Thread: Jointer, Planer, Thicknesser Advice

G'DayTody,
Have a look for a Dewalt DW735; new they are over your budget but you may pickup a secondhand one.
Top machine, the 3 blades are quieter than the 2 blade units plus te option to later upgrade to a Byrd Shelix Cutterhead, something I did some years back [brilliant]
Cheers, crowie

Reading the forum, I often see questions like this one from Toby, and it made me think, why couldn’t he arrange to have use of someone else’s machine to try it? I’d be happy for someone to come and use mine( with supervision) and a good way to make new acquaintances with a common bond. I think it would also help to avoid many costly wrong purchases, by new hobbyists, which I see mentioned here regularly. Just an idea, I have them occasionally.

Ideally you need an over and under machine (jointer/thicknesser), $1,000 is at the very bottom of the market for a second hand machine and worthwhile purchases below that price are as scarce as hens teeth. Join the local Woodcrafters club or men's shed.

Originally Posted by riverbuilder

Reading the forum, I often see questions like this one from Toby, and it made me think, why couldn’t he arrange to have use of someone else’s machine to try it? I’d be happy for someone to come and use mine( with supervision) and a good way to make new acquaintances with a common bond. I think it would also help to avoid many costly wrong purchases, by new hobbyists, which I see mentioned here regularly. Just an idea, I have them occasionally.

Top suggestion sir, I’ve actually had a couple of blokes do that with my DE735 with the upgraded Byrd Shelix Cutterhead while a couple of others have just come to clean up some timber. The blokes on forum are for the most very helpful and accommodating. Cheers crowie

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice.

Crowie, good to hear about the dewalt. I had read good reviews on those, but wasn't sure if it actually stood up much better than some of the cheaper bench top thicknessers on the market.

Aldav, that's what I had gathered also. The over/under machines seem like a great option, but as you suggest they are a stretch on my budget. I'll keep an eye out though, some people seem to be very generous sometimes!

Riverbuilder, I had considered that option. I am relatively knew to Brisbane (ex-Perth) and don't have the same network I had over there to ask friends/acquaintances. I spent some time on google and this forum looking into people who might rent out their machine/time to help me out. I had also considered men's sheds and/or a post on this forum. Not having to fork out on the machine would be great, but the advice and guidance from a more experienced woodworker would be the best thing about that option - HOWEVER - the timber I have is from recycled railway sleepers so I don't think anyone would be too keen on running it through their machines, and I wouldn't be game to ask! So I have basically resigned that option.

Originally Posted by aldav

Ideally you need an over and under machine (jointer/thicknesser), $1,000 is at the very bottom of the market for a second hand machine and worthwhile purchases below that price are as scarce as hens teeth. Join the local Woodcrafters club or men's shed.

Basically this^. Second hand or the local men's shed is the only sensible option within your budget. I bought exactly the sort of thing you'd be looking for new about six months ago, a Carbatec 10" planer/thicknesser with a helical head for $2600. Without the helical head and straight cutters instead it was about $1900, so still well outside your budget. Both of these units have gone up in price since.

great to hear you've been bitten enough by the bug to get more toys er tools. Hows the saw going, BTW? Must tell us more

I have bought a 2nd hand benchtop thicknesser, and haven't bothered with a jointer. Most things you can successfully "make good enough" using a sled and your table saw and/or a benchtop thickie. If I were you I'd keep an eye out for a 2nd hand thicknesser, they come up way more often than combo units, and there's much less competition so the difference between new and 2nd hand is probably larger than the difference would be between new and 2nd hand on a combo unit. Then, just keep an eye out for a 6" jointer as a "speed up your processes" addition.

You're also right that some other WWF person might be less likely to offer up their equipment if you only wanted to run reclaimed material through it, but honestly if you'd already resawed the material some and done your own metal detection across it I'd be pretty comfortable letting you use mine... Perhaps put the request out there and see if you get any takers, can't hurt right?!

Thanks mate. The bug has certainly got me, along with some lofty promises I might have made my wife about building a large scale shelving unit for her hair salon. Now I've got to come up with the goods.

The saw is going well thanks. Gave it a run on the weekend and was quite happy with it. I need to get more organised though, so this weekends job is to build a cross cut/mitre sled so I can tilt the saw over and cut some 45°'s to make a base for a bench I am working on - another promise I made for the hair salon while trying to buy myself some time on the shelving unit.

One thing I noticed with the saw on the weekend is it left a lot of saw marks on the timber. I am putting this down to the fact I was running some pretty (very) rough timber through it which probably wasn't very straight, but that is my only concern with using the saw in place of a jointer to leave a nice finished edge. I'll be working with some nice straight timber this weekend which will be the true test.

That's good advice about the thicknesser. I think combining everyone's advice - as with my saw - I need to lower my eye's a bit and start with a decent (at least within my price range) thicknesser and work from there.

So as far as the bench top thicknessers go - what should I be looking for? Is the Dewalt the way to go or are there some other brands which are worth considering?

for me, I'd just buy a Carbatec / hare & forbes "segmented cutter head" unit and be done with it. They aren't that cheap, but they also aren't cheap junk either, but they're also not very often seen second hand - you could either wait it out or save the pesos and go new. The Dewalt is a good unit, no doubt, but for me the fiddlier setup of flat knives would be my concern, and to avoid that you have to go to a Shelix head and you'd never find one of those second hand. There's also a lot of positive vibes about the new Sherwood unit that seems to have a true spiral head, but they're on long back-order at the moment and they're largely sight-unseen and so a bit of an unknown.

If you really want to (or need to, with schedules) get into the game reasonably cheap, I'd look at a second hand ryobi or similar on GT, they should come up reasonably often in most areas. That'll get you something to do the work that you need, and learn a few things about how good or not they are And you won't have had to pay too much for it if it doesn't stay in your shop long, and there's a good chance you can move it on at similar price too (hmm, did I say that about your saw too? )

Thanks mate, more good advice. Will definitely be taking that on board.
As far as entry level goes, I've seen some decent reviews on the Hafco T13S, so it might be a good place to start.

T13S or TH-BX330P, while they're not the same the reports seem pretty consistently good... watch for soon-to-come tax time sales