Thread: Wixey height guage on Carbatec thicknesser

What did you have to do to get it right and how did you do it??
I am looking at one of these for my about to be bought carbatec 381 thicknesser

Skippy

Hi Skippy,

It took me a while to figure out how I was going to attach the Wixey. Usually, you just stick the Wixey to a flat surface on your thicknesser, and hook the digital readout up to the same holes that the "pointer" screws into. This method assumes that the cutter-head moves up and down, and that the table is stationary.

For the 381, the opposite is true. The table moves, and the cutter head is stationary.

I've put some comments on the photos to help show what I did.

First, I needed to create a frame to mount the Wixey on. There are no flat surfaces on the front of the 381, so I made one out of a 90 degree bracket and some square aluminium tubing. I drilled a couple of holes in the 381 and fixed the frame assembly at 90 degrees to the table.

Next, the Wixed needs to be mounted with its base plate at the same level (or just fractionally lower) as the table. I screwed it to the aluminium tubing.

Finally, with the table raised to its highest level, the digital readout needs to held in position at its lowest possible point on the wixey ruler. I attached a metal plate to the top of the 381, and then used the bracket that came with the Wixey to fix it in position. As you raise and lower the table, the digital readout stays in the same position, and the ruler moves up and down.

Sounds a bit tricky, but makes sense when you get your hands on a Wixey and see how it works.

The wixey is great. Spent a few hours milling some timber today, and got very accurate and repeatable results without having to constantly reach for the ruler or calipers.

ajw

Awesome
Thanks very much for the reply. The photos are great and i followed all you were getting at. Did you tap and die the holes or through drill em.

Skippy

For the right-angle bracket, I drilled right through and have used a couple of bolts to hold it in place (needed to use a washer under one section to get the frame to be 90 degrees to the table.

For the top plate, I just drilled a couple of small holes directly into the metal and screwed into it carefully. I'm a poor metal-worker, and don't have the tools to tap a hole...

ajw

Thanks for that.
Nice job i gotta say. HAppy with the 381? I am thinking of buying one myself

Skippy

Really impressed with it. Gives a very smooth finish to hardwoods. The unit has two speeds, which makes initial thicknessing faster. I find the infeed/outfeed tables to be great. Makes the unit very stable. Comes with wheels which makes it simple to move around.

I've also got an 8" long-bed jointer. The two units together make it really easy to get dead square, straight stock.

ajw

Mate, sounds like you have it sussed. Cant wait till i get mine.

Skippy

Started out with a Ryobi bench-top unit. It gave a pretty good finish, but it tended to tip due to the weight of the timber on the infeed/outfeed. Also, it had a lot of snipe!

The 381 has a small amount of snipe, but doesn't tip, and is obviously wider...

Carbatec also has a model where the table height is fixed and the cutter block moves up and down. The motor is mounted on the top, which I didn't like. The advantage of fixed height tables is that you can set up additional infeed and outfeed support, and don't have to adjust it every time you change the thickness. In practice, I haven't found this to be a particular problem. You can easily feed a 1.8 metre piece into the 381 and move to the outfeed side and support it by hand as it exits the thicknesser. I haven't needed additional outfeed support yet, but some people seem to think it's important.

ajw.

Excellent thread ajw, I've had the Wixey for my 381 for ages now but never really got around to finishing installing it as I was getting my head around things, and now with what you've done I can follow and get it sorted out properly.

On reading through what you've done, you have essentially done what I have done already, which is great because it confirms my thinking.

Hi Waldo,

I must admit I stood staring at my 381 and thinking "I'll never get this Wixey to work on this machine..." I searched this forum and found a thread where another person had mounted the unit way down below the table level, but to my mind, it made the unit difficult to read and I thought there must be a better way. Eventually came up with this approach, and found all the bits I needed at the local Bunnings. I even bought a plastic cap for the aluminium tube - makes it look like it is part of the machine!

I've never been very good with metalworking, but I'm happy with how this has turned out.

For the money we pay, the 381 should come with a digital readout fitted.

ajw

Originally Posted by ajw

"I'll never get this Wixey to work on this machine..."

For the money we pay, the 381 should come with a digital readout fitted.

ajw

Totally agree to both. We've arrived at the same place by very similar means. Just having brazen the cold to go down the shed to look at where I am up to, can you give me a shot with how you've changed things so that the ruler is fixed and rises and falls? I just had a brain phart.

So you still use the Wixey method of sending a piece of timber through, and calibrate that to the readout?

I'll take a couple of photos tomorrow. It is quite difficult to explain, but once you see it operating, it makes perfect sense.

Essentially, you have to convince yourself that the digital readout bit has to be fixed in place, and it has to attach to the top of the 381 in some fashion. Once you accept this, you then need to figure out how to make the ruler and frame of the Wixey move up and down as the table is raised or lowered. To do this, the ruler and frame bit must be attached to the table is some way. I pondered this for a bit, and then decided that I'd need to create something to bolt to the table, that would have a flat surface that the Wixey ruler and frame could attach to. I used the 90 degree angle and aluminium frame to create this mounting platform.

With this figured out, the last bit to decide is where to fix the digital readout bit. You could mount it up high, parallel with the top of the 381, but this then limits how far you can drop the table. With the table up as high as it can go, you need to mount the digital bit as low as it will on on the Wixey's frame.

Probably as clear as mud.

I'll take a couple more photos to see if I can show exactly how it works.

ajw.

Yep, you've done what I have. Still be interesting to see more pics, and once I've sorted my setup up, maybe you'd be okay if I posted my setup as well, that way other people would be able to come to the one thread and save themselves some brain cells.

No problems. Will post some more photos tomorrow, and look forward to see how you've tackled this problem.

ajw