongst numerous other things that you have probably never thought of. Very versatile machines.

If you go the thicknesser path, you really need a jointer as well to make the most of it because you need a reference face and a square edge. And if you want to reduce something quite thick down to thin boards, you will lose a lot of material to the thicknesser blades in getting there. If I could only buy one, I would buy a thicknesser because you can use a sled to get a reference face with the thicknesser, and you can edge joint with a hand plane.

But I reckon the answer to Derek's question is the bandsaw. Carbatec has one for $409 and the change would go towards some spare blades. Or if you can scratch up another $269 you could get the 14" model, plus they have a deal on at the moment where if you spend $500 you get a $100 gift card.

[Mooncabbage]

I don't mind flattening boards by hand. It's reducing them to thickness that sucks. I think I might have to look into this thicknesser sled technology. If it can get me within a mile, it might be the way to go. A jointer would be good, but I have a feeling that the one inside my budget is going to be inadequate to the task. I've also seen jigs and sleds for bandsaws and tablesaws, for getting a straight-ish edge on timber. A good bandsaw probably does a decent job of thicknessing too, given sufficiently oversize stock.

I'm more confused now than before I asked :P

The Carba-Tec special only applies to money spent on machines, not accessories or other gubbins. It's a bit cheeky really.

[silentC]

I suppose I was thinking in terms of what would be the most useful machine all up, assuming you can only have one.

A thicknesser is the perfect machine for ensuring a board is of equal thickness along it's length, but without a sled that's all it will do. With a sled, it will allow you to also make sure the faces of the board are straight in both directions (assuming your sled is itself straight). I have used that method to flatten the face of a slab cut with a chainsaw. I then run the board through with that face down and you have a perfect board.

What a thicknesser won't do is joint your edges, unless the board is not very wide. It's really not practical to put a square edge on a board with a thicknesser.

You can't do either of those things with a bandsaw - well not with any kind of finish you'll be happy with. But you can use one to get within striking distance and then finesse it with your hand planes. And it will do it potentially with less waste because you can save the offcuts. With a thicknesser, you'll only have a bag of woodchips.

And a bandsaw will do so much more. I use mine all the time.

[Mooncabbage]

I think the only time I'd want to edge joint by machine would be one those very thick jarrah beams for my workbench. Those pieces are about 13cm wide and 8cm thick.... something in that ballpark. I could peg or somehow fix a few of them together and edge joint them that way. Anything thinner is easy enough to quickly saw to width and joint with a No.7 (I love my No7). The thicknesser would also be good for tidying up a lot of my reclaimed timber, some of which has grooves in, or shallow beads etc, or maybe is just fuzzy construction lumber.

The bandsaw would be handy for cutting to width, cutting curved pieces, and resawing. Resawing by hand also kinda sucks, but atleast it's mostly gruntwork. Doesn't require nearly as much brain power as flattening or jointing by hand. The size of the 10" bandsaw is also somewhat limiting. Another potential pro for the bandsaw, I have seen some people milling bits of tree with theirs, which would be another great source for wood for me. Would need to be a larger bandsaw though.

In an ideal world, I would have both, but I have to choose one.

[silentC]

Yes mine is 16". You can get riser kits for some of the machines to increase the height, but you can't do much about the throat width.

It's like anything, if you're working within a budget, you need to look at the best way to maximise your purchase. Which is what you're trying to do here. You'll always get dissenting opinions and these threads can go on for pages with no real outcome. At some point you will have to make a decision. Whichever way you go, you probably won't regret it.

When I was setting up, I bought a 6" jointer and a 13" portable thicknesser, I already had a Triton (now there's an option to consider if you already have circular saws). I bought the tablesaw a year later and then the bandsaw and about 4 years ago the 8" jointer. Hard to imagine now how I would do without them, but I did. The most important thing is to be enjoying the woodwork and even the hard slog stuff should be rewarding if you look at it the right way.

[Mooncabbage]

Well, whichever thing I get, I can probably get another machine in another 6 months or so :P

At the moment I am trying to research planer sleds to see how viable an option that is.

I did have a triton I bought second hand, but it eventually made it's way to bulk collection, because the top was badly rusted under the paint, far worse than it initially appeared. Without a top, a triton isn't much good, and my efforts to fix it ultimately failed. It wasn't all bad though, I got quite a good circular saw and a brand new saw blade out of it :P

[crowie]

Harry Sinclair has put a Router Sled up on this forum and on Router forum....
Harry's a first class woodworker especially with a router...
If the search on the forum doesn't bring it up, try a google search for "Harry Sinclair Router Sled"
Cheers.........

[Mooncabbage]

I don't have a router, and while I'd like one (mostly for making wooden screws), it's fairly low on my list of priorities. Cheers anyway though.

[Superbunny]

G'day "Mooncabbage",
Have a look at a Dewalt 735 Thicknesser [little over your $500 but top machine IMHO].
It comes with a 3 blade cutter, 2 speed, great chip exhaust, [infeed & outfeed tables available via Amazon]
and later you can upgrade it with a Byrd Spiral Cutter Head.....
Standard the Dewalt is heaps quieter than my old 2 blade machine,
BUT from all the research the Byrd Spiral Cutter Head makes it almost "no ear protection required" running.

I have one with the Byrd Spiral Cutter and I can tell you you still need ear muffs on.

SB