EMistral 29th November 2007, 08:50 PM Hi all,
Last year I was offered a GMC thicknesser (the one on special at $199). It has worked fine so far although I have not used it too much and never on lots of timber at the same time.
I have started a project using spotted gum.
I have roughly 18m of 200x25mm to thickness (roughly 10 boards of different length but same thickness.
The problem I am having is that after probably 30 minutes of use (sometimes less), the thicknesser overloads and although the manual says to wait a few minutes before pressing the switch, mine does not work that way.
After more than 15 minutes, the thicknesser still does not work so I give up and stop my woodworking and resume the following day.
It has been doing that for the past 5 times I have used it with spotted gum.
And I am not taking thick shaving.
I am doing 0.25mm pass which remove almost nothing.
I have checked on the net but could not find any solution.
Prior to using it with spotted gum, I change the blade (I turned it to use the other side)
It is really annoying since I can not work at all. It is going to take me forever to thickness this spotted gum.
Any idea?
Thanks in advance.
Eric
jisk 29th November 2007, 09:00 PM That's a pretty wide board of a very, very hard timber to thickness on a little GMC machine.
The only suggestion I have is to remove less per pass... or get a different thicknesser. Also, depending on where you are, there may be a woodworking shop where you can pay to use the machines. That may help you do the timber.
artme 29th November 2007, 09:21 PM Your problem is the brand.:no:
watson 29th November 2007, 09:35 PM Your problem is the brand.:no:
I agree,
however, my GMC thicknesser is 4-5 years old.......I use it for Jarrah/ Tassie Oak/Meranti, and anything else that needs doing.
Sometimes I think I'm being a whoos.( don't know how to spell whoos).....by taking just a bee's ball for a start, then another and another, and finally all is smooth and well.
I have also used apricot tripper's remedies and major panic's set up guide.
Special treatment for un-spent dollars.
Tex79 29th November 2007, 09:37 PM Is the motor hot to touch?
It probably has some form of thermal protection switch, thats why you can use it the next day as it has cooled down.
You might be pushing it too hard, try giving it a break between boards to cool down a little.
I have a similar machine which is a Ryobi, while I haven't had the same problems as you the motor does get pretty warm to touch. Remember they're cheap machines so you need to go easy on them, don't push them let them do the work.
Cheers,
Evan
EMistral 29th November 2007, 10:13 PM The motor is not warm at all and I am doing light passes without even pushing the boards
I just let the rollers feed them.
m2c1Iw 29th November 2007, 10:39 PM Prior to using it with spotted gum, I change the blade (I turned it to use the other side)
EMistral,
Not meaning to offend but have you rechecked the blade installation? I put my cross cut blade on the TS backwards the other day:doh:wondered why it wasn't cutting to well:-
Mike
Frank&Earnest 29th November 2007, 10:49 PM The motor is not warm at all and I am doing light passes without even pushing the boards
I just let the rollers feed them.
I have no knowledge of the machine, therefore I speak on purely theoretical terms. Is it possible that this be part of the problem? Without help in pushing the board of very hard timber, the rollers need more pressure and are more likely to slip , both of which might contribute to overheating and jamming them, which could be picked up by the thermal switch. Just as an experiment, you might try reducing the pressure of the rollers and gently pushing the boards to see if it makes any difference.
EMistral 30th November 2007, 02:48 PM yes I have rechecked the blade and reinstalled it.
I thought that when I turned it what I thought was a cutting edge could have been something different.
After double checking, the other side is indeed a blade.
I will try to gently push the board tonight and see if I can work more than 30 minutes on it
echnidna 30th November 2007, 02:56 PM As the motor isn't getting warm the most likely problem is the thermal overload switch is defective
EMistral 30th November 2007, 02:58 PM any idea where I could get a replacement switch?
bpj1968 30th November 2007, 03:01 PM I've had one and had no real problems with it. The blades need replacing as I used it to dress painted/dirty wood. that was an hour or two worth of work and I used it to take off a fair amount at a time, up to 2 mm.
The blades are double sided. check to make sure that they are facing the right way. When you remove the cover the cutting edge should be nearest you.
You don't say what length the borads are, but as suggestd it is only a light machine and the board may be too heavy for the rollers to feed. As suggested try and push the board through at about the same pace taht it wants to pull.
Big Shed 30th November 2007, 03:03 PM If it is only about a year old it should still be under warranty, if it is not under warranty then GMC should be able to supply a replacement switch. If they won't supply direct, then try Bunnings, Mitre 10 or Home Hardware.
To establish whether it is the switch, try by-passing it first, shouldn't be very hard to do.
flynnsart 30th November 2007, 03:14 PM Our hafco thichnesser died a while back and we bought a chinese one badged Rexon. After some usage of it it stopped working and we took it back to the shop and the switch was replaced. Then we started thicknessing 10 35mm x about 150mm boards (ironbark air dried for 10 years). We dont take huge passes. After they had all had a few passes both sides the cuttout switch activated, and would not reset for over 1/2 an hour. So we went to town. When we came back it was fine.
I dont think this machine is as good as the previous two we have had, even though they seem to have similar motor set ups etc. The first one we had was a Jet, and I dont think we ever tripped the switch on it, except when the switch got full of sawdust! and tripped itself. Mind you, we used a lot greener timber in those days.
We have decided to work around this problem, by setting up two jobs to do at once. ie. plane a set of boards, sand the boards or dimension them, then plane another set of boards and so on. I think not shoving boards continuously through the thicknesser, but waiting 10 or 20 seconds between passes could help keep it cooler.
I would like to get a dust extractor to hook up to it as I reckon the extra air getting sucked through the machine would be a huge help. Another thing I was thinking of doing was mounting a small fan blowing down on the motor somehow.
Donna
EMistral 30th November 2007, 03:28 PM The boards range between 60 cm and 1.1m in length.
It is more than a year but maybe this one has a 2 years warranty. Need to check tonight.
If so then I'll bring it back
bsrlee 30th November 2007, 08:02 PM Its a bit obvious but - try blowing/vacuuming the thing out thoroughly. I have the Ryobi, the GMC's 1st cousin, and I was surprised at the quantity of shavings that had built up inside the casing despite having it connected to a a shopvac. A big wad of shavings could be blocking air flow & causing the thermal overload to trip prematurely & stay that way.
corbs 1st December 2007, 08:06 AM I have a GMC one at the moment and I love it but am very aware of its limitations. One suggestion I didn't see mentioned... wax the bed. I find that a bit of Ubeaut traditional wax makes a massive difference and regularly do my thicknesser and triton top with it.
Corbs
echnidna 1st December 2007, 08:38 AM anthing is going to work hard with ironbark
SAISAY 1st December 2007, 09:28 AM We have exactly the same problem with a GMC benchgrinder, we threw the angle grinder out when it happened to that one, but we do not use the benchgrinder that often.
An electrician explained to me that it is the wiring, aka the insulation on the wire, that is the problem, it is too thin and overheats quickly, then triggers the thermal switch. As he said "you get what you pay for".
Little Wolff
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