On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:53:21 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On 19 Feb 2006 08:22:38 -0800, wrote:

For anyone looking for a full-on planer-thicknesser I bought the
scheppach hms260 about a year ago (after umming and ahhing about a
dewalt and electra-beckum instead) - and found it ideal

Only Scheppach stuff I've used in the last 10 years struck me as awfully
tinny. Bit too likely to bend it like an Elektra-Beckum.

(though 300mm width would be useful now and again, the price stepis significant).

I don't have a combi machine, I use a separate thicknesser and jointer
for just this reason (Axmonster CT330 and CT150). Almost all my
thicknessing is 13" boards, which the Axminster handles and a DeWalt 733
won't. They're coming off a bandsaw with an operator who believes in
"baker's dozens" on width. A 10" wide combi would be a _very_ big
limitation on what I do and what I do it out of.


How do people cope with thicknesser only?

Very well indeed.

Surely the moment you encounter some bowed boards you're stuck with an irregularity only a
surface planer can remove?

Nope - you knock the high spots off with a scrub or a (spit) electric
planer, then you stuff them through the thicknesser. Do the convex side
first until it's a wide enough flat to be stable, then work each side in
turn.

I've done this - works quite well - although doesn't prevent making a
parallelogram (i.e. sides out of square). Presumably you then joint
the board edges?


Takes a bit of a knack to do it well or quickly, but it certainly
works and it saves buying a 12" wide planer that would probably require
3 phase.

You can get planers of this width that run from single phase. My
combination machine does as well as one with a wider planer (400mm)
with up to 3.6kW motors. Having said that, it does need a 30A supply.



The one thing you can't cope with is a twisted board - but then decent
timber doesn't twist and so you're probably trying to save soemthing
that's better housed on the firewood pile.

Another thing that I thought of that is worth mentioning is that it is
a good idea to run a metal detector over timber before running it
through the planer. I have an airport security type for doing this
(Lumber Wizard - Rutlands 25505, although mine came from the US at
half their price).

In the U.S. it is quite common to find bullets and other firearm
projectiles in timber, especially second hand. I've had instances
of nails and tacks in timber from a timber yard - no idea how it got
there.

Either way, it will nick planer blades badly, probably to the point
beyond being able to resharpen them. When you have a cutter block
with 4 blades, that can spoil your day.... Hasn't happened yet,
fortunately.




--

..andy