Thread: Choosing a Thicknesser

Robert - one thing I've noticed looking around the US boards for reviews etc is that the DeWalt seems to go in the US for around US$400 - but here it's up around $1,100 most places. Theoretically it should be around $800 - and at that price I'd definitely ditch the Ryobi and pay the extra. The DeWalt seems like a very nicely built machine.

Maybe the new Ryobi hitting the market will prompt a bit more realistic pricing.

I had a look at the Ryobi thicknesser at a show the other day. It looked reasonably solid with four columns and not a great deal different in its basic design the the much lauded Dewalt unit.

If I hadn't just bought the Scheppach combination a few days earlier I most likely would have bought the ryobi which was on display and had a bit of a ding in it which they were willing to negotiate over and then looked out for a big old wide buzzer

Just my 2 cents worth
Darryn

Well, I bit the bullet last night and picked up the new Ryobi thicknesser.

Set it up this morning and started testing. First impressions were reasonable - heavy, quite solid, reasonable finish and all seemed OK. The infeed & outfeed tables needed adjusting, but I was expecting that.

I used half a dozen lengths around 500 - 600mm of various timbers for the test. I started with radiata pine, tassie oak, jarrah - all around 40 x 70mm, plus a 250mm x 19mm pine board.

The first problem I hit was that it is physically impossible to cut more than 1mm at a time - the casting that holds the motor & cutter head is in the way. Cutting 1mm was not fun either - it sounded like it was working way too hard.

Snipe was bad - very bad, both leading & trailing ends. I tried the trick with the melamine board, but that didn't really help either.

Removing the board after the cut was way too hard - the outfeed roller is not driven, so you wind up with the board jammed under it. Holding the housing & pulling the board out results in scratches over the last 60mm or so.

Running timber under one section of the cutter head (the left) results in ridges along the length of the board - seems the blades needed resharpening out of the box. Out of the box it produced a difference in thickness across the width of the 250mm board of around 0.5mm.

I found out that Ryobi are not importing any dust collection fittings into Australia. Making one wouldn't be too bad - except that there are not really any proper mountings for one. These things make a hell of a lot of sawdust - I need to hook up dust collection. I also found out that Ryobi are not expecting any stock of blades for a month or more.

I guess if you're prepared to deal with the bad snipe, and you can adjust the machine well enough, and you don't mind only cutting 1mm max at a time, then the Ryobi is OK. Certainly a lot better than the old model, and at $488 dirt cheap.

Me, I wasn't impressed at all. It was worth a shot - and if it had have been good enough, would have been a bargain. I took it back to Bunnings this afternoon and bought a DeWalt.

I noticed the DeWalt in the latest Gasweld catalogue for $1,135 and Bunnings had it for $1,189. True to their price match guarantee, Bunnings dropped the price 10% below Gasweld and I got it for $1,021.

Night and day is the best description of the difference. I set it up & ran some boards through it this afternoon. The fit & finish of the machine is much better.

Like the Ryobi, I had to adjust the tables, but that wasn't a big deal. Again, no dust collector fitting, but one is available apparently, and there are decent mountings for it. It's larger & heavier than the Ryobi - mostly a result of the heavier base casting.

I ran the same boards through the machine and all worked very well. Zero difference in thickness across a 250mm wide board, and a brilliant finish. A rough piece of tassie oak comes up beautifully smooth. I ran a 70mm wide piece of jarrah down to 5mm thick and it did a great job of it. The results are so smooth that you'd barely have to sand.

I ran a couple of lenghts of radiata pine 2 x 3 framing timber through to make a start on a roll around stand for the machine. It's the usual hardware store rubbish - full of big, open knots & so on. The DeWalt did a nice job of it, dealt with the knots fine. They both came up very well.

I'm getting a little snipe most of the time - enough to feel, but not enough to measure with a dial caliper - and only on the leading edge. It seems to be worst with the short lengths, and I think it's me not holding the board down as I feed it in. I expect I'll have to improve my setup & technique to minimise it.

The machine has a thickness preset dial - 6, 12 & 19mm - and best of all a depth of cut indicator, which is very handy. They include a spare belt in the box. There was also a sheet of 24(!) grit glass paper in the box as well. I still have to work out what that's for - I think for dressing the rubber coated rollers.

Seems I proved to myself (again), you get what you pay for

Now I just have to build the stand for it, and ring DeWalt on Monday and order the dust collection hood.

Thanks for the report Darryl this are the kind of reviews we need and once again the price matches the performance.

I already asked a while ago but perhaps someone went shopping since. Anyone has used the Taiwan planers/thicknessers sold by Carbatec Timbecon and others at $1000-$1200 range ? Do they also match the price ?

Jack

Jack: From the shopping I did, I wouldn't touch the one from Timbecon - they tend to sell some kinda nasty stuff from what I've seen

For the money, I'd shy away from the own-brand 12.5 & 13" Taiwanese thicknessers from Carbatec too - you can get a Delta for basically the same price, or pay a little more and get the DeWalt (I got mine for $1,021). The 15" own brand unit that Carbatec sell is nice - if you have the space to dedicate to it, and you're willing to pay around $1,600 for it.

Yes, thanks for the reviews Darryl.
From what I've seen on this board and elsewhere on the web it seems to be that they rank in the following order?

1. DeWalt
2. Delta
3. Jet
4. Carbatec
5. Timbecon / Ryobi

With the Jet and the Delta being about $200
cheaper that the DeWalt. I guess the question is is the DeWalt a $200 better machine?

Cheers
Craig

I am looking a a combined planer/thicknesser unfortunately the new shed will not have enough room for separate machines (9.5m x 3.6m).
Regarding the brands we already went trough it on other threads and it seems we should talk about particular models and not brands.

The Carbatec P/T 260 seems to be identical to the one from Hare & forbes which is identical to the Timbecon one, I did not see the ledacraft irl but it seems to be identical again from the photos, Elecktra Beckum also has a model from the same base but with a much better finish for over double the price. That PT 260 as sold by almost everyone seems to be fairly popular but I cant get the opinion of anyone who has used it.

I dont have a set budget but like everyone I want to pay the least ammount possible for a suitable product, lets say that I would like to (must ?) keep it under $ 2500 for the P/T combo, I saw some second hand more robust equipment at affordable price in the paper but it seems that due to the power needed they always come in 3 phase.

Anyway I still have a few month to make up my mind and perhaps if a nice bonus comes up (but I doubt) I will reconsider the complete combination machine like a Minimax Lab300 or Hammer C3-31.

Jack

Craig:
From what I've seen, the position of DeWalt & Delta seem to be interchangable - some think one is better than the other. For what it's worth, I liked the DeWalt for several reasons:
* The finish of the machine seems better to me - nicer machining, heavier base, blade setters & other tools on board etc.
* DeWalt have a local office, and their own service centres. Delta is distributed by Carbatec, and I like dealing with them, but I can't take a Delta back to a store 15 minutes away and swap it over if it dies.
* DeWalt have the 30 day money back guarantee - figured I couldn't lose if I didn't like it.

And I wound up paying $122 more for the DeWalt than the Delta. For me it was worth it.

I like Jet machinery, and I will probably buy a Jet cabinet saw fairly soon, but I decided against a Jet thicknesser for the same reasons I didn't buy the Delta.

BTW - I have a chisel mortiser & bandsaw from Delta, mitre saw & biscuit joiner from DeWalt, and an air cleaner from Jet - I like all of them.

Oh yeah - came across something today that made me wish I'd held off a little longer DeWalt have a service centre at Homebush, and sell scratched & recon tools at good prices apparently. Might be worth giving them a call since you're in Sydney - I'm going to go see if I can pick up the dust extraction fitting for my thicknesser.

Jack:
I thought about a combo machine for quite a while, but finally decided I didn't want to pay the extra, I wanted the extra capacity, I could deal with the space issues. Plus I don't have to spend all the money at once.

My workshop is a standard 2 car garage. I've built a roll around cabinet for the thicknesser with lockable 75mm dia wheels. I've built the cabinet so that I can add in some drawers for extra storage when I get to it. At the moment it sits in some kinda dead space at the back of my table saw.

When I get the jointer I'll need to rearrange a bit, but the shop needs that anyway - and it won't really be a problem to fit it in.

Just make sure you think about the working space required when you're looking at a machine - remember that for it to be usable you'll need at least 2m (preferably 3m) of open space either end of the thicknesser. Most of the time the jointer won't need that much - assuming you use it mostly for edge jointing.

The jointer table is around 800mm high, so I should be able to place it between 2 workbenches without a problem. The thicknesser can just be pushed out of the way most of the time and only rolled out into my working area when I need to use it.

Originally posted by JackG:
I am looking a a combined planer/thicknesser unfortunately the new shed will not have enough room for separate machines (9.5m x 3.6m).
Elecktra Beckum also has a model from the same base but with a much better finish for over double the price.
Jack

The Electra beckum is the one the others copied!!!

Darryn
Who reckons Scheppach are not too shabby!

Darryl,
Thanks for the tip. Looks like I might have
to jump on a train one lunchtime and check them out.

Craig

Craig: You might want to give them a call first. I rang them today to sort out the accessories I need for the thicknesser and asked about what scratched/recon gear they had in stock. Word is apparently that they always have some stock - especially cordless drills etc - but that it varies a lot, and they currently don't have much in the way of the larger machines.

It sounded to me like they tend to shift a lot of it to dealers, not so much retail. Definitely worth a call though.

Metabo have a nice over& under unit available in a couple of different sizes.
Whilst I don't have the model No's for them a cursory glance and the recommendation by one of my local blokes who has not put me crook so far was good enough for me to point out to a fellow woodworker living some distance away.

This may also be an option fot you to check out!

Cheers

------------------
Johnno

Thanks for the info John, I believe you refer to this unit http://www.woodworking.com.au/Planer/ADH1630index.htm

In fact it is the unit I was lookin as the next step from the pt260 it costs about $2500 I havent seen it irl yet but will soon, I am glad it gets favorable feed back.

Thanks

Jack