Portable spiral cutter Thicknessers

[centron-sg1]

Yeah very similar to the carba tec one, I bet they are made in the same factory.... I only bought the Hafco from Hare&Forbes cos their delivery is so much faster for me... and far better customer service I find, Would be great to replace the cutters with Carbide, I bought a pack of 10 regular spares with it and I guess they will last me a fair while considering I only really do hobby stuff. Very simple to change or rotate, takes a few minutes..... I think for around $700 these are great for the hobbyist with a small shop.... Still a fair investment though. I will keep my eye on the thread. Many thanks....

Hi Centronsq1 thanks for the reply, looked up your machine on line appears similar to the carba tec, although carbatec is not true spiral. the cost of your replacement inserts is even more expensive $69 for 10 or $207 for pack of 3. they appear identical if they are14mm sqr x2mm.I have contacted carb I tool to see I they can source from their euro supplier of inserts,I believe we are paying over premium price ,also the tungsten carbide bits are a better value, Rossco

[centron-sg1]

Just for reference, the Hafco Woodmaster T-13S let me do this to endgrain:







With very little sanding...

[Mozzmanau]

Wish my HAFCO T-13s was that good. Mine was terrible. Head was way out of whack, left streaks all over the timber, rises and dips. Had to do so much sanding that it wasnt even worth using.

Would highly recommend staying away from the T-13s as its over priced for the results you get.

Returned mine for repair but still terrible. Will be asking for a refund now.

[centron-sg1]

Wish my HAFCO T-13s was that good. Mine was terrible. Head was way out of whack, left streaks all over the timber, rises and dips. Had to do so much sanding that it wasnt even worth using.

Would highly recommend staying away from the T-13s as its over priced for the results you get.

Returned mine for repair but still terrible. Will be asking for a refund now.

Sorry to hear that, If they are reluctant to do a refund ask for a replacement. I guess with this brand it's a bit of a lucky dip.... Sounds like something inside is loose if it's going up and down.... Could be dangerous....
I stripped mine down when I first got it and checked every thing before I used it. Some stuff was a bit loose but I couldn't see any issues....I was a little suspicious with this when it arrived as I had issues before with a hare&forbes Drill press and a very badly assembled router table where from the factory they both needed a far bit of "tightening up". These things do a significant amount of RPM for their size so best to make sure....

I Had some initial snipe issues as it is quite impossible to set the infeed and outfeed tables correctly, I fixed this but laying a scrap piece of 33cm wide melamine over the whole infeed and outfeed. Now it does pretty good cuts and even end grain without issues...

Good luck....

[Pearo]

I have not tried my CTX-330X machine yet. To busy fighting neighbors for a shed. I bought mine for a specific reason.

But for endgrain my 15" does pretty good job with no snipe, tearout or kickback. Any chinese machine off the shelf seems to be rubbish unless you spend the time to set it up and tune it, which is a pain in the proverbial. I put a nail through my 15" machine recently after I fitted new blades and now its all buggered and thats all it takes.

To date, I have done no fine furniture, my machine has been used almost 100% for renovations with the exception being end grain cutting board from scrap and a few odd joinery jobs.

[safari]

I also have the Carbatec 330x. Apart from some initial mucking about to rectify some sniping it has been a good purchase.

In the light of centron's post I ran some end grain oregon through it and experienced some tear out - a bit more than could be sanded out with an orbital sander. Would need a thickness sander, however for all other wood I have run through it up to date the finish has been excellent. The spiral head is an improvement on straight knives but obviously not as good as a helical head. Still very happy with the machine apart from the cost of the cutters.

[centron-sg1]

I also have the Carbatec 330x. Apart from some initial mucking about to rectify some sniping it has been a good purchase.

In the light of centron's post I ran some end grain oregon through it and experienced some tear out - a bit more than could be sanded out with an orbital sander. Would need a thickness sander, however for all other wood I have run through it up to date the finish has been excellent. The spiral head is an improvement on straight knives but obviously not as good as a helical head. Still very happy with the machine apart from the cost of the cutters.

I found very light cuts to be the key, tear out happens for me if I take to aggressive a cut. Still get tearout on the ends of the endgrain board but this is fixed if you use a sacrificial board glued to the ends of the endgrain....

[ACT_Grumbles]

[QUOTE=Evanism;
This thread has reinvigorated my desire to upgrade to carbide as I flipped the HSS blades last week...so, I'll reconfirm all the numbers to ensure 100% and then post the details of the manufacturer.[/QUOTE]

Thx Evanism;

I too have owned/used this machine for about 18 months - very happy with the results - seems a good balance of value and function until the blade change is required. Ran over a nail in some beautiful and very old Qld Hoop pine. Voila! instant feature stripes in 250mm Hoop Pine.

I had stopped by C-tec store in Brisbane earlier this year and asked after replacement carbide blades and was told they no longer stocked them as they were too expensive to sell!

I am not confident that sharpening 26 tiny pieces of HSS is a worthwhile task or even possible.

I would be very happy if you can publish your findings on compatible Carbide cutters. Good work

[TheSchmuck]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with the Hafco T-13s ? I've seen plenty of discussion about the Carbatec C330x, but this thread is the only one I can turn up even referencing the Hafco model.

Right now (Jan 2015), the Carbatec C330x is $820 and the Hafco T-13s is $650 - so I'd be most interested to know if the Hafco is any good.

Cheers

Dan

[centron-sg1]

Hi mate, I have the T-13s and am very happy with it...

[Gerryattrick]

Did anyone ever source less expensive /4 sided blades. I am thinking of buying a CT330X but the New Zealand price seems to be waay up there now at nearly $1200! price of blades mean I would have to sell my first born for a set.

Maybe there is something cheaper in the spiral/helical format that is more affordable..if so I'd love to hear.

[Chris Parks]

Unless a segment is badly damaged by a nail strike or similar they last for years and then only need rotation and not replacement.

[aldav]

sje-tools, a member here does carbide inserts for a lot of the spiral head jointers/thicknessers at very attractive prices. I'm not sure if he stocks them for that model, but it couldn't hurt to send him a PM.