Thread: Thicknessers

What ever you decide to buy go fro the spiral head.
We changed the head in our woodwork club thicknesser and the difference in the cut and noise level was amazing.
Keith.

Originally Posted by Damienol

I am currently thinking Carbatecs new 13" spiral is the way to go

I bought one of these as my first thicknesser recently and have put a lot of hardwood (Acacia) through it.

Very happy with it's performance and the results so far!

However make sure you read up about it as reports of grease from the cutter heads in initial use are true.
I just ran a quantity of 'sacrificial' pine panels through to clear it out and it's been fine ever since.....

Carbatec it is then

I take it that you have a jointer to get the first side smooth and flat before you thickness the material?

A thicky is intended to get one side parallel to the other, but will reflect the gross surface problems of the reference face to the machined face, i.e if the board is twisted or bowed on the reference face, then the machined face will eventually come out parallel to the bowed or twisted face, but smooth and at the desired thickness.

It is possible to use a sled and packing to set up an unjointed board for jointing with a thicknesser, but it's harder to do long peices this way because you are handling a long sled and board.

Hope you get lots of pleasure from your new toy when you get it.

Hi Malb,

i don't have a jointer and was thinking I could get away with only having a thicknesser. I have very little space in my man cave and really don't think I can fit both.

eventually I would like to start making some furniture.

Looks like I need to do a little more research.

Another option then using a Jointer for the initial preparation of rough timber would be using hand planes to prepare one side. Then one edge made square (90%) to the flatten side. Then the Thicknesser can be used.

It can be quite a lot of work using hands planes if the board is cupped and twisted.

It can be a fun process if the planes used are of good or reasonable quality. But that's another topic.