Wadkin planer thicknesser or equivalent alternative

**MatthewChartres** · 20th November 2019, 11:04 PM

Hi all,

This is my first post. I’m a civil engineer and I’ve been woodworking for around 3 years. Ive finally got myself a dedicated workshop space in Collingwood, Melbourne and lucky enough to 3 phase power.

I’m a big fan of older, solid machines (made in England/US/Australia/Italy) and quite like the look of the Wadkin BAO planer thicknesser. Wondering if you can offer any advice on the following:

- are these a rare item in Australia? (I’ve been scanning the usual places for months and not seen one listed)
- do you know anyone who has one and willing to part with it?
- any feedback on performance of this machine?
- are there more readily available equivalent alternatives around? Open to suggestions as per the rough criteria below

Budget around $1.5k ($2k at absolute max for the right machine).
English/US/Australian/Italian made.
Not loud (as far as thicknessers go).
Smallish footprint (don’t need really long in feed/out feed tables.
Preferably easy to retrofit with helical cutter head.

Thanks in advance.
Matt

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**clear out** · 21st November 2019, 12:13 PM

I’m running a BAO currently, it has the 3 knife cutter head and it’s an ok machine.
I also have a BFT 9” Wadkin Bursgreen jointer 2 knife cutter head which I find ok also although there are people on this site who don’t like them.
I moved on a BAOS a few years back, decided I wanted single purpose machines.
Also had an 18” version until it bit me in ‘97, I make clone Surty guards now for my jointers.
These things do turn up,I’m sure there may have been an 18” Bursgreen thicky on Gumtree a short while back it was down the coast from memory.
I’ve also moved on a 450 Italian under and over, not a bad machine but a pain lifting the tables to use the thicky. Some of the early Italian thickys can be very noisy so hear em before buying.
Theres a lot of info on the Canadian forum on BAOs. I was a bit slow a few years back whilst over there and missed a BAO for $200 or so with a spiral cutter head. I would have just brought the head back to Oz.
One of the locals who scored it posting a long saga how the gearbox etc was cactus in it.
These are out there, just keep looking, I keep an eye out and if stuff is silly cheap I have been known to buy it just because. Then I realise my workshop is chocka full of all this ‘good stuff’ and move some of it on.
H.

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