Thread: Hmmm - I want!

A used one sold for $21000 in 2018, save your pennies!

I kind of suspected! It actually looks like it would need the sort of cash flow that could spend that money without worrying: the core of the machine seems to be essentially a giant single planing blade, adjustable for skew to suit the material... The sharpening/jigging etc would be critical, I would imagine. Very, very cool to see those shavings floating out of the chute though.

There is a Royal Eight for sale in Japan for US$795 shipping will probably be 10 times that due to COVID if you could even find a shipping agent prepared to take it on.

Used Marunaka for sale. Amitec equipment & more | Machinio

Used machines: MARUNAKA Super surfacer buy second-hand (hoechsmann.com) - a couple of models here for Euro 3500 - 4500.

I came across the Maranuka machines several years ago when researching Shoji screens and Yosegi ware. Very interesting and efficient machines.

yeah it seems like something where you would want a dozen blades sharpened and ready to go.

fairly certain they would be indexed so you just take one out and put another one in its placed. But i could see frequent sharpening needed.

Keep looking around. I bought mine for the long term as I’m still building my shed. I bought 1 for a mate of mine and quite literally I paid for postage from Canberra to melb.
They are around and from what i was told some even go to the tip because of the sharpening issues. Depending on the cost of getting the power hooked up to my shed in the next few months i can’t wait to get it going. Oh I forgot I bought mine from Windsor in NSW and had it shipped to Melb. I think i paid 2k for it. It’s very much a case how much you are willing to pay for one. I have no clue about complicate Asian style joinery but i follow a few on YouTube and it may take a while watching the clips but you will find most have one hidden away. Maybe a Marunaka, Hitachi,Spinx, Makita and then there are a few European brands as well.
Steven

I'd be fascinated by a real-world review after a few months use... My initial reaction was 'wow', and its no doubt very clever tech, but:
1. The sharpening-what's the reality? The thing looks as though you'd need insane consistency along a 12 inch or so blade-is that even feasible in a 'semi-pro' shop?
2. Can one adjust the pitch of the blade as well as the shear angle? I suspect not, looking at the vids. A possible issue for gnarly Aus hardwoods...
3. What's the reality of the width limitation? The promo videos all show a plank going through, with one hinting that you can surface (eg) a cabinet door in 2 passes by manually flipping it, but that's a bit limiting for a $25k machine.
The sane alternative would be a wide belt sander that would appear to overcome all the above, and at that price would be a bloody good one. It still looks damned cool though!

I saw that one at Windsor 20 plus years ago.
The same seller had a rotary disc with knives about 30” dia.
There was a cheap version made by one of the Western companies but names elude me.
The Maranuka are for planed finishes in traditional Japanese species.
H.

Wonder how it would go with a 50 year old railway sleeper

Super Surfacers were and are sold in many different sizes, I have personally seen them design for making Kumiko so quite small and I think that was made by Hitachi

And As for the wide belt sander issue i have read where costings had been done to show they were cheaper to run that wide belt sander. Take that as you like really.

As for sharpening they were also sold as a pair meaning Marunaka and other brands sold automated blade sharpeners. But when you see them would cost as much as the Super Surfacer. I have been looking for a blade sharpener for years to no avail and really its just luck if one shows up. If it doesn’t i guess i have no option but to get it sharpened professionally which i was told was around $30 when I enquired maybe 3 years ago.
I know an option for disposable blades and i guess not unlike how mens shavers have gone from cut throats to throw aways but i haven’t done much research into cost and availability.

As i said in my earlier post I’m no expert on these machines at all and they really designed for softwoods but what that really means for Australian hardwoods is much more frequent sharpening.

I had met one person who used one for Vic Ash. And he said he has no issue with his but the learning curve was very steep. Meaning had stuffed a lot of wood working it out I guess.

These machines. Along with a few others didn’t really make it In Australia but in some countries they are still very popular.

I can see why a wide belt sander could be a much cheaper option espeacially when you need wide boards flat.

I’m sure you would have watched the fully automated machines from the Marunaka web site and they are super impressive

Anyway it will be good to get it going in a couple of months.

Steven